All Hallows by Christopher Golden

All Hallows is a horror novel about a middle class neighborhood in the 1980s in Coventry, Massachusetts on Halloween night. Several families are preparing for the evening: one family is setting up the final year of their haunted forest walkthrough, another family is preparing for their Halloween party, and another household is quickly splitting apart as the father’s alcoholism and infidelity have come to a head. However, strange children in antique costumes are trick-or-treating among the neighborhood’s children, and they seem frightened of someone called the Hallow Man.

This book was nothing if not atmospheric, and I really respected how thorough that was from start to finish. I loved all the visuals and little details that went into the setting: the blackthorn tree in the clearing that wasn’t there before, the monsters hung from the trees for the haunted forest walkthrough, the creepy children in their costumes and the way they turn to violence so quickly, the conflict between characters and constant threat of death. It felt odd reading it in February, because it seemed very well suited to October.

I feel really conflicted about the worldbuilding in this one. Once we finally get a full picture of the magic system, we find that it is complex and interesting. However, I think that the author hung on to the mystery around the children and the Hollow Man for a little too long. Instead of getting a sudden release of information that made all of the action come together, we still get it in pieces. Sometimes that’s okay, but I think there’s too much complexity in this one to do that. Instead of feeling like I was unwrapping layers, it felt like I would just start to understand the world before it changed again, so that I couldn’t quite trust what the author was telling me. I like a good mystery, but I need to be able to trust the world that’s given me (even if I don’t trust the characters’ motivations) and I didn’t get that. It definitely hurt my motivation to push through towards the ending – I wasn’t sure whether the ending would be worth the work to get there.

There was clearly some time and effort put into the characters – none of them were a characature or stereotype. However, they still ended up being a little flat. We have the rebel with a heart of gold, the philanderer who still loves his children, the wife who can’t quite commit or relate to her husband, the horror geek who’s giving up on his dreams. But nothing much grows from that, and I didn’t really see any development throughout the book. I suppose that’s alright for a classic horror, but I wanted to see more complexity out of this one.

In all, I’ll give All Hallows a 6 out of 10. I really wanted to like this one, and I loved the creepy vibes that felt perfect for a Halloween read. In the end, though, I wanted more out of it. It’s not a bad read, and it’ll entertain horror readers, but you’re not missing much if you pass on it.