I loved Golden's previous novel Road Of Bones but wished for a little more character development, a little more to invest in. All Hallows brought this in spades! Perhaps my favourite aspect of the book is the relationships between characters.

Told from multiple perspectives of the teenaged and adult residents of Parmenter Street, the small town American setting called to me as always- and was perfect for tieing all the characters neatly together.

The lifelong friendships, crumbling marriages and secrets of the neighbourhood were so well written, I cared as much for the characters bonds as I did for their survival. I even enjoyed the sapphic storyline, as much as I like to avoid any form of romance.

Throughout All Hallows the teenagers battle against not only the supernatural horrors of Halloween, but every day threats including racism, homophobia and the very worst behaviour adults can offer up.
For a long time we are treated to the trope of unwatched children fighting evil whilst their oblivious parents party nearby (Hocus Pocus anyone?) but Golden takes a refreshing detour having them eventually step up and join ranks.

Pacing is perfection in this novel, enough backstory for each main player before one by one they all fall for the same trick. The Cunning Man himself is not what he seems, be careful who you trust on Parmenter Street!

Halloween in a small town surrounded by woods filled with creepy children, can it get better?

Only one small thing could have improved my reading experience, I'd have preferred less wrap-up for the surviving characters. A visceral ride like All Hallows deserves an abrupt end. Otherwise perfect, someone please adapt it to screen, I'd watch the hell out of it.

I enjoyed this book and I loved all the different characters! Also it’s set in the 80’s! Every great horror film is set in the 70/80’s so obviously I thought it was great. It gave me IT vibes.
I was a bit disappointed as I wanted it to be more scary.
Overall it was an enjoyable read and I would read more books from this author.
Thank you Netgalley for my ARC copy.
3.5 stars

All Hallows had the potential to be a real Halloween treat but instead we are tricked into a tale that doesn't fully deliver.

It's Halloween night in 1984 and the residents of Parmenter Road are getting ready to trick or treat, attend parties or visit the infamous haunted woods attraction set up by local neighbour Tony Barbossa.

This book has a whole heap of characters and bounces between their povs so it sometimes was a little hard to keep up, for such a small neighbourhood there was a whole heap of drama which took up the majority of the premise.

I didn't mind the drama to an extent but it felt like the tale of The Cunning Man and the strange children who have appeared on this night were pushed too far into the background and things didn't really amp up until about 60% in.

I enjoyed the parts about The Cunning Man and the children but felt like more background was needed, especially the history of it all.

There were creepy atmospheric elements to the book especially within The Haunted Woods but it's not necessarily a book I'd be dying to re-read.

I really enjoyed parts of this book and at times it gave me chills but it was a very long book and slightly confusing!
I was left with so many questions about the book when I finished it!!
I can normally finish a book within two days but this took me much longer.
The characters were good but at the same time some were not needed in the book!

I had very high hopes for this book, but it didn’t quite deliver for me.

All Hallows has an extremely creepy premise, but I felt that the book failed to deliver on it. The multi-POV was both interesting and frustrating, as often as soon as dread began to build, we’d switch to the POV of another character and another plot line, destroying the tension.

The writing of the book was good and the characters were interesting. However, considering the plot and the fact that it’s listed as a horror book, I expected more horror in it. I’ve seen the book described as a ‘horror drama’, and I certainly think that the book is largely more of a drama than a horror. It’s a very slow burn and not much happens until over halfway through, and when things do amp up they felt a little lacklustre to me.

I’d recommend this book to readers who like to read detailed characters with good drama plot lines and who don't like scares, but personally, it wasn’t my cup of tea.

I really enjoyed All Hallows
This was the second book I've read by Christopher Golden as I've also read Road of Bones, which I also enjoyed, though I think this one was better!

It was highly entertaining and hard to put down. It was also really well written and creepy, and some scenes especially really freaked me out.
It really was a great horror read and is the perfect book for Halloween!
I highly recommend it!
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I found this to be a really enjoyable book. It’s a really original story. I highly recommend this read.

There is a solid Halloween urban legend yarn in here BUT it just takes too long to get to it. There was a whole lot of nothing really happening for most of the story. The constant little hints that things were about to get eerie which went nowhere really frustrated me. Jumping between the vast amount of characters made it quite difficult to follow and I was so disconnected by the time anything happened. I did enjoy Road Of Bones so don’t worry Christopher Golden, not writing you off yet!!! I’d recommend this to folks looking to gently transition into something spooky but not too spooky as long as you don’t mind that it’s a very slow build up. Gives you plenty of time to prepare for the scare I guess!

I’ve heard great things about this book so I had high expectations. Unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me. I don’t really enjoy coming off age books and I wasn’t keen on where the book was going. I felt like the book had a slow start which didn’t help either. I’m the type of reader who likes to be slap bang straight into the action.

“Who’s the Cunning Man? ” He’s trick-or-treated,” she said. “He’s Halloween. And he’s almost here.”

This one started slow, very slow, yet I still found myself unable to put it down. The beginning of the book introduces each character, and we get a feel of each person's backstory and personality. As the night progresses more and more drama begins to unfold surrounding each character, their infidelities, deceit and secrets. The first 20-30% read more like a domestic thriller but there was a certain creepy atmosphere to the book that kept me intrigued and captivated throughout this stage.
The fact that this story was set on Halloween night really added to the spooky theme of this one and I am so glad I held on because when things started to happen it really got wild. That slow start was absolutely worth it.
I got goosebumps reading this one and especially knowing that the cunning man was getting closer and closer with each page- I was gripped with nail biting suspense.
The multiple POVs really made it even more interesting because we got to experience the story from multiple different angles and times which I appreciated as a reader. I wasn't confused at all with this because each character had their own story to tell so it was easy to keep track.
Man, it felt good to see some characters get dealt with by this supernatural being!!! When you read this book, you'll know what I'm talking about.
The last 20% was so anxiety inducing my poor eyes couldn't keep up with how fast I wanted to read.
Overall, I think this would be a perfect spooky season read for those who enjoy supernatural horror, gore and creepy kids.
Thank you to Netgalley and Titanbooks for my ARC of this book. All opinions are 100% my own.

It's an interesting halloween based thriller. It's packed with characters, so it's difficult to keep up with them all, but it was atmospheric and creepy to read.

I hugely enjoyed this! It felt like watching a horror movie! A fantastic varied cast, and nobody was safe! I guessed the main twist but that did nothing to detract from my enjoyment of it

All Hallows is a horror novel set in the 1980s, in which a neighbourhood's Halloween plans fall prey to domestic drama, mysterious children, and a malevolent force. As the Barbosa family prepares their annual haunted woods attraction whilst trying to accept that they're about to lose their house and children and adults prepare for trick or treating and a block party at the Koenigs', four strange children are appearing amongst those of the neighbourhood. Everyone might be distracted, but something is happening in Coventry, Massachusetts, and interpersonal drama won't stop that.

This book is very different to Road of Bones, the other Golden novel I've read, as it is much more of a straightforward horror setup: something going wrong at Halloween in a neighbourhood fraught with drama. Most of the tension in the book is interpersonal, though there are a couple who turn out to be very dark, but that's really a subplot to the domestic drama and the slow burn horror plot about the strange children asking for help (a slightly weird choice for something that's a subplot that doesn't really go anywhere after a certain point in the book, considering it adds a much darker edge that then disappears). Once the horror stuff properly kicks in later in the book, it is a classic horror climax with some gory moments, but is pretty predictable, and there's not much depth to the horror because the focus is on the characters.

Not being nostalgic for 80s America meant that I didn't get all of the specific descriptions of things and did occasionally forget it was set in the 80s, especially as a lot of more recently-set horror has to find ways to get rid of mobile phones anyway. The book does attempt to delve into the characters, seeing as character drama is a big part of it, though with so many characters it can be a bit hit or miss whether it all comes together—there's a teenage coming-of-age/coming out story that gets a decent amount of time, and a focus on the Barbosa family falling apart, but other elements feel more perfunctory. There is a decent amount of tension around who will make it through the night and some of these subplots do add to that.

This is a fun horror novel if you're looking for something that's a classic Halloween-set narrative with people running around a town trying to make it through the night. It doesn't have the most horror in it, and though I know I have a tendency to compare things to Point Horror, this does feel like a good adult novel for people who liked the horror-light of a lot of Point Horror books.

I wanted to pick up this book, because it sounded perfectly spooky and also wanted to try a second Golden book. (I didn’t love Road of Bones). I scary novel set during Halloween AND in the 80s! What could go wrong?! Well, some of it actually. I really enjoyed the set up with children running around in creepy old costumes. I really love retro imagery. But unfortunately the story focuses so much on the neighbourhood drama. Awful characters. Not written terribly, just terrible ppl. (Cheating spouses, pedos, bullies, etc) so you find that you don’t really have anyone to root for. I guess that’s not always a problem, because then you can just focus on the awful ppl getting their just desserts lol. But I felt like the book didn’t really get to the horror / slashing until after 6o% by that point I was tempted to just quit. Then, the overall reveal of the “bad guy” wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped. Something with Golden’s storytelling just doesn’t work for me, and I may have to let him go.

Overall the story would work for domestic drama with a side of Halloween and scares if that’s what you’re looking for. I was entertained enough, but i didn’t love it. Thank you NetGalley and Titan for the opportunity to read and review.

In the main I had quite a good time with this fun horror novel set in the 80’s. The main problem was that it was more focused on the drama with the neighbours than the story of the cunning man and the children so there was little feeling of dread or horror which often made it feel boring and long
This was just ok for me but maybe would suit others who like light horror and focuses more on the lives of the characters

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc