“A tale that will leave you turning away next year’s trick-or-treaters while triple-checking that your windows are locked.” –The Washington Post
“An atmospheric tale of folk horror shot through with unrelenting dread, All Hallows twists and turns in haunted woods until all your Halloween dreams (and nightmares) are made real.” - Christina Henry, author of The Ghost Tree and Near the Bone
“Christopher Golden is in top form with All Hallows, a haunting horror tale that brings the bone-chilling terror right to your suburban front door. Golden turns up the fear and anxiety with a deft touch that evokes classics like King's Salem’s Lot, channeling a different time while still crafting a terrifyingly modern story. All Hallows may be Golden's best yet.” - Alex Segura, bestselling author of Secret Identity
"Somehow, in 2022, Christopher Golden has written the PERFECT 1980s horror thriller. Kids in peril! Karmic deaths! Just the right amount of gore! But he's done it with the skill and compassion of a master storyteller. He makes good choices throughout the story, and you can't reliably go 'good person, lives,' or 'bad person, dies.' Nothing feels unearned...Two full sized candy bars of approval.” - Seanan McGuire
"I ripped through All Hallows like a wildfire. Straight-up classic-feeling old-school horror. Declare Golden the KING OF HALLOWEEN after that one. Preorder now!" --Chuck Wendig
"I love the novels of Christopher Golden, and this one is no exception." --Book Riot
"80’s nostalgia, suburban secrets and seriously scary children - what more could you ask for from a horror novel? Wonderfully creepy and atmospheric, All Hallows is a perfect (Halloween) treat bag of chills.” — C.J. Tudor, author of The Drift
09/12/2022
Golden (Road of Bones) disappoints with this derivative and decidedly unscary outing set in 1984 Coventry, Mass., on Halloween Eve. The holiday is a big occasion in the small town, headlined by the Haunted Woods, an elaborate display complete with special effects and cosplayers, staged by local Tony Barbosa as a charity fund-raiser. This year, however, will see the last such event, due to the Barbosas’ strained finances. Instead of a glorious finale, however, the Barbosas and their neighbors are subjected to supernatural manifestations, including a mysterious and scared young girl dressed as Raggedy Ann who claims she’s being pursued by the Cunning Man. The predictable terror that ensues afflicts the entire community, as a killer with small flames in place of eyes attacks, eviscerating young and old alike. Meanwhile, domestic secrets—including marital infidelities, sexual orientation, and criminality—are revealed. Hopping between the perspectives of various one-dimensional characters does nothing to make the night’s horrors feel any more surprising or suspenseful. If this bit of ’80s nostalgia is intended to capitalize on the success of Stranger Things, it falls far short. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary. (Jan.)
09/01/2022
Golden's (Road of Bones) latest horror novel features a wide cast of characters set against a nostalgic 1980s as evil comes to one street on Halloween. Parents and teenagers, men and women, in a suburban Massachusetts neighborhood, take turns providing the narration as the night's partying and trick-or-treating ratchet up tensions in the community even further. However, the novel's large cast brings more backstory to unpack, and drawing out the story's supernatural elements runs the risk of blurring the characters together. Sorting out each lonely housewife or well-meaning husband dampens the novel's intended domino effect between the conflicts that each member of the neighborhood brings with them. But the world that Golden paints also evokes a bygone time, with fond memories of The A-Team rerunsand X-Men comics fresh off the presses, plus a killer soundtrack. VERDICT The setting and scope are reminiscent of Stranger Things, nearing the point of homage, so a library audience eagerly awaiting the next season will love it.—Aaron Heil
2022-11-16
Evil Halloween spirits are on the loose in a Massachusetts town, upstaging a popular neighborhood attraction dubbed the Haunted Woods.
It's 1984. For 11 years, Tony Barbosa and his 17-year-old daughter, Chloe, have turned the woods behind their house into a scary theme park. Tony, who takes his fog effects, banshee screams, and apparitions very seriously, is going all out to make this year's fright-athon—the last one he and Chloe will present—the best ever. But hours before its opening, a bunch of creepy, oddly aggressive children in costumes and melting makeup show up demanding protection from a punishing force they call the Cunning Man. Terrible things start happening, with especially sorry results for Donnie Sweeney, an adulterous charmer who counts Tony's wife among his conquests, and a pedophiliac couple who abuse children in their house. "Nothing in these woods could be more dreadful, more terrifying, than the selfish cruelty of ordinary people," thinks Tony, but a series of bizarre killings, dismemberments, and gruesome possessions change that tune. In his attempt to liven up familiar tropes, Golden's new book is less daring than its blood-freezing, Siberian-set predecessor, Road of Bones (2022). But it is no less nasty. Characters you may not expect to get it do. But even though Golden skillfully orchestrates a full cast of characters, including a group of plucky teenagers, the book lacks serious chills in the end—it's better at clever phenomena (including small fires inside of which shapes and images tell stories) than bumps in the night. The Cunning Man, a 7-foot creature with flaming eyes who is mostly seen from a distance, needs to have more of an impact than a little girl in a Raggedy Ann outfit.
An enjoyable but not terribly bone-rattling addition to Halloween horror.
