A story with an all encompassing Halloween vibe with multiple characters and a neighborhood in peril.

• Scare factor: ★★★☆☆
• Supernatural factor: ★★★★★
• Halloween factor: ★★★★★
• Entertainment factor: ★★★★★

All Hallows is a perfect novel for Halloween. With trick-or-treating, a haunted forest tour, a neighbor’s block party, tension between families and neighbors, an evil couple, creepy children and the Cunning Man. If you want a story that breathes the atmosphere and vibe of Halloween then this is your pick.

It consists of 325 pages.

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Plot

It’s Halloween Night on Parmenter Road in 1984. One family is about to spend their last Halloween before they move, another family has a crisis and both the younger and older kids get a lot to deal with this Halloween Night. Tony Barbossa organizes each Halloween a haunted forest tour in the woods behind his house for all the neighbors and the rest of the town. The entrance fee is donated to a charity. His 17-year-old daughter Chloe is helping him, sharing his love for Halloween, while his wife Alice doesn’t like Halloween at all. His 13-year-old son Rick is going trick-or-treating with his best friend Billie. 

In another house at Parmenter Road a crisis is going on. Donnie Sweeney is a cheater and a bad husband and father and now he’s gone too far. His wife Barb has enough and after a big fight she tells him to leave. He hurts her and his 17-year-old daughter Julia. While his youngest son, 11-year-old Charlie runs away upset with his 13-year-old brother Brian chasing him. 

During trick-or-treating a weird and strange kid in a scarecrow costume is following Rick. Then Billie and Rick see a kid taken into the house of Ruth and Zack Burgess who are supposed to organize orgies, but there’s also a rumor that they did bad things to kids. So when they see them taking a kid, they are bound to do something. 

Meanwhile in Charlie’s hiding place a little girl in a clown costume shows up and asks him to hide her from the Cunning Man.

We also follow 17-year-old Vanessa Montez who is best friends with Steve Koenig, whose parents are hosting the Halloween Party and she has a crush on Julia. 

As the night falls things are slowly spiraling out of control. Each neighbor has their own problems, but there’s one greater danger that threatens them all. This Halloween everything is about to change. This night nothing is what it seems. And not everyone is going to make it to All Hallows Day. 

Continue reading below this announcement.

Short Review

This whole story radiates Halloween. Is has it all, trick-or-treating, costumes, a haunted forest tour, a party, and much more. And it takes place during one Halloween Night. The story follows two families whose lives are about to change forever this Halloween and we follow Vanessa. Each chapter is written from the point of view from a different character. It’s a multiple point of view story with a lot of characters, but because they are all connected to each other, it feels very natural to follow them simultaneously during this horrid night. Because each character is very fleshed-out and the story is slowly building up to the horror that will reveal itself later that night, you get very invested in them. 

We learn about their feelings towards their parents, their spouses, their kids, their families, best friends and love interests. That makes the story more profound, brings the characters to life with their good traits and their flaws. It’s even more interesting because the adults, the kids and the young adults all get their time to shine and to understand them, what’s going on inside them. 

It’s also a story about change, about the last time trick-or-treating, about many last times you probably won’t even know it will the last time. But also about doing things for the last time very mindful, wanting it to be perfect, wanting to remember it well, by soaking it all up very consciously. It’s also about doing things for the first time, by being brave. Brave to help somebody else, to trust yourself, to be who you are. 

Of course it’s also a true Halloween tale. With a scary Cunning Man, creepy kids with their weird old costumes and life threatening situations. The build-up is slow but steady and we first meet some human evil. The Burgess couple are bad people and the infidelity on Parmenter Road also gets tensions rising. While it’s set in 1984, queer girl Vanessa has a hard time with all the white male bigots, as does Billie who is a colored girl. 

It’s a very thrilling story with some scary scenes and prepare yourself, because it’s not going to end well for everyone. It’s a perfect read for Halloween and if you’re not in the mood yet, this story will help get the Halloween vibes going.