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If you love Halloween, Stranger Things, or the eighties, you might be drawn to the upcoming spooky read, All Hallows.

Set on Halloween night in 1984, this story follows the townspeople of Coventry, Massachusetts as they prepare for the annual spooky festivities. Halloween has always been kind of a big deal on Parmenter Road, yet this year everything feels much scarier. As one family prepares to move, older teens brace themselves to leave home, and secrets sit on the verge of being exposed, the practical horrors of everyday life make Halloween feel like child’s play.

Embroiled with neighborhood drama, the residents are too preoccupied to pay attention to an even more terrifying turn of events that await them. Walking among the trick or treating children are those that are not like the others. These children warn of someone called The Cunning Man, begging protection until midnight comes around. Some of the neighbors attempt to protect these kids, assuming it’s just garden variety toil and trouble, but as midnight approaches and more horrors are revealed, it’s every man, woman, and ghoul for himself.

All Hallows was an interesting read with a bit of an identity crisis. Marketed as horror, the majority of the story centered around the nastiness that existed in the neighborhood. A LOT of characters were introduced in this book. If this was a series I could see this enriching the story, but in the span of one novel, at times it was hard to keep track of all of them. Comparisons to Stranger Things also run deeper than small town retro horror with many of the characters, (Barb, Nancy, Billie and even Steve) sharing names with those on ST. Coincidence? You decide.

When the community’s catastrophes finally meets the callous Cunning Man, the climax falls flat. I wish author Christopher Golden would have infused more origin into this aspect of the story. Instead the readers were left holding the proverbial bag full of more tricks than treats.

Do you have a favorite scary movie?