Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - All Hallows

We follow several families with POVs from kids, teens, and adults around the neighbourhood over the course of Halloween night in 1984.
🇺🇸 Set in Coventry, Massachussetts, USA
🎃 Halloween night setting - big parties, small hang outs, trick-or-treating!

🎧 Narration was good - sometimes the voices of smaller kids was a bit silly sounding but didn't knock me out of the story.

🐺🐕Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags:

🤫 I had audio only and would say this is def a pay-attention story on audio. The third person omniscient narration is deep in different character's minds and we switch POVs as needed. I loved it, it was done well and worked for the story without being repetitive or confusing, but if I got distracted for a second or two I'd be slightly lost for a bit if we had switched characters or setting.

🫣 Lots of suburban scandals and drama, but it isn't OTT or soap opera, campy style. Pretty realistic family and relationship dynamics.

👍 There are a lot of characters and families, and when audio only, that can be hard to follow. For me it was excellent because we get a show-not-tell style introduction to each of them and we spend more time with them at the beginning of the book before the action starts up so we can rapidly switch between them later without being lost. It probably also helps that I cared about (or was at least curious about) what happened to all of them.

🤕 There are quite a few action-fight-survival type scenes. I find I lose interest in that type of scene mainly because it's hard for me to imagine a fight scene happening quickly when I'm reading it so everything is sort of slow-mo in my imagination. I still enjoyed the overall plot, and if you like action-fight-escapes vs monsters then this could be a huge perk! The story starts off gradually layering the creepy, dark vibes and then proceeds to the faster paced wildness.

🤐 Speaking of which, those fight and escape scenes are "if these monsters existed, this is how it would go down" realistic. So...don't get too attached....there are some surprisingly sad scenes.

Mood Reading Match Up:

Cozy, '80s, fall Halloween trick-or-treat, home-made haunted woods, and block party horrors
Creepy kids, stay-out-of-the-woods creature feature with action survival suspense
Suburban behind-closed-doors drama
Heartwarming and heartbreaking BFF coming-of-age stories

Content Heads-Up: Physical abuse (relationship). Alcohol (enabling, addiction). Infidelity (discovery, separation/divorce). LGBTQ coming-of-age rep (good to excellent; vocally supportive family and friends). Homophobic characters (outing, shaming, verbal and emotional abuse). Kidnapping (insinuated). Child abuse (insinuated).

Format: Scribd Audio

Content Warnings

rachelunabridged's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

a really fun halloween read! the atmosphere was just fantastic + i loved how well the author captured the spookiness of the season. this story had horrors of a supernatural nature juxtaposed with completely human horrors, which is a trope i'm always into. admittedly, the plot isn't very strong, but it's a fun, mindless kind of read with some really good horror moments.

my only complaint is that this book put the spooky spirit in my body + it's only march, lmao!

Content Warnings

sdsmith80's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

<strong>Creepy Halloween Tale</strong>

I love Halloween. My whole family does really. Right from the first few pages, I identified with the Barbosa family. My husband has an extensive history in the haunt industry, and I helped him run the makeup room for a season at one as well. So reading about Chloe and her dad setting up their home haunt in the woods behind their house, I was immediately hooked.

The story picks up quickly, weaving the stories of the different neighbors' lives wonderfully. The author wastes no time with the creepy elements showing up even as he is giving us the backstory of each character, and the small (or large) dramas going on in their lives.

Very soon we're off and running, with twists and turns around every page. I was kept guessing as each element was introduced, making for a thrilling read. The thing I enjoyed the most though was Christopher Golden's creation of the mythology in this world. I'm very curious to know how much is based on actual lore, if any.

This book is absolutely perfect for anyone who loves Halloween, and the stories that surround it.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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