All Hallows

A Novel

By: Christopher Golden

Narrated by: Ron Butler, January LaVoy

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

With the 80's nostalgia of Stranger Things, this horror drama from NYT bestselling author Christopher Golden follows neighborhood families and a mysterious, lurking evil on one Halloween day.

It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, horrifying secrets are being revealed, and all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them...and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the neighborhood splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road?

New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christopher Golden is best known for his supernatural thrillers set in deadly, distant locales...but in this suburban Halloween drama, Golden brings the horror home.

All Hallows. The one night when everything is a mask...

©2023 Christopher Golden (P)2023 Spotify Audiobooks

What a book!

This is one of the best books I have listened too in a long time. The narration was great. The character development was top notch. To me, this felt like an early Stephen King book. It holds your hand until poof! The hand holder is gone and you are on your own, sink or swim.

GREAT!!!!

This book is fantastic!!!!! Both of the narrators were exceptional. The story itself is VERY creepy & reminiscent of the Stephen King style of writing. The characters were well developed & the narrators did an excellent job of bringing each of them to life,

I highly recommend this listen. You will not be disappointed!

Good but slow in parts

I was a teen in the 80s so there's a lot that resonates here. Those rotary phones with super long cords, my parents getting divorced, trick-r-treating, trying to keep up appearances for the neighborhood, and conservative neighbor bullying when I had to explain that NO, D&D wasn't satanism over and over again. No matter what you said, they still looked down you, minds set in stone.

The 80s were great, and the 80s were bad. Kinda like this book.

The plot is interesting and the performances were pretty good. The story get bogged down as the same worries are voiced (in detail) over and over again, slowing down the progress, making you feel you were going in circles instead of moving forward- there were better ways of doing it.

The story is solid, the way it was handled could have been better.

Unexpected

It started off a bit slow. I didn't think it was necessary to have that much character building. I loved the setting and imagery of the story. If you love Halloween and the mysterious feel of spooky autumn possibilities, then you will love Parmenter Rd. I liked the unexpected antagonist. The evils of this town, both human and supernatural, were very interesting and scary.

Horror of life

It was surprising how engaging the drama from the families and relationships ended up being more interesting than the horror aspect. That isn’t to say the scary stuff isn’t good, no, I’m pointing out the impact of how fantastic the writing of the personal horror that humans live.

Terrific Halloween Story

This new book by Christopher Golden does not disappoint. He does such a nice job with character and story development that you feel like you are watching a movie when you are reading or listening to one of his books. This one was great for Halloween. The narrators did a fantastic job with all of the characters.

Mostly Enjoyable

The overall story was really good and original. The time spent developing the stories of the characters and their flaws and how both adults and children deal with the flaws of their parents and spouses felt very realistic even if it did feel like children wouldn’t say some of the things they said. The man hating lesbian teenager character felt very forced and it seemed like her character and her actions were nothing more than a thinly veiled virtue signal to show the reader the authors personal politics. If you can get past her character you shouldn’t have a problem enjoying everything this book has to offer.

Slow Burn

The relationships between the characters were shown well, and it was creepy, but it wasn't clear to me exactly what was going on with the curse, and things didn't get really scary until the end.

good read

great book, started off slow, but is heart wrenching by the end. I would say it is definitly worth the listen. you get to know all the characters so well. which is something I always love.

Not recommended

Narration was good but the story seemed to go on forever. I usually race through a good book but this took me over a week.