ALL HALLOWS

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.