All Hallow's Eve - Richard Laymon - 3 Stars

All Hallow's Eve
Richard Laymon

***

Nothing unusual ever happens in Ashburg, until a local family are mutilated and left to die in their own home. Since then, the house has stood empty, but when mysterious invitations arrive announcing a party there, nobody thinks its a joke. After all, it is Allhallow's Eve.

Very reminiscent of the 90's teen books, Point Horror, this offering from the late Richard Laymon was all too similar. It read easy and straight-forward with a plot that was simple, writing that was standardised and characters that were pushing the upon the edge of boring. I was quite disappointed upon finishing this book as I do love Laymon normally. But nevertheless it was a great little read, quick, to the point and with a nice touch of classical horror that only the 90's can bring.

I found it a little confusing with the constant change of characters. There were so many I was forgetting who was who and who was doing what. Some of the characters were incredibly childish, some were just boring and most were forgettable. A shame really.

Much like the B-movie horrors I have been watching a lot of recently, All Hallow's Eve is subpar and leaves me not thoroughly satisfied but mildly content with just spent a few hours of my time in a book. It is one of his shorter novels so is not a great time-investor but there are many other books, better, far more interesting and a great deal more frightening than this.

A shame in which I apologise to the late Richard Laymon, but All Hallow's Eve is definitely not your best work.