The Halloween Man by Douglas Clegg Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Halloween Man
Book Review: Pretty Darn Good
Summary: 4 Stars
I picked this book up browsing the horror section at the local Crown Books. Intrigued more by the title than anything else. At first the story was somewhat confusing but if you have any brain activity everything will make sense in the end. The depiction of gore was refreshingly unabashed, although the depth of thought in the protagonist at 15 years of age is questionable (Aaah, fiction). My only major complaint was the very formulaic ending. I have issues with horror stories ending in a not-so-horrific way. Ending is somewhat of an anti-climax and almost of relief. That bothers me. I don't think a reader should feel too good at the end of a horror story. Alas, even horror writers have hearts. A good read, bad ending.Book Review: Real horror, the way it's supposed to be
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best horror book I've read in a long time. Scary town -- could be the one down the road. The writing is great and you feel like you're right there. You won't want to put it down! Can't wait for the movie!Book Review: Right Up There With Stephen King and Dean Koontz
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently bought and swiftly devoured this novel, all on the recommendation of my teenaged son who wanted it and a few other horror novels for his birthday; and my wife had already read Clegg's other novels and recommended them. My son allowed me a few days to read it before he grabbed it back. The Halloween Man is an extremely mature work of absolute terror and mystery; and yes, as others have pointed out, there is a powerfully affecting love story here as well. It's a bit like reading Shirley Jackson amplified for rock and roll; but even that won't do either Jackson or Clegg justice.This is one of those books that critics say "transcends the genre," but I believe even that would be missing the point. The book does have its flaws. There are exquisite scenes that are hurried through as if the action is important enough to take us away from spending some time with the characters ( a few of whom I hated to say goodbye to at the novel's end.) I also felt the horror could've been exploited more; but then that might be the teenager in me who has never quite grown up. My one word to best describe what worked in this novel is simply, 'absorbing'.
My son's other novels-gifts included King's Bag of Bones and a book I had to hunt down called Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. I'll read those next. But I was very impressed with this book, with its essence of Halloween wrapped in with a page turning plot full of tunnels and escape hatches and time warps. All of this added up to a brilliant story. Since most of my favorite horror authors are dead (Jackson, Hawthorne, Machen, M.R. James), it's always nice to discover someone fairly new.
Did anyone but me think that the last hundred pages happened too fast? The book has an epic feel and scope to it, but I wanted the last third of it to last longer and loom a bit larger. Clegg raises important themes that should have more echo than they do.
Despite this, The Halloween Man is one of those novels you do not want to miss if you enjoy good fiction and great horror.
Mark Phillips
Book Review: Stop reading at the introduction
Summary: 2 Stars
The introduction of this book is well written, spooky, and exciting. You should stop reading there. The remainder is bland, slow, and doesn't really accomplish much of worth, and someone did more than a little "borrowing" of the character of Nora Bonesteel from Sharyn McCrumb's novels. After the beginning, the remainder of this book is a huge let down, disappointing more and more to a boring ending. After all the hype, I was pretty let down by this one.Book Review: The BEST HORROR NOVEL!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the top novels I've ever read--as good as Stephen King's The Shining. Read it, get it, it's wild--it made me scared and made my cry at the great love story.When Stony Crawford kidnaps a kid and takes him back to the village in New England where Stony was born and raised, all the dark secrets of his youth rise up to haunt him.