Hallows Eve is the second tale in Al Sarrantonio's Orangefield series. Though it follows the first book, aptly named Orangefield, you can read them out of order without fear of missing any important details.
Orangefield is a small New England town, rustic and quaint, known for the large and robust crop of pumpkins it produces every year. Without the pumpkins, Orangefield would just be another Smalltown, USA.
Corrie Phaeder is an Orangefield native who escaped westward to become a photographer. However, the problems that drove him from his home town were a lot greater than the usual "I graduated high school and now I wanna get out of this place" variety. His life has been full of supernatural sights and sounds ever since he was seven, culminating in the violent death of his mother.
As the story begins, Corrie finds himself on a train back to Orangefield, just before Halloween. Once he steps foot off the train, he discovers that (cliche alert) the more things change, the more they stay the same. After a heart-to-heart with a pumpkin-headed scarecrow, Corrie realizes that everything that's been happening to him since he was seven was preparation for (yes, another cliche) an epic battle between good and evil.
Hallows Eve is the first Al Sarrantonio book I've read. I like his writing style as well as his vocabulary; both, combined with the story, make the book an enjoyable one. It's not excessively long, and I got the feeling it ended right where it should have.
Based on the cover art and the description of the book I read, I thought it would lean a lot more toward hardcore horror than it does. Except for a few scenes that border on slightly gory, the book reads like it could've been written for young adults. However, the story line is suspenseful and purposeful enough to keep adult readers well involved. The ending, certainly, could have been written for younger readers.
The only major downside (for me, at least) was the price. Hallows Eve is published by Cemetery Dance Productions (the same folks who put out Cemetery Dance Magazine), and it was originally available in only two editions, geared more toward collectors than toward the casual reader. Both editions of the book were signed by the author. The first was a limited hardcover edition, priced at $40, and the second was a fancier traycased edition (with full-cover artwork) that went for $175. However, since then the book has been released as a paperback, so you should be able to find a copy for six or seven bucks.
For horror fans, I would recommend reading Hallows Eve. It tells a fast-paced, involving story, without being over-the-top violent or gory. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but sometimes it's nice to read a good horror story without it.)
Hallows Eve is out of print as a collectible hardcover from Cemetery Dance Productions, but is still available as a trade paperback or ebook from Barnes & Noble and other retailers.
(Originally posted on Helium.com, April 2009)
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