All Hallow's Dead

In the days leading up to Halloween, a series of gruesome murders begin. It is soon revealed that the killer is a man named Elliot, who was horribly humiliated and nearly killed by classmates when he was younger. He's now out for revenge against former classmates and anyone who gets in his way. Some he kills outright, while others he brings back to his lair and tortures. Like the description of the book says, law enforcement attempts to put the pieces together and catch the man responsible, while Elliot's methods and true desires get more and more twisted and diabolical.Honestly, when I first started reading this book, I got perhaps a third of the way through before I stopped. A year later, I realized I still had it partially read on my Kindle, and decided to finish it up. I found that, as much as I wanted to read the book, I couldn't get emotionally invested in it like other horror works I've read.Part of the problem is the concept itself. You're basically watching Elliot go through the whole story killing one person after another. Sure, it leads to some descriptions of the act itself, which might appeal to die-hard fans of the splatterpunk sub-genre (especially the torture scenes, which include forcing victims to eat the flesh and body parts of other victims), but at a certain point it gets a bit tedious. You're just reading one murder after another, after another, after another, with a few torture scenes thrown in. I've read other books where there were serial killings going on, but other stuff was going on to keep you reading, or the killings were paced well enough that when another murder happened, it stood out.Part of the problem is also that I couldn't really find any character to bond with or care about to any real degree. Sure, I sympathized with Elliot, but you can only sympathize with a murderer to a point, just as, say, you could only sympathize with the serial child killer in "M" to a point. The other characters are either not really developed enough, or are so wicked themselves that you're not all that invested in whether or not they die. I get it that some might contest this might be "the point" (as they say) of the story: that the victims of the serial killer are just as bad as the one killing them. The problem is that sometimes the narrative will go into a long, lengthy description on a character, their background, their motivations, etc., only for them to die off that same chapter, or one or two chapters later. I started skimming character expositions because I knew they weren't long for this world, and didn't get why any of it really mattered. Elliot could have been running around a busy city street stabbing random people and it would have had the same emotional impact for me. Perhaps the only murder scene that stuck out to me was one where the victim is suicidal, and actually helps Elliot kill them, which Elliot later cries over. I almost felt like that could have been dwelt on more, or could have had a bigger impact on the story, but in the end it's just another murder scene, and we need to move on to get to the next one."All Hallow's Dead" certainly isn't badly written, in terms of dialogue, the flow of a scene's action, etc. It's not all bad. However, I found it difficult to get through. I'm sure some will like it, but for casual readers there may be other titles to pursue.

I read slower lately than in my past so I didn't finish All Hallow's Dead by Halloween like I had hoped.But being that Bryan Smith is such a fantastic weaver of horror, All Hallow's Dead can be read anytime one chooses.I really enjoyed this tale, and Bryan Smith has been a reliable author for many moons not just in October, but through all months for years and years.Definitely up there as a top class Bryan Smith read.

You can't go wrong with Bryan Smith if you enjoy horror. This one had a great build with a villain seeking his revenge on an entire town that he felt wronged him when he was a kid. And there will be 31 victims leading up to Halloween. Bryan did a great job of making this guy believable and I liked seeing how some of the characters changed from their teenage counterparts to being adults.

Maybe I didn't read the plot summary closely enough but I thought this was going to be a fun slasher story. Instead it was way more bleaker then I thought and felt closer to torture porn which i dont really care for unless theres some twist to it. Horrific things do happen but with so many people being killed it started feeling boring. Only 2 or 3 small surprises happen in the book, not enough to keep things interesting.Still if you like violence and torture porn then you may like this.

Loved this book, I have been reading Bryan Smith's book's for many years and can really with all sincerity say I have never been disappointed by any of his books. And really guys there's not many authors I can say that about. My favorite genre is horror and he is a Master in this field, this book took me back to the old slashers which I love. If you are a true horror fan do not miss this one, and if your not it's time to start by picking this one up. From this horror fan I promise you will not regret it. Bryan please please keep them coming, and thank you for so many enjoyable hours of reading. 🎃👍

Remember all the bad things you’ve ever done and lock your doors you depraved piece of ... this is a great book about revenge, channeling 80s slasher movies and Richard Laymon. Bravo. Clap clap. Shower.

This freaking book needs to be optioned for a major motion picture with Rob Zombie as the director! Knock knock, Hollywood! Your next slasher masterpiece is ready and waiting.

All Hallow's Dead is Bryan Smith's ode to the classic 80s slasher movie. The killer's goal is to kill 31 people in the week leading up to Halloween, so there is almost nonstop carnage. Some slasher movies would be full of scenes of people creeping around playing cat-and-mouse with the killer, which usually ended up being boring. Bryan Smith has cut out the fat and All Hallow's Dead goes straight for the throat and never stops.At a certain point in the book the setting changes and it almost feels like the reader has entered a different story. This part is a perfect homage to the genre, right down to the convention of naming characters after cult horror icons. Everything ties back together eventually, but this portion of the book was my favorite part and took me right back to watching rented VHS tapes late at night, knowing I was probably too young to be seeing what I was seeing.It seemed like Mr. Smith was having a lot of fun writing All Hallow's Dead and this translates to the reader. Social consciousness be damned...this is sleazy, gory fun! Highly recommended.

This might be my favorite book of the year. That could be down to a combination of things. It's set at Halloween and I read it in the few days leading up to Halloween, I love Friday the Thirteenth and the Halloween movies and this book is a homage to 80s slasher movies, Bryan Smith's style of writing is so easy to lose yourself in for hours and all in all it's a fantastic story.The premise is simple. A kid who was bullied and traumatised for life has came back to seek vengeance on his tormentors. The story is a bit more complex than that but that is the driving factory in the story and our maniac is aiming to kill 31 people leading up to Halloween and leave a pumpkin at each body. All of Smith's books read like a fast paced action movie but they are most definitely horrors.The characters in the book are well fleshed out and the back story is good too. I read the book in two days only putting it down when I had to.The only criticism I may have is it ends quite abruptly but I'm sure others will love the ending. If you haven't tried Smith this is as good a place as any to start and if you already read him I'm sure you'll love this one too.

Fantastic book. Elliott is one of my favourite characters of all time! If you like gory horror with a great story and characters I highly recommend this. Bryan Smith is the king of horror at the moment. Also, I highly recommend, Slowly We Rot and The Killing Kind by the same author.

enjoyable slasher book.Elliot gets bullied at school and boy does he get revenge,quite a gory book,would make a good film

Loved it, pulled me in straight away. The characters were well built up, and the story was interesting and fun. Couldn't wait to see what would happen next. Would defiantly recommend

Good read.