It's Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, secrets are being revealed, and all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man.
... an original and realistically frightening entry into the popular Halloween-night subgenre ... Uneasy from the opening moments, this tale builds its tension relentlessly with multiple points of view from a range of neighbors of all ages—revealing unsettling domestic dramas—until it bursts wide open with numerous twists, each revealing something more violent and terrifying.
In his attempt to liven up familiar tropes, Golden's new book is less daring than its blood-freezing, Siberian-set predecessor ... 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... the book lacks serious chills in the end—it's better at clever phenomena... than bumps in the night. An enjoyable but not terribly bone-rattling addition to Halloween horror.
... derivative and decidedly unscary ... Hopping between the perspectives of various one-dimensional characters does nothing to make the night’s horrors feel any more surprising or suspenseful. If this bit of ’80s nostalgia is intended to capitalize on the success of Stranger Things, it falls far short.
