Review: The Halloween Children

The Halloween Children by Brian James Freeman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of THE HALLOWEEN CHILDREN
by Brian James Freeman Norman Prentiss

THE HALLOWEEN CHILDREN is a terrifying horror story which I couldn't set aside till I finished (and then couldn't get out of my imagination). Set in a quiet Maryland apartment complex, not far from a University campus, the focus of the story is a small family: Harris, Lynn, and their two children Amber and Matthew. Harris is the complex maintenance supervisor, with little to do because most of the work is contracted out to professionals. Lynn is a telecommuter, working in computer customer service from home. The “face” of the complex is a “little Napoleon” named Shawna, who rules rigidly and indiscriminately. Some of the residents are real terrors, in the human sense, and there are multiple layers of “reality” involved as well. Overarching this plot line of marital conflict, overprecocious offspring who might be both too imaginative and lacking in moral code, and Harris' own perceptions (which may or may not be “reality) is the approaching Halloween holiday. In conjunction is the theme of “the Halloween children,” as we come to find out, distinctly something (or someones) to be avoided.

Lots of violence and gore abound, but I'd be hard put to discern which is scarier: the “monsters” (if they exist) or the human evil. Unforgettable novel.

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