10-16-2025 Latham's Last Words: The Jack O'Lantern Men by Lee Allen
- Donna Latham
- 23 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Welcome to Latham's Last Words, where I give you my last words on books I've enjoyed. This week's review is another Halloween read, The Jack O'Lantern Men by Lee Allen. Not your typical Halloween story!
A surprise 5 stars!
I grabbed this book simply because of the title and cover since it's October and I try to read as many Halloween books as I can. I expected scary Jack O'lantern faced creatures on a bloody rampage. But this book is way more than that. Way deeper. Way more terrifying.
Told from the POV of the main characters, a jailer, the murderer and the murderer's daughter, each character tells their part of the story revealing more and more of the sinister goings on. Leading to a twist ending I could not ever have envisioned. Sometimes it felt like a dream, or a nightmare, with how the story unfolded. You're not quite sure what is happening, but you know you need to see what comes next.
The author did a great job making me think one or more of the characters were unreliable narrators. I don't know if that was the intention, but that's how it worked for me. And I liked it. I couldn't help but continue reading. Definitely an attention grabber right from the first page, you won't regret reading it.
An unusual Halloween horror tale, I think it should be on every horror reader's Halloween TBR.
Get it here!