HALLOWEEN, 1988
A gang of twelve-year-old boys are trick-or-treating in London. Off in the distance, they hear the discordant chimes of an ice-cream truck. It seems strange to hear on a cold autumnal night, but their thoughts of maximizing their candy haul soon dismissed its incongruous melody… until they saw the rusting hulk idling in the shadows at the end of the street, its driver a faceless shadow.
That was the night he took one of them.
OCTOBER, 2016
Years later, Halloween is fast approaching and Tom Craven is still haunted by the events of that dark night, especially the fact that their friend was never found. Increasingly plagued by horrific visions, Tom returns to the place where it all began, only to discover he’s not the only one who can feel it. His friends have already arrived and are preparing for a battle which could get them all killed.
The Ice Cream Man is back… and he’s come for the ones that got away.
Dark bleatings, my spooky tribe! I’m here to talk about Adam Millard today… what a prick. No no, I’m just kidding! I know him to be very nice, actually, and also a terrific writer – one of my favourite indie authors and the genius behind one of my favourite books of all time – Milk. But we’re not here to talk about Milk today, or Adam actually, we’re talking about The October Boys – a brilliant read that reminded me slightly of Stephen King’s IT (28 year cycle of evil, whoop whoop!).
A group of boys are trick-or-treating on Halloween, when a weirdly creepy ice cream truck comes a-creepin’. They fear there’s something sinister about it and their fear is confirmed when it chases them. They split up, which results in one of them disappearing, never to be seen again.
28 years later, the now grown men start experiencing nightmares, and then a kid goes missing. The old gang gets back together, realising that this isn’t coincidence, it’s a pattern. AND IT MUST BE STOPPED!
Quite frankly, there’s really nothing not to like about this book. The story is great – a satisfying sort-of circular narrative, distinctive and relatable characters (one of which does something unspeakable and yet we’re still on his side because it’s absolutely horrific and we want him to win), and a truly excellent horror villain. The kind of old-school horror villain that I hardly ever see these days. I can’t really explain why but I got a huge hit of 1980’s nostalgia because of that ice cream truck, and I loved it. I miss the days of bizarre monsters like this, they’re not the done thing these days.
One of my favourite things about the plot is how it opens up and gets so disastrously big towards the end – I mean, seriously, I didn’t think it could expand much more but then it went balls out, and I appreciate it for that.
Once again, Millard impressed me with his writing and once again, I was thoroughly entertained by his work. I’d recommend it to general horror fans, and if you’ve already read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts! If you’d like to get a copy or check out the author, there are some links below for you:
Oh, also – just because I will NEVER EVER EVER stop promoting this book, I’m also leaving the link for Milk below too:
Bleeeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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