Halloween Land is Kevin J. Kennedy's first published novella as the indie author/publisher moves into a longer form.
There is plenty to admire. The cover (I purchased a paperback copy) is highly professional, and Mar Garcia's artwork is an absolute delight. The relationship between Zac and Wendy is beautifully described as a long-standing friendship which turns to romance without losing any of the mutual respect or the agency of either character. Kennedy makes the reader care about these characters and obviously cares about them too.
However, there are problems, and that is why I can only rate it as a three star (or average) read. Not that I would want to put you off reading the book; there's a lot of great stuff within these pages, but its potential is not fully realised.
There may be spoilers in the latter part of this review, so feel free to stop reading now.
Sadly, the editing is very poor. This really let it down - even basic things such as Zac being misspelled as Zack twice, have escaped attention. Words are repeated needlessly, which makes the prose feel clumsy, and it demands effort to simply plough through at times.
The structure foregrounds normality and skims over the weird. There would be two obvious solutions, either to condense the first half into a prologue and expand the latter half when the carnival returns, although this could damage the development of the protagonists' relationship, or it could be expanded into a novel. As it stands we have chapters devoted to setting up a side character (Zac's flatmate) who has no relevance in the plot. The division of domestic chores and consumption of drugs is described in great depth, while at the other end of the spectrum, three full-scale battles for survival are merely mentioned in passing in a single paragraph. Had these been fully realised, they could have been terrifying, surreal, and filled with suspense, threat and horror. I have no idea why the author did not choose to do this. Instead, pp. 147-8 read like a treatment rather than an narrative.
Finally, Clown.
Clown helps the protagonists to such an extent that I never felt the heroes were in any real danger. Together with the briefly mentioned fortune teller, we are handed two tropes who are present only to help the protagonists and are devoid of any agency of their own. We don't know why they are helping or what they want. Clown's physical appearance is described in detail twice. I think she's the only character who is described this vividly, but there is nothing about her personality or her connection to the larger narrative.
Aside - A Thought About Publishing Critical Reviews.
It is frowned upon for an indie-author to leave negative reviews within the writing community. This is a quasi-rule that I neither understand nor condone, but I suspect it may be a matter of self-preservation, a fear of the wrath of the bruised ego and subsequent backlash (and I've heard some horror stories that back up this assumption). So, before I typed up this review, I contacted Kevin Kennedy who was both gracious and professional and assured me that he was interested in reading my thoughts on his book, giving me permission to post a mostly negative review. I hope fans and friends of Kennedy will read this in the same spirit and not defend his honour without his consent. None of us is perfect, and reviewers should be respected and allowed to offer their opinions on our published work even if their comments sting rather than stroke our egos. I would never want to silence someone who hates my books, and Kevin's response to my email suggests he feels the same.
If we want people to read and review our stories we, as a community, should attempt to provide a safe space for dissent so that readers are not afraid to tell the truth. Therefore, I thank Kevin Kennedy, and I will happily buy and read his future work. The potential is there; I can glimpse his talent beneath the issues I've articulated here, but more than that - he's a good and humble man.
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