Book Review: Josh Hancock's THE GIRLS OF OCTOBER

With any form of entertainment I delve into, whether it be a TV show, movie, or a book, I almost always figure out the culprit much too soon, and find frustration with those that don’t see it. When I watched SAW in the theatre, I spent the entire movie yelling “CHECK THE BODY”…my friends were so mad that I just knew…

Cut to now, reading THE GIRLS OF OCTOBER by Josh Hancock – the style of writing, much like Bram Stoker’s DRACULA, is told in the form of news snippets, police reports, interviews, print articles, and in an ode to modern media ‘The National Buzz’; and I never figured it out. Well played, Josh, well played.

The story takes us through the life of young Beverly Dreger, a girl growing up with a mentally unstable mom trying to protect her daughter from the bogeyman by unusual methods, and the father who actually does the parenting, vainly attempting to give Beverly a stable childhood. In college, Beverly becomes obsessed with John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN and portrayal of the bogeyman therein, as it mirrors a character in her life that, while she knows at an intellectual level, isn’t real, he somehow still manages to manifest in her day to day world.

Beverly plays many roles, a budding feminist in the early 70’s, punk chick, goth chick, film student…and it takes each of these women to help her become the one she needs to be, the heroine, in order to protect the one true friend she had – and it was that one moment that sets her off running. But does she have to keep running? Did she finally behead her bogeyman? I hope one day she can stop running…

Side not, I will probably kick my cat out of the closet and make sure the closet doors are closed right before I go to bed in a moment.

BONUS! As part of the story, Hancock produces a rather hardcore treatise of Carpenter’s masterpiece, an excellent treat for any horror fan.

In the end, there were parts where I had to go back and re-read stuff to make sure I was following the storyline, and I never guessed the ending, so I’m giving Josh Hancock a big thumbs up and a 10/10! I thoroughly enjoyed this and am looking forward to his next book.