Review: The Moonchild

The Moonchild by Kenneth McKenney
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While on holiday in the Alps, young Simon Blackstone dies, succumbing to a mysterious illness. While SImon's family deals with his death, people around him are dying and the Blackstones must face the fact that their beloved Simon is a Moonchild! Can they bury him before what would have been his seventh birthday to stop the curse, with German police on their trail?

I noticed this while thumbing through Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction and my wife snagged me a copy for my birthday. It was okay but I'm rethinking my approach regarding books I see in Paperbacks from Hell.

Losing a child is terrible. Having the child rise from the dead whenever his casket opens and kill someone with his monster claw is something else entirely. It's a shame I wasn't as captivated by this book as I wanted to be.

The writing style feels antiquated, like I imagine popular fiction from the 1920s was written. The characters aren't all that detailed or interesting. The menace of the Moonchild didn't really live up to its potential. Or maybe I'm being too hard on schlocky horror from the '70s.

There are some creepy moments but I was ultimately uninterested. Two out of five stars.

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