This book gave me what I was looking for - an overall informative history of Halloween - which by common sense alone I know is a strange and shifting holiday that seems to maybe be based of of one thing, maybe another. It wasn't a super thrilling read by any means, but it was informative and touched on a lot of things I didn't know and things I remember from the past. It can feel a bit repetitive, as with each chapter or topic we are resetting to "the beginning" of the timeline, but this did help me lock down certain moods and traditions of the holiday. I think if it had stuck to a completely linear timeline, I would have gotten bored with it, as my interest always was picking up as we got closer to modern times.

I've loved Halloween for as long as I can remember, and every year I get a little sad wondering if Halloween will ever go back to "the way it used to be," but if anything I guess I have to accept my childhood Halloween was different than kids before me, and different for the ones after. This book highlights just how much and how rapidly Halloween changed over time and within regions. So I guess I will just accept "my" Halloween is a thing of the past, remember it with love, and embrace Halloween in all the ways it continues to transform.