I've seen several reviews that state some sort of variation of "this is a rollicking vampire novel" and, sorry, I have to say no. I'm not saying it's bad, because it's not. But there's a protracted opening that ultimately pays off, then there's very little in the way of vampires until the last quarter of the book. That section from about 10% of the way in until about the 75% mark is a whole lotta characters talking.

All right, let me back up a bit and first indicate what I didn't like. There were a fair amount of punctuation and spelling errors in the first third (strech for stretch, misplaced quotation marks, etc.), but they evened out as the novel progressed. I also found much of the dialogue a touch stilted, or maybe a better way to put it is, I found it unrealistic. I don't know, I just found I kept getting popped out of the story when I read a lot of the dialogue, especially when the cops or Adeline Parr was involved.

As mentioned above, there was also a lot through the middle that simply was characterization. Jeremy's hand-wringing about meeting his former lover in the town (that never came to anything), Elliot's misplaced hatred of the Indian, Billy Lightning (that never came to anything), the revelation that Adeline had had inappropriate relations with another character (that never came to anything), and so on.

On the other hand, when it came to Finn, the twelve-year-old Tomb of Dracula reading kid with Sadie, his dog, the pages just sang. Finn is a brilliant character and the main reason I enjoyed this book. Any time he shows up, I perked up. The dialogue was great, his entire plot was great, Sadie was great, his mom was great. His father was a little underutilized, but I could live with that. His interactions with Morgan were also a highlight.

I also liked Billy Lightning, even if I could never actually buy into the reason he showed up in Parr's Landing.

And then there's the end of the novel. With no spoilers here, I'll just say I understand what Rowe was doing, I understand why he did it, but for me, it flat out didn't ring true. After the buildup of what the vampires were like, the ending just didn't work for me. And that's all I'll say about that.

So, for me, I could have used less of the existing subplots, I would have like more on the "thing in the mountain" subplots, as well as more of what the vampires were doing in town (it was kind of a this character turned into a vampire, that vampire turned into a vampire, then without warning, it jumped to, holy cow! Almost everyone's a vampire! with no illustration of how that came to be, or how it would be dealt with).

Still for all of that, I enjoyed the narrative voice, and, as I said, Finn. You got me with Finn. ( )

4.5 stars!

A friend of mine in the Amazon Horror Forum recommended that I read this book. It took me a while, but I finally did. It was amazing!

Parr's Landing. The recently widowed Christina is headed there, with her daughter Morgan and brother-in-law Jeremy. The town from which Christina and her husband Jack fled when Christina realized she was pregnant, 15 some odd years ago. I loved the characters of Christina, Jeremy and Morgan. I loved this passage:

"Christina had been dreaming of Jack almost nightly in the nine months since the accident. The dreams varied in scale and intensity like music, from the highest soprano pitch of remembered fragments of joy, to the deepest, lowest basso profundo of grief and loss. From the latter, she would wake up sobbing, her throat dry and raw as though she had been swallowing graveyard dirt, feeling as if she were buried alive, and the darkness of her bedroom a sealed, airless coffin."

Christina and Jeremy HATE Parr's Landing, mostly due to Jeremy's mother, Adeline Parr. A harsher bitch you could not find. Her lofty airs and her superior attitude made her a character I could hardly stand to read about. The town is named after her and she won't let anyone ever forget it. Unfortunately, between them Jeremy and Christina can barely scrape together a dime, so they have no choice but to go back home to the town and the woman they both hate.

Once they all arrive, the weirdness begins. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will throw out the words Wendigo, Ojibwa, vampires and ancient evil. The story accelerates quickly at this point and it was quite difficult to put this book down. The prose is outstanding as is the character development.

As the story progresses, one can't help but think about other books that are similar. Salem's Lot for instance. However, the ideas in this book are unique and in my opinion, it gives Salem's Lot a run for its money.

Overall, I am jacked about this book! Thanks to my friend J.K, over at Amazon for bringing this book to my attention. I will definitely be reading the next book from this author. I highly recommend Enter, Night. You won't be disappointed. ( )

Storia traballante e lentissima....personaggi a cui vorresti solo dare calci nel sedere e schiaffoni...
questo libro mi ha fatto partire un istinto omicida...da dimenticare! ( )

Storia traballante e lentissima....personaggi a cui vorresti solo dare calci nel sedere e schiaffoni...
questo libro mi ha fatto partire un istinto omicida...da dimenticare! ( )

The story is good but the writing style and the characterization lack subtlety to the point of frustration. The denouement occurs quite abruptly for the amount of time spent leading up to it. By the end, I didn't care about any of the characters or who survived. I just felt like the whole book could have been so much better, but instead felt so rushed.

Strangely, the strongest and most compelling part of the novel is the last, historical fiction, section. The writing is stronger and the pacing benefits a horror novel more justly. I would have rather that the last section stretched out into an entire novel rather than just a chapter. ( )