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5.0 AVERAGE
5.0 AVERAGE
(Early copy of book provided by author in exchange for an honest review).
I’ve been having a good time with Heath’s books this year. I read Night of the Bunny, his book about a mutated killer Easter Bunny first and thought it was pretty effective, and I recently read Day of the Mummy which I enjoyed even more.
Dark Nights is a short story collection containing 6 horror stories that are all good and bloody. Heath’s strengths as a writer definitely lie in his powers of description. He has a strong ability to set a scene and an even stronger one to paint pictures of grisly, sticky, wet gore.
‘Moonlit Valley’ is definitely a highlight of the book. It reminded me a bit of John Gardner’s Grendel, in which we experience a monster story from the POV of the monster, which is pretty cool. It’s easily the most violent and gory of the stories here and I was concerned for a moment while reading it that it was just gore for the sake of gore, but there is a solid ending to the tale that puts everything else into perspective.
My absolute favorite story from Dark Nights though is the final one, “Night Song”, in which a couple are haunted by a secondhand harp they bring home from an antique shop. While Heath continues to excel at his descriptive violence, “Night Song” also succeeds as a character-driven story. The relationship at the story’s core is really strong and well developed which gave me that feeling of “uh oh, I don’t want anything bad to happen to these people”. That’s a difficult feat to accomplish in a short story, and I was really impressed by it.
I really wouldn’t call any of the stories in Dark Nights bad, but some are definitely stronger than others. A weak point in the book I would say is “Therianthropy”, which is also the shortest story. It’s basically just a scene of a man undergoing his first werewolf transformation and while it is very vividly imagined and gross, it does just feel like a single scene from a larger story which I would love to read.
Heath also takes a stab at some extended Dracula lore in “Periods of Gloom”, in which he attempts to explain what Renfield was up to prior to the events of the original novel. It’s a pretty good story but it’s been a long time since I’ve read Dracula and I’m afraid there were things mentioned here that were relevant that I may have missed.
There is one nitpick I have with Heath’s writing that extends beyond just this book. Well, actually 2. The first is that his dialogue can feel unnatural and stiff, especially in comparison to his excellent descriptive skills. But the big nitpick is that he really, really loves the word “maw”. I didn’t notice it in Night of the Bunny, but reading this soon after Day of the Mummy, I think he must have used the word “maw” around 20 times. It’s a distinct enough word that it kinda stands out when it’s used even once, so repeated use really draws your attention.
Joking aside, Dark Nights is a satisfying horror collection and I look forward to more work from this author.
I’ve been having a good time with Heath’s books this year. I read Night of the Bunny, his book about a mutated killer Easter Bunny first and thought it was pretty effective, and I recently read Day of the Mummy which I enjoyed even more.
Dark Nights is a short story collection containing 6 horror stories that are all good and bloody. Heath’s strengths as a writer definitely lie in his powers of description. He has a strong ability to set a scene and an even stronger one to paint pictures of grisly, sticky, wet gore.
‘Moonlit Valley’ is definitely a highlight of the book. It reminded me a bit of John Gardner’s Grendel, in which we experience a monster story from the POV of the monster, which is pretty cool. It’s easily the most violent and gory of the stories here and I was concerned for a moment while reading it that it was just gore for the sake of gore, but there is a solid ending to the tale that puts everything else into perspective.
My absolute favorite story from Dark Nights though is the final one, “Night Song”, in which a couple are haunted by a secondhand harp they bring home from an antique shop. While Heath continues to excel at his descriptive violence, “Night Song” also succeeds as a character-driven story. The relationship at the story’s core is really strong and well developed which gave me that feeling of “uh oh, I don’t want anything bad to happen to these people”. That’s a difficult feat to accomplish in a short story, and I was really impressed by it.
I really wouldn’t call any of the stories in Dark Nights bad, but some are definitely stronger than others. A weak point in the book I would say is “Therianthropy”, which is also the shortest story. It’s basically just a scene of a man undergoing his first werewolf transformation and while it is very vividly imagined and gross, it does just feel like a single scene from a larger story which I would love to read.
Heath also takes a stab at some extended Dracula lore in “Periods of Gloom”, in which he attempts to explain what Renfield was up to prior to the events of the original novel. It’s a pretty good story but it’s been a long time since I’ve read Dracula and I’m afraid there were things mentioned here that were relevant that I may have missed.
There is one nitpick I have with Heath’s writing that extends beyond just this book. Well, actually 2. The first is that his dialogue can feel unnatural and stiff, especially in comparison to his excellent descriptive skills. But the big nitpick is that he really, really loves the word “maw”. I didn’t notice it in Night of the Bunny, but reading this soon after Day of the Mummy, I think he must have used the word “maw” around 20 times. It’s a distinct enough word that it kinda stands out when it’s used even once, so repeated use really draws your attention.
Joking aside, Dark Nights is a satisfying horror collection and I look forward to more work from this author.