I think Summer of Night threads the needle really well, but when it comes to the mythological threat, Simmons really leans into these monsters and their grotesqueness. I didn't mean to suggest that I expected the book to be non-stop horror or anything like that. I'm definitely interested to hear other people's thoughts because I think the general premise and world-building of this novel is fantastic, but narratively speaking it seems to put its emphasis in all these strange and counter-intuitive places.įor sure, it was really cool seeing Mike O'Rourke as an adult! And that rescue story is very compelling, particularly in the context of Romania and its relationship to its own vampire mythos, but man, it hits this weird stretch in the back half of endless descriptions of driving along Romanian highways, and of them sneaking around a series of chapels and then sneaking a way again and it just totally kills any sense of momentum. It seems to lean away from the horror stuff at every opportunity and feels more interested in functioning as a breakneck political thriller/rescue story. And despite it very clearly being a vampire story in which Dracula(!) himself makes an appearance, I almost wouldn't even consider it a horror novel. It's certainly got a very strong sense of time and place, and Simmon's research into post- Ceaușescu Romania is keenly felt on the page, but it feels like that kind of stuff almost overwhelms the book at times. I had read Summer of Night last month and enjoyed it so much I thought I'd dive straight into this one (I'm saving a Winter Haunting for a little later down the line), and while I enjoyed myself it still feels like kind of a strange beast to me. Other Subreddits that might interest you: Horror Award Nominees & Winners, 1975-2013 R/horrorlit's TOP 10 GREATEST NON-SUPERNATURAL HORROR NOVELS OF ALL TIME!!!
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