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Book Summary and Reviews of The Night Birds by Christopher Golden

The Night Birds by Christopher Golden

The Night Birds

A Novel

by Christopher Golden

  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Published:
  • May 2025, 304 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

The next gripping, atmospheric horror novel from New York Times bestselling author Christopher Golden, set in a deteriorated, half-sunken freighter ship off the coast of Galveston, TX.

Charlie Book and Ruby Cahill have history. After their love ended in heartbreak years ago, they never expected to see each other again.

Now, as part of his work for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Book lives aboard the Christabel, a 19th century freighter half-sunken off the shore of Galveston. Over many years, a massive forest of mangrove trees has grown up through the deck of the ship, creating a startlingly beautiful enigma Book calls the Floating Forest. As a powerful storm churns through the Gulf, he intends to sleep on board as usual.

But when he arrives at the dock, he's stunned to find Ruby there waiting for him. And she's not alone. With her are a mysterious woman and her infant child, asking Book to hide them safely aboard the Christabel while they're on the run. Only it isn't the police who are after them, it's a coven of witches the woman, Mae, has fled, stealing away the helpless infant for whom the coven had hideous plans…or so Mae claims.

It's lunacy and Book wants nothing to do with it. But after the way he and Ruby ended things, and the unspoken pain between them, he can't refuse. Yet even as he brings them out to the ruined ship and its floating forest, there are shadowed figures looming back in Galveston, waiting out the storm. And despite the worsening wind and rain, the night birds are flying, scouring the coastline for their prey.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Golden showcases his gift for eerie scene setting in this outstanding horror novel with an unusual location... A tense, atmospheric thriller." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Combines the thrill of survival horror, the wince of body horror, and the spine-tingling chill of the occult. Golden's skill is on full display here as he crafts crackling action scenes, a horrifying creature, great dialogue, and an inclusive cast of characters." ―Library Journal (starred review)

"No one combines action and horror better than Christopher Golden. In The Night Birds, Golden throws everything he's got at his isolated heroes, the only thing standing between mankind and ancient evil. Bring a tank of oxygen, because once the pages start turning, you'll be gasping for breath." ―Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor

"A magnificently atmospheric, dread-soaked page-turner. Terrifying and entertaining. Pure nightmare fuel." ―Rachel Harrison, USA Today bestselling author of So Thirsty and Black Sheep

This information about The Night Birds was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Christopher Golden

Christopher Golden is the New York Times bestselling and Bram Stoker award-winning author of Ararat, All Hallows, Road of Bones, and Snowblind, among many other novels. He is the co-creator of two cult favorite comic book series, Baltimore and Joe Golem: Occult Detective. He is also the editor of such anthologies as Seize the Night and The New Dead, and won the Shirley Jackson Award for coediting The Twisted Book of Shadows. He lives in Massachusetts.

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