***NetGalley Review***

This book is a masterpiece of contained chaos and I loved every page! I was reminded of a movie where we’re introduced to a group of strangers who through a series of seriously demented and unfortunate events become intertwined in a web of weirdness.

Each chapter introduces either a new character of another piece to the fantastical puzzle from hell. You get a hint of a heist story but with werewolves, vampires, and blobs. Oh yeah, and a big a$$ bear!

The writing is straightforward and fluid making for a quick and easy read. There are several grammatical errors, not a ton, but I definitely hope an editor can fix them before the official release.

10/10 would recommend

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5/5 Stars

TL;DR - If Quentin Tarantino dropped some acid and then got into an Uber with Guillermo del Toro, who just ate a handful of magic mushrooms, and they rode to Studio Ghibli and stumbled into Hayao Miyazaki’s office for a brainstorming session, not even they could come up with anything remotely near this book. Holy shit. An absolute wild ride that I can’t even put into a neat little summary. I completely understand why this author has won so many awards, because this is next-level horror.

A big thank you to Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for providing the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

‘A Hunter Called Night’ by Tim Waggoner is a horror story that also encompasses several other genres - sci-fi, a bit of fantasy, existential philosophy, psychological thriller, a bit of comedy here and there. The story is told in two timelines, one taking place in the present in a small Ohio town, and the other takes place five years ago in a small town in Illinois. Though it’s told through the POVs of like 20 people, maybe more, it all centers around a man named Arron, who is being hunted by an otherwordly woman, the titular hunter named Night. Arron, in both timelines, comes into a small town seeking shelter and help from the residents, and things get absolutely WILD from there.

**Trigger warnings for attempted rape, fatphobia, eating disorders, and extreme gore/violence.**

We’re inside the heads of maybe dozens of characters during this book, and some of them are pretty messed up. I’m going to to cover this ground first as spoiler-free as I can, just so everyone has an idea of some of the potentially triggering things before y’all dive in.

There is an attempted rape around 39% of the way through, and I was really sad to see it because it’s my policy to DNF books for my own safety as soon as an on-page rape occurs, and I was really digging this book and didn’t want to stop. But, spoiler for everyone’s peace of mind, the character doesn’t get raped, she’s okay, and in fact, the would-be rapist gets his spooky horror comeuppance almost immediately, which I’m always here to see. Bullet dodged for me, but please be aware that this all happens while we’re inside the dude’s head and he thinks some really messed up things both before and during the attempt. Please proceed with extreme caution if this is a trigger for you.

One character is incredibly fatphobic, beyond the scope one might expect from a morally-questionable dietician. She thinks some really gross jokes to herself, thinks very demeaning thoughts about the clients she’s supposed to be helping, and in general has very harmful opinions about fat people. That said, this character also deals with body dysmorphia, and potentially anorexia, so please be aware of that before you go in.

Lastly, THIS BOOK IS GORY. Like, insanely gory. Whatever you have in mind, double it, and you might come close. Not just blood, but all kinds of grotesque and horrifying bodily things involved. If you’re squeamish, this is not the book for you. I’m the kind of person who can read violence and blood without blinking, and even I was a little green around the gills from this book. Major body-horror and gratuitous violence going on here.

That out of the way, on with the review.

This book is all over the place, and I mean that as a compliment. We go from deep explorations of characters’ personalities and problems to some X-Files-level sci-fi weirdness, to inter-dimensional beings and their gods, to gory slasher horror, and round and round and round. It’s enthralling, watching how all these people’s lives are cruising along as normal, and then completely turned upside down by Arron and Night’s arrival. It all culminates into a fever-dream, gothic horror thriller that I could not make myself stop reading if I tried. I had to keep going, I had to watch this train crash, I had to know how it would end. And DAMN if the ending isn’t the juiciest twist!

This book has a LOT of POVs, and at first I found it overwhelming, but as I got into the book, I really started to appreciate it. Each character we spend time with is complex and flawed, each struggling with their own issues, and I enjoyed each little slice of life presented. As mentioned above, some of these characters are bad (or at least morally gray) people, but all of them are deeply human in an extremely realistic way, so it was fascinating to see how they each interacted with the absolute batshit insanity erupting around them.

If I had to find fault with this book, the only thing that comes to mind is that sometimes, the descriptions can feel superfluous and boring. We’re told everything every character is wearing, every detail about the surroundings, and it’s a bit much at times. We also get told every little detail about the “main” characters daily routines (except for Arron and Night, of course), and the beginning felt really bogged down by it, at least for me. In hindsight, I can sort of see an argument for contrasting the boring minutia of everyday life for humans and the cosmic-level chaos that descends and messes that up, but for me, it really just dragged for a while. I’m here for spooky, not mundane! However, I'm so glad I stuck it out because it picked up speed and did not slow down until the end.

Final Thoughts:

Did I come into this expecting to love this book as much as I did? No, I really didn’t. I was here for a weird, paranormal romp (and expecting some violence based on brief review perusal) and didn’t really expect to be wowed, but man, I am GLAD at how wrong I was proven. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I will be purchasing a physical copy when its published!

Even having read the synopsis, I didn't know what to expect going into A Hunter Called Night. Enough of it sounded intriguing that I decided to give it a try, and what I found was a briskly paced, fun, "weekend movie" horror story.

The blurb on the back of the book states "a reality-warping field that slowly transforms the building and its occupants in horrible and deadly ways" and boy is that an understatement. I was fascinated, and in some cases absolutely disgusted, by the changes some of the occupants underwent. It was like reading the origin stories of my favorite Marvel mutants, except I had no desire to have any of their powers.

The writing is very clean, and the story is told from a plethora of viewpoints. You would think the sheer amount of characters would make for a muddled mess, but Waggoner did a great job of giving them each a clearly distinctive voice. Action scenes, of which there are plenty, are described well, and in gory detail. I especially liked the switching of perspectives during the same action sequence, as it segmented the fights in a way that made it very clear what was happening.

Up until about the 70% mark, I was loving the book and ready to give it 4 stars. I was rapidly approaching the culmination of the story and...it just fell flat. I really didn't like how rushed the ending felt. I remember seeing I had 20 pages left and thinking "This can't possibly wrap up well in this amount of time" and it didn't for me. Enough to knock a star off.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and I would recommend it to any fan of horror. It's a quick, fun read and I would watch the hell out of a movie, but I might turn it off a liiittle bit early.

Thank you to Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one wasn't for me. I have a hard time being dropped into a world I know almost nothing about. I did understand what was happening, but it felt rushed and super slow at the same time.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

***

The author of this book is what drew me in even though the blurb felt a little awkward.

I was lost almost immediately and had to restart. I'm not sure if it was hard to focus on or if the language itself was keeping me disengaged. However, the second go was helpful and I was able to get through the book.

That being said, I love the premise. It's interesting and there's a solid amount of gore too.

Just not enough to keep me around. I was excited about this book for awhile and then my hopes for it ended up not being met in the end.

A Hunter Called Night is about a mysterious man named Arron who is on the run from a supernatural creature named Night. Arron barricades himself in an office building, putting the lives of all the employees there in danger. It's macabre, grotesque, and impossible to put down. An excellent horror novel with all the trigger warnings.

Longer review to come.

This was a DID NOT FINISH at around 38% It just took too long to get going and I did not find the premise particularly interesting. Otherworldly creatures force their way into our world via a type of blight which spreads. You could see the story was going to be built around these normal folks trapped in a building whilst the blight spread about them. I really wanted to like this, as I've reviewed and liked this author before, but I just found it too dull. Even the beasts which did the killing for the invaders was pretty boring.

It's gory, it's ghastly, and it's great!

Tim Waggoner is the most creative killer in the horror genre world. Don't believe me? - let me explain. His books are genuinely some of the most creepy and terrifying and fun reads that I have experienced. This book in particular follows Night on her seemingly never ending hunt for Arron. Following Night are her scary panther warriors, vicious and deadly and all too eager for their prey. Throw in a few other deadly creatures, the classic Waggoner terrifying mutations, and you have this masterpiece of horror.

I genuinely cannot describe or put into words how terrifying this book was. I found myself unnerved, creeped out, ICKED, and more. This book is very fast paced and has a lot of readers. (Though I'm starting to think that Mr. Waggoner might have a phobia around dentistry/orthodontist). ((No seriously I'm starting to develop one too)). There are so many elements of this story that some might feel it's too much, but it truly is JUST PERFECT. I could easily see this book being nominated for another Bram Stoker. I just genuinely loved this book and you will too.

Night is an interdimensional being, who has been hunting for Arron for many years, accompanied by her four panther like companions known as Harriers. She eventually finds Arron in a small Ohio town, where he takes refuge in an office building. As Night is a creature of the Wild, she’s unable to enter anywhere that is civilized, but she has the power to inflict a Blight, which slowly transforms civilized areas into the Wild. The workers inside are trapped, and are transformed into either Surrogates who are looking for Arron, or become various monsters whose sole mission is to protect Arron. Add into the mix a group of five individuals, transformed by Arron five years prior to the events of the novel, and who have been hunting for Night and her Harriers in order to,wreak revenge on the deaths of their loved ones.

This plot synopsis unfortunately doesn’t do A Hunter Called.Night any justice. The book is a really well done horror story, combining H. P. Lovecraft tropes with contemporary bloody horror elements. The characters are well developed, and I found myself rooting for them to survive. The ending of the book was a real surprise but completely fit with the narrative. And unlike many contemporary horror novels, the morality of forced transformations is woven into the narrative without interrupting the flow.

Recommended for horror fans.

My thanks to Flame Tree Press and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of the book.

This was such a fun, fast paced, action packed novel. I could not put it down. It was a brilliant mix of fantasy and thriller.

Review Copy

A HUNTER CALLED NIGHT is a fast paced, genre shifting, bloody action packed read. You have to know when I saw the black panther on the cover I knew I had to read the book. And I wasn't disappointed. Night, the hunter, had four panthers at her disposal.

I got the feeling that Waggoner really had fun writing this and wanted to leave it open for a sequel, but he did finish it a way that left it both a stand alone and yet open in a sense. So, set aside a few hours, grab a snack and prepare for some engaging fun.

This book is a rip roaring ride about a supernatural game of cat and mouse with a group of humans caught in the middle.

Night is a woman from another dimension who has four "pets" in the form of black panther like beasts called harriers. There's a mystery surrounding her as well as her intended prey.

When their chase brings them to an office building, the humans inside start to change and become unwilling participants in their war.

I love the whole concept of this and it's part dark fantasy, and part bloody horror. But the characters (human and supernatural alike) all have something different and intriguing to offer and the author let's us get to know these people enough so we want them to live. Alas, not all of them will but when these deaths happen, it's a pretty big shock since we're rooting for them.

Once we begin to learn more about Night and where she comes from, we become aware that there's more to this story than just this particular "hunt" and it's going to have dire consequences for all involved.

This book is exciting, action packed, keeps you on your toes, and has a fantastic world beyond our own. I definitely recommend it!