This was a tense read - so many people lying and suspicious of each other! An interesting take on vampires and their living in society. You can see the parallels to the racism that is rampant in our current society. C.J. Tudor never disappoints! I can't wait to see what he writes next!

#TheGathering
#NetGalley

I enjoyed this read. It was a different perspective on vampires and had quite a few parallels to real life. I really appreciated that aspect of the books. Racism and bigotry run rampant in this country and it's nice to see those ideas presented in a fictional way. I also loved the main character. She's not your usual hero but that's why I liked her, very down to earth, normal person vibe. I wish we had more character development with her.. Maybe in book 2?

The overall pace of the book was medium. The story was a lot of backstory and there were parts I felt moved a tad slow. I loved the Alaskan setting, very dark and creepy. I also would have liked more depth in to the setting.

I liked this story and will definitely read more by this author.

Detective Barbara Atkins is called into help
Investigate a killing in remote Deadheart. Blink and you would miss it, Deaheart is a true small town with secrets and alliances that run deep. No one wants her there, and she just wants the truth. Is it the Vampyres destroying the community, or is it one of their own?!

This book really drug on for me… it lacked a level of suspense or thrill that I would typically expect. I had to put it down and come back to it days later so many times. I’m still a fan of the author but maybe not the biggest fan of the book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC !!

The hype over this book right now is real, and it’s deserved! I’m a long time Tudor fan (back to The Chalk Man days!) and have found her books to get better and better as she writes.

This one is making waves because it’s bringing back the vampire genre. (I know other books are doing this too, but I haven’t read them yet!) Tudor writes about Deadhart, Alaska, a small town that has a colony of vampyrs living there. Barbara comes to Deadhart to investigate a murder that looks vampyric. Her job is to determine the individual vampyr responsible and try to arrest them; if the colony tries to protect the individual, she can order a cull, which is essentially an extinguishing of the entire colony.

Points for atmosphere and pacing, as usual. Tudor writes plot driven thrillers that keep pushing the story along, and this one is no exception. The cold, isolated Alaskan town that hates her because of her job adds tension to the story. There are also snippets included that are telling someone’s story, but the reader doesn’t know who until the end of the book. (These are italicized so it’s clear when you’re at this part of the chapters.)

I think I just wanted this to be scarier. The mystery and suspense were top notch, and I’d revisit this world anytime. I think I just had higher expectations of the gore and fear than what was delivered. I’d still say The Drift (her previous novel) is my favorite of hers, but I enjoyed this one too.

On the surface, THE GATHERING is an intriguing concept: a world in which vampires (or "vampyrs") are commonly known, to the point of being part of society—if not a broadly accepted part. As detective Barbara Atkins digs into a case of vampyr-on-human violence in the small town of Deadhart, Alaska, it seems she's the only one willing to give the local vampyrs the benefit of the doubt. With this in mind, the procedural aspects of the book are fascinating. From faked video footage to long-standing grudges to a previous crime that eerily mirrors this one, there's a lot of great crime drama to dig into.

Where the story starts to fall apart, though, is in its attempt to couch vampyrs as a marginalized group in the same breath as Black, Jewish, and queer people. It runs into the same problem as the film ZOOTOPIA: the marginalized group in question have a genetic predisposition to violence, and tolerance of them balances on the knife-edge of them suppressing their natural urges. Considering our society's long history of ethnocentrism and very literal blood libel, not to mention modern anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, drawing direct parallels between our real-world marginalized groups and a bloodsucking hive mind of predators feels tone deaf. The world-building could have avoided this; but despite some long-held beliefs (being invisible in mirrors and so on) being debunked, the vampyrs of THE GATHERING fit the traditional vampire narrative in all the ways that double down on this unfortunate comparison. All of this is juxtaposed with an eleventh-hour twist that doesn't pay off nearly as much as one would hope.

While the prose of THE GATHERING is solid, and the procedural elements are strong, the social message is deeply flawed in ways that could either have been easily avoided—or, alternatively, interrogated to produce a text that's truly challenging rather than weirdly misguided.

Another captivating and thrilling story by Ms. Tudor.
I love a good vampire story and this one was quite different. It's not your run of the mill vampire story. Yes, they drink blood and some kill but these vampyr's are protected with the rights afforded to any human. When a young man is found, an obvious victim of a vampyr, the townsfolk want an all out slaughter of the vampyr colony. Forensic detective, Barbara Atkins is called on to investigate. But what she finds is as confusing to her as any case she's seen. Will Barbara be able to solve the case in time to prevent what the town desires? Or will they get their way and kill the colony...
The ending will surprise you

When this book started off I was very quickly very invested in it. I thought C.J. Tudor just did an incredible job completely transporting you to this small town. The atmosphere was impecable. I also thought the inclusion of vampyres in a premise like this one, was incredibly interesting and really well executed. I was super intrigued to see how this mystery was going to unravel itself, especially because we relatively quickly made a big breakthrough in the case.
However, that being said this book also got stagnant very quickly. After that first breakthrough it takes until the very end for anything else to happen in this book. I did still think the tension with the vampyres was interesting, but ultimately I can only read about how the townspeople really fucking hate the vampyres and want to kill them no matter what a certain amount of times before it gets really repetetive and boring. So even though I was gripped from the start, I did find myself quite bored throughout most of this book.
Then the ending also felt a bit like a bit of letdown. The reveals were really well done, and honestly I didn't even see them all coming. I just feel like they all happened a bit too close to one another as they were packed in like the last 5% of the book. Some resolutions we didn't even get to see happen on page, we're just told about them afterwards. It felt a bit like a let down. And then we also get a little something that could potentially be a teaser for a sequel. I do have interest in that though ... So maybe that will be something to check out. Yeah, in conclusion I thought this book did some things really well but it left me just a bit too bored for me to fully root for it.

Detective sent to Alaska to investigate the death of a local teen that appears to be the victim of a vampire. A coven has located outside of town and the town residents are looking for any reason to cull the herd. A solid thriller with gothic themes.

This book moved a little slow for me. I wish I could've gotten into it more. I generally love vampire/fantasy novels, but I struggled to connect with any of the characters. I was really frustrated by the frequent comments about the MFC's weight. Given the bigotry and discrimination against the vampyrs, it's hard to believe that a black man was ever sheriff of the town. I also felt that the twists and surprises were predictable. The writing style was good, but I just don't think this was the story for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC of The Gathering by C.J. Tudor. I am a big fan of C.J. Tudor and I always look forward to a new book by this author. This one did not disappoint! In a small dark and cold Alaska town, a young boy is killed. Barbara, a detective, in vampyr anthropology is sent to the town to determine who killed the boy and to prevent a vampyr uprising and conflict with the town. Chilling, fast paced and creepy, you won’t want to put this one down!

"It wasn’t just the gnawing pain in her stomach. This was something new. Yet old. Half forgotten. A sense that she was not alone. A faint murmuring in her mind. A scent, a tingling in her bones. There was someone coming. And like her, he was hungry."

In Alaska a teen is found with his throat torn, similar to a previous murder years ago. Locals blame the Colony, a group of vampires that live nearby. These vampires have sworn off killing humans in order to protect themselves, and yet someone was clearly attacked by one.

This is a cool murder mystery with vampires! CJ Tudor is an author who is always consistently good.

Thank you Random House Ballantine and netgalley for giving me an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CJ Tudor can keep you guessing like no other author! I absolutely loved Barbara and how she also grew throughout the book. This was the perfect mix of vampire, horror, thriller, and suspense. Bravo! Let's get that sequel out with a quickness!

Thank you for allowing me to read this book. I enjoyed the characters and their arcs, and found the plot interesting. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Another decent, fast paced, highly readable thriller with the trademark CJ Tudor paranormal elements. This time it’s a murder mystery where everything points to a vampyr colony that has recently returned to Deadheart, Alaska. But is a vampyr the real monster of this story?

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Definitely spooky!! CJ Tudor is a masterclass at the spookiness in books. (Someone’s head fell off in the drift!)

A police procedural novel taking place in a world where vampires are known about, live in colonies near regular towns, and have rights (for the most part..)

I enjoyed reading this one even though I don’t usually find myself drawn to vampire stories. It took a minute for me to get into it but I love a good mystery / police procedural so that definitely kept me around.

Wow this is one of those books that you will have trouble putting down to sleep, eat or go to work. 😊
This is a murder mystery like no other & a very unique Vampire story
The Gathering is a relentless thriller with a supernatural twist that you’ll find yourself getting scared. I really like vampire stories & have read a lot but this one had me scared. Thank you to the author C.J. Tudor for writing such a good thriller

2024 not only appears to be shaping up to be another banner year for outstanding, bone-chilling horror releases, but it also seems like it could be shaping up to be the Year of the Vampire. Now, I’m not trying to re-ignite any werewolf/vampire debates because truth be told, I love them both. However, I do tend to skew more toward vampire stories. There was a period where the vampire as a horror figure seemed to lose its fangs and the focus shifted more toward the romanticism around vampirism. I’m not knocking those stories, there is something alluring about the concept of immortality and the inherent seductive qualities that have long been intertwined in the mythology of vampires. But the sweet spot of a good vampire novel, for me anyway, is when those qualities are explored alongside the thrill of genuine horror. When I started putting together my list of books I wanted to read this year, I found a ton of vampire novels I was super excited about - V. Castro’s Immortal Pleasures, Rachel Harrison’s So Thirsty, Liz Kerin’s First Light, and C.J. Tudor’s The Gathering, just to name a few. So when I had an opportunity to review The Gathering, I jumped at the chance!

The Gathering focuses on Detective Barbara Atkins, one of the best forensic detectives in the Forensic Vampyr Anthropology Department as she travels to the remote Alaskan town of Deadhart to investigate the brutal murder of a local boy. He was found with his throat ripped out and his body completely drained of blood. The brutality on display reminds residents of a similar tragedy that hit the community almost twenty-five years ago. The residents immediately suspect the Colony, a group of vampyrs living in the town’s abandoned mine settlement and led by the notoriously ruthless Athelinda.

Detective Atkins is facing mounting pressure from the residents of Deadhart as well as her boss at the FVAD to authorize a cull as all signs point to this being an open and shut case, but something doesn’t quite feel right to Atkins. Determined to find the truth, she teams up with the former sheriff during the last murder, Jenson Tucker, to sift through the town’s secrets. But as the body count continues to grow and a storm threatens to cut the community off from the outside world, Atkins and Tucker must catch the killer before the powder keg of tension between the Colony and Deadhart explodes.

I’ve been a fan of C.J. Tudor and her genre-blurring novels ever since I read The Other People, and if there is one thing I have to come to expect from her novels, it’s to expect the unexpected. The Gathering is no exception as Tudor blends elements of police procedural with frightening scenes of horror to create a read that’s packed with plenty of surprises and a mystery that will keep readers furiously flipping pages long into the night. The setting of the fictitious Alaskan town of Deadhart and its long periods of night and bone-chilling climate lends the perfect atmosphere to the grisly events that unfold throughout the novel. The isolation of Deadhart and the vast wilderness surrounding the town creates a claustrophobic feeling that amplifies the tension and horror that Tudor crafts throughout the course of The Gathering.

However, the significance of Deadhart stretches beyond its physical attributes, it also plays an important role in shaping the mindset of a lot of the characters. Tudor spends a lot of time crafting the history of the town and the relationship between the residents and members of The Colony, especially the aftermath of the murders that happened 25 years ago. I don’t want to delve too deep into Deadhart’s secrets, but it’s not a spoiler to say that all of those emotions are deeply embedded in the fabric of the community and influences the actions of humans and vampyr alike.

One of my other favorite things about The Gathering was that Tudor crafted the story around the existence of vampyr’s being a well-known fact. It allowed her to still honor the traditions of vampire lore, but eliminated the need for extensive passages re-establishing the rules and bogging down the narrative. It’s also a central part of the conflict that’s at the heart of The Gathering. With knowledge that vampyrs exist, humans developed a vast array of technologies such as UV weaponry and laws that forced them to the outskirts of society. In areas like Deadhart, prejudice toward vampyrs is on full display and for many, seen as a badge of pride. Tudor’s portrayal of the townspeople’s attitudes to the Colony is sadly very close to the discrimination and hatred we see all too often in the real world and it was a powerful element of the story. However, even though hate and prejudice are main focal points, there is also a focus on redemption, as a few characters in The Gathering try to correct the mistakes of their past.

If I had one complaint, it would probably be centered around what I consider the “interlude” chapters of the novel. On their own, these chapters are actually very engaging, even if they do occasionally disrupt the flow of the main narrative. I have to be vague to avoid spoilers, but the issue with them is they seem sort of unnecessary. There is a payoff as to what these chapters are describing, but at least to me, it was a little underwhelming and left me confused as to their impact on the overall story. Those issues aside, this is another outstanding outing from Tudor and is sure to appeal to people who enjoyed True Detective: Night Country, Ronald Malfi’s Bone White, and of course, a bloody good vampire story!

I loved this book! This is my 2nd book by C.J. Tudor and wow it was well written. This was a great story involving good and evil and how they over lap. I really enjoyed the different POVs and the way they were written.

This book was immensely consuming. A murder brings Barbara Atkins to the little Alaskan town of Deadhart. (fitting name). She specializes in vampyr killings. (I love the spelling) It looks like the murder of this young man was a vampyr killing but she is not so sure. The town wants a cull, getting rid of the vampyr colony on the outskirts of town, but Barbara will not just race into that idea. There are more murders and a back history of the vampyrs and their leader Athelinda and you actually feel sorry for the vampyrs. The conclusion is thrilling and the epilogue makes you long for the next story to come.

I am not a big vampyr story lover. I had heard so many great things about this book that I had to read it. I am so glad I did. I was scratching my head throughout it. The little side story about a captive girl kept me wondering and the reveal was perfect and made so much sense.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Ballantine for a copy for review.