Amazon.com\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
With the\u00a0Dark Tide<\/em> horror novella series, Crystal Lake Publishing seems to have found a winning formula.\u00a0 Each volume has three novellas that center around a particular theme, with one story per author.\u00a0 In this case, the theme is vampires.\u00a0 Overall, it\u2019s worth the purchase: you don\u2019t need to be a Nosferatu nut to enjoy the stories.\u00a0 In order, the three stories are: ok, good, and outstanding. The last one alone (which, thankfully, is the longest) is enough to make the whole book worth it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
“Return of the Blood Feeders” by Simon Clark, deals with a strange type of Norse vampire. There’s nothing wrong with the writing or plot, but this one just didn\u2019t click for me.\u00a0 It might be because the last monster seemed a bit over-the-top, and out of place in the story: it just didn\u2019t fit.\u00a0 Other readers may feel differently.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kevin J. Kennedy’s “Perspective” is one of those stories that attempts to \u2018”humanize” vampires, and it does it well. These aren\u2019t goody two-shoes vampires like the undead in Twilight.\u00a0 <\/em>In this story, they may have human emotions like love, sadness, and loss, but they know how to kick serious ass-and serious ass they do kick!\u00a0 There is a wonderfully messy fight towards the end with vampires, werewolves, and demons ripping off heads and sending body parts raining down everywhere, a great smash of a conclusion to a well written tale.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good combination of drama, mystery, and messiness, as well as a tale of vampires trying to find a reason to exist.\u00a0 They do find it, and it\u2019s a good reason to endure immortality.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Gord Rollo’s “Beneath Still Waters\u2019” is a true house-shaker, a pure rollercoaster of excitement, from beginning to end.\u00a0 It has all the elements: a remote Canadian town with a tragic past, Native American folklore, and one very unpleasant underwater monster.\u00a0 There\u2019s a decent amount of the story that takes place on or under a remote lake, and that\u2019s where the writing really shines.\u00a0 The author knows his stuff when it comes to putting fear and excitement in underwater sequences.\u00a0 Diving can be nerve-wracking, with the claustrophobia of cave-diving and limited visibility.\u00a0 The author clearly knows this, and puts the natural dangers of diving to very good use in the story.\u00a0 There\u2019s also a good twist to the ending.\u00a0 Sure, maybe the heroes may be a bit foolish with some of their plans to stop the creature, but who cares?\u00a0 It\u2019s a thrill ride that keeps you hooked, and that\u2019s all that matters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bottom line: it\u2019s worth it.\u00a0 Recommended.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Creatures of the Night (Dark Tide, vol. 17) by Simon Clark, Kevin J. Kennedy, and Gord Rollo Crystal Lake Publishing, 2024 ISBN: 9781964398181 Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition Buy: Amazon.com\u00a0 With the\u00a0Dark Tide horror novella series, Crystal Lake Publishing seems to have found a winning formula.\u00a0 Each volume has three novellas that center around<\/p>\n
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5773,5774,749,5332,3412,5775,940,31],"class_list":["post-10433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dark-tide","tag-gord-rollo","tag-horror-books","tag-horror-novellas","tag-kevin-j-kennedy","tag-simon-clark","tag-vampire-fiction","tag-vampires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10433"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10437,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10433\/revisions\/10437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/81-1fIEkqHL._SY385_.jpg\")
<\/p>\n