Weird Fiction, Weird Ending: Children of the Night

After so many many months of broadening my horizons in favor of more contemporary fiction, I needed a return to form, and chose John Blackburn's Children of the Night to kick things off. Weird, inexplicable events in an insulated English town, past massacres, and the hint of a heretical Christian cult? What's not to like?

I did like this story, very much. The investigative aspects, where people are trying to figure out the root of all these strange goings-on was well done, and I actually wanted to see more of that (this is a rather short book).

The fear of going into the subterannean caves and discovering the true cause behind these events was appropriately terrifying, but again, I've become so accustomed to longer works that I felt that the tension could have been teased out for much longer. That, and I thought the resolution was a bit more on the bizarre side than I was expecting. I was expecting something a bit more supernatural, a bit more steeped in the past than what I got. Either way, even that part felt rushed.

No matter - nothing will deter me from soaking up more classics in the months to come!

K. Rating: 3/5