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The Night Birds

A Novel

ebook
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: Not available

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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    • Library Journal

      February 21, 2025

      Bestselling Stoker Award winner Golden (The House of Last Resort) sets his latest in Galveston, TX, where Charlie lives on an old, half-sunken freighter. As a storm approaches, his ex, Ruby, arrives, accompanied by a mysterious woman who's on the run with an infant. Ruby asks Charlie to hide them on the ship from the police--and a coven of witches--that are after them. Prepub Alert.

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from April 1, 2025
      Ruby Cahill and Charlie Book broke up almost two years ago, but during a hurricane, Ruby unexpectedly appears, a woman and baby in tow, at the Galveston dock where Charlie is about to take shelter on the sunken ship where he commands a team studying the mangrove forest that has taken root there. Ruby and the woman, who is Ruby's estranged (and now dead) sister's partner, are on the run from an ancient coven of witches, who will stop at nothing to get the baby. The Night Birds is drenched with unease from the opening pages, and Golden (Road of Bones, 2022) takes readers on a bleak but captivating ride, told over one harrowing night and shifting points of view to allow the characters to develop organically without ever sacrificing the quick pace. Heartbreakingly beautiful, filled with action, evil, shape-shifting witches, superior world building, and visceral terror, this is a tale where every detail matters, and readers' emotions will be put through the wringer--but not left without hope. A strong choice for horror or thriller readers, this story will ring the most true in the space where fans of Thomas Olde Heuvelt's Hex (2016) overlap with Jenny Kiefer's This Wretched Valley (2024).

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Languages

  • English

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