Review of THE GATHERING by C. J. Tudor

Release April 9.

In a vague way, now looking back at the story, there is some resonance to True Detective: Night Country; but all the kudos in that comparison belong to C. J. Tudor and THE GATHERING. This novel is one of those exceptional stories that is not read, then immediately forgotten: the multi-layers in this are so many and so deep I expect to be considering them months from now, maybe years. Ms. Tudor has accomplished here not only a work of stunning Horror, she has made the "monstrous" (monstrous from the humans' viewpoint) both real and accessible, and amazingly, comprehensible. I didn't have to wait till the end to find my takeaway: as frightening as is the concept of actual vampirism existing in mundane reality, far more terrifying is the pervasive existence of human evil, manifesting in many various forms. Just writing this review I'm experiencing chills.