Horror Book Review: Blood Night by Jonathan Daniel

Just in time for Halloween, American author Jonathan Daniel has released his latest novel, a gore soaked and tense slasher titled Blood Night.

Jonathan Daniel is an indie horror author hailing from Birmingham, Alabama. Crediting the receipt of a copy of Stephen King‘s Pet Semetary at a young age as inspiration, he has always wanted to entertain through terrifying stories and has released dark and monstrous stories like The Uninvited, and The Killing Tide as well as having several short pieces published in various magazines such as Black Petals, The Harrow and Lullaby Hearse.

No reason. No remorse. It’s June, 1987, and with the single flip of a coin, Death has come to the quiet town of Elden Mills.

No one is safe; a flicker of movement or a sudden noise is all it takes to draw his attention. Lurking in the shadows behind a pale mask, he is driven by the need to fill the streets with blood and screams.

If he sees you, you’re dead.

Blood Night is set in a small town called Elden Mills in 1987 but one that doesn’t scream neon. It’s very much a gritty, set in reality type of book. The town itself is one of those towns that appears to be on it’s last legs. Existing really because of the mill there where pretty much everyone works, or in the handful of shops left on the dark and tired streets. One such resident was Morgan Bell. Our main character within a host of other well fleshed out characters.

Morgan Bell fled Elden Mills and everyone who cared about her after a life-shattering assault by another resident of the town, when she also worked in the mill. This led her down a terribly sad path as she treats herself like a piece of meat, trying to find meaning, closure or anything to grasp on to. As her torrid time continues, a moment of realisation dawns on her and she decides it is time for a change. Time to run again. But for the intervention of a friend, who knows where she would have ended up?

A conversation with that enlightened friend makes her realise she will never find peace unless she returns to Elden Mills, faces her attacker and explains her disappearance to her family and friends. She needs closure. So, one last time, she runs – she leaves her boyfriend Garratt and her pained existence behind and returns to the place she was born, grew up, then died inside.

Unfortunately for Morgan, she is not the only one who has decided to visit Elden Mills though. With a cold and calm demeanour, sitting at his car at an intersection, the driver flips a coin to decide whether to go left to Elden Mills or right to Holly Pond. The calm and almost indifferent way he chooses to head to Elden Mills is instantly scary as he heads left in his Ford with his weapon and mask riding as passenger beside him.

Within the town itself, there is disquiet. A meeting held at the mill informs everyone who works there that the place is too close imminently. This does not go down well. People’s livelihoods are thrown into chaos and the town itself can’t survive when it’s only real source of employment is to go. With emotions running high, some now ex employees decide to take a bit of revenge on those at the top of the chain in the mill, adding their spice to the simmering cauldron of chaos ready to boil over at Elden Mills.

The town is really at a troubled point, with a small and reasonably ineffective police force now trying to contain the frustration from the mill closure, cover their general policing duties and that’s as our mystery driver arrives in town. All the ingredients are laid out and the story, very quickly and very early, goes into overdrive.

Morgan arrives back, nervous and tense but finds her own self hatred is not mirrored with the friends and family she left behind. It’s emotional, and beautiful, watching her connect back with her Mum, Dad and brother as well as some old friends. An additional undercurrent of fear comes to us as readers as we see her assailant from the past, the loathsome Geordie Dupont, also sees Morgan arrive back in town and rather than maybe be worried he is going to get found out, gets excited and sees it as an opportunity for a round 2.

Meanwhile, our masked aggressor moves from house to house, with machine like efficiency. With no discrimination between age or gender, he brutally hammers all within the house to obliteration. He does not look to hide what he does, nor cover his tracks. He moves in and hides in the shadows, waiting to strike and then with ruthless intensity, he destroys everyone within before leaving, and looking for his next target. The strength and force displayed, along with how quickly he drops bodies leaves the town’s police force unable to cope. Even with County Police called in to help, the bodies fall quickly.

The town is angry and mobs march in the streets. Morgan reconnects and seeks closure in a town collapsing around her. It’s only a matter of time before her, and her loved ones, become targets of the killer. He seems unstoppable – otherworldly in his commitment to his trade and as hardened as Morgan may have become, her return to Elden Mills seems destined to end in disaster.

Blood Night is one hell of a ride. Intense and brutal, the story takes little time to breath with our first victims falling almost instantly. It’s a gory story, with intimately described deaths and the blood flows freely and regularly. That alone makes Blood Night a fiery and furious read that will have you on edge, and, with so much happening, make sure you have to stay up late and keep turning that next page.

Where Jonathan Daniel has really killed it, is the stories within the story and the characters. Blood Night has an insane amount of interesting characters that are really well developed. The despicable Geordie Dupont is scary enough already. Then, we have the story of the mill closure and the anger that flows through the town because of it. The flash mobs that seek vengeance. We have the loving parents, who have lived a lie about their daughter’s leaving so as to avoid shame in such a small town. The tired and frustrated police force. Old friends, ex boyfriends. It’s a full story before we even get to ether Morgan, or our mystery masked fiend.

Morgan’s story is heart wrenching. The things that poor girl has been through, and has pit herself through because of it, are shocking and sad and her inner strength, while she can’t always see it, is admirable. I genuinely cared deeply for her and found myself rooting for her massively and that adds so much to the story. As for our mystery man, there are definite shades of Michael Myers here I found. The mask, the brutality of his attacks and the cold, almost indifference he has as he stalks and kills all he comes across. It’s old school and the small moments of inner monologue we get from him adds even more to the mystery surrounding him.

The way he refers to humans as “things” made me often wonder if he was a man at all. I think he was. Just one that was disconnected completely from himself and us but it adds more layers as I found myself trying to understand what made him the way he was and what his motivations were.

Jonathan Daniel’s Blood Night is on the face of it, a straight up slasher that will scare and sicken – a perfect Halloween read but it has depth and class through a host of interesting characters with well thought out back stories. Blood night would have been a fun read even just based on the slasher element but by having characters in here that you care about, the tension and dread is raised massively. It’s a must read for this Halloween but fans of horror writing should be grabbing a copy of this for any time of the year. Just make sure you have locked your windows and doors before starting it.

Jonathan Daniel Links

Website – Amazon – GoodReads – Facebook – Instagram