‘The Night Birds’ Book Review: A Tale of Brutal & Atmospheric Witchy Horror

Christopher Golden is known throughout the horror literary world for his spooky standalone novels like Road of Bones, All Hallows, and the Bram Stoker Award-winning Ararat, as well as his novel continuations of well-known horror franchises, which include Alien, The Predator, and 19 Buffy the Vampire Slayer books.

Golden has stayed prolific, writing four solo horror books in the last four years; his newest, releasing May 6^th, 2025, is titled The Night Birds.

The Night Birds follows Charlie Book, a researcher who, along with his team of scientists, is studying the Christabel, a half-sunken 19^th-century freighter ship off the coast of Galveston, Texas. The shipwreck has a naturally formed mangrove forest growing from its hull, which has become the home for many different species, creating a blended ecosystem of rusted iron and jungle.

Book’s research comes to a halt when a massive storm rolls into Galveston, and the former love of his life, Ruby, approaches him alongside a mystery woman named Mae and a baby named Aiden. Mae explains that the baby belongs to Ruby’s sister, who had been murdered by a group of witches, dead set on sacrificing Aiden to bring their ancient goddess into the physical world. Book agrees to hide the trio in the one place he thinks no one will look: the abandoned freighter during a hurricane-level weather event.

Related: Book Review: Christopher Golden’s ‘Road of Bones’ will Freeze You to the Core

Golden does a fantastic job setting the tone with a sinister setting. It doesn’t get much creepier than a secluded ship, in the middle of a savage storm, while various indigenous birds of prey look onward through the gnarled trees.

Shipwrecks bring a whole new layer to horror, using the isolation and environmental factors as two additional obstacles to worry about. This style is unique, and when it does pop up, it’s extremely effective.

This is one reason why books like Dan Simmons’ The Terror and S.A. Barnes’ Dead Silence have become so popular.

With that being said, such an isolated story does take away from exploring some of the characters to an extent I would have liked to see. While Book and Ruby’s past is explored well throughout the story, we’re only given small bits of the supporting characters’ lives. Enough to want to know more about them, but not enough to care if and when they perish. In a couple of cases, we’re given some important backstory far too late in the novel’s run to be of interest.

However, character depth in horror books often takes a backseat to the macabre, and The Night Birds has plenty of it. It’s refreshing to get away from the more modern feel of high fantasy-style witches or high school covens; the story does a reasonably deep dive into the ancient ways of Icelandic folklore.

Related: ‘Witchcraft for Wayward Girls’ Book Review: An Important Theme, But Far from Hendrix’s Best

The night weavers, as they’re called in the novel, are unforgiving, brutal, and perfect for Golden’s typical, unrelenting knack for murdering major or beloved characters in heart-stopping ways.

Overall, while I didn’t feel like Christopher Golden achieved the level of spookiness or shock value that he reached with All Hallows and Road of Bones, The Night Birds was an extremely well-done, one-off horror story.

I typically like the characters to have a little more depth, and I enjoy a longer story, but this 289-page, well-paced banger was absolutely worth the read (3.81 on Goodreads), and another win for Golden’s standalone horror stories. If you’re in the Maine area, make sure to grab The Night Birds IPA, a collaborative beer from Orono Brewing, to celebrate the The Night Birds‘ release on May 6^th, 2025 from St. Martin’s Press.

Star Rating: 4.25/5

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