Seize the Night
Edited by Christopher Golden
Gallery Books
October, 2015
Reviewed by Jess Landry
You can probably pinpoint the exact moment when vampires stopped being scary (I’m thinking it was around the time when they started to sparkle). Well thank your lucky stars that there are those who simply do not accept that glittery fate — and their stories see to it in Seize the Night.
The list of contributing authors is enough to make any reader get the collection, regardless of subject matter. Here we have John Ajvide Lindqvist, Charlaine Harris, Laird Barron, Kelley Armstrong, Gary A. Braunbeck, Lucy A. Snyder, Scott Smith, the list of awesome goes on and on. This juicy anthology contains twenty stories and over five-hundred pages of old-school vampiric terror, the way it should be.
Some highlights from this collection include Charlaine Harris’ “Miss Fondevant,” which pretty much sums up what most students think of their teachers (and the story itself only mildly clogs the hole in my heart that True Blood once filled); “In a Cavern, in a Canyon” by Laird Barron, an Alaskan tale done in a style that only Barron can pull off; and “We Are All Monsters Here” from reigning horror queen Kelley Armstrong, in which a strong female protagonist wrestles with more than just vampires.
Plain and simple: Seize the Night is awesome. If your vampire addiction has seen too much glitter and not enough crimson, this collection is an excellent way to shake off those bloodsucker blues.
