The Night Birds, Christopher Golden
The Night Birds, Christopher Golden
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Night Birds

Author: Christopher Golden

Narrator: Patricia Santomasso, Sean Patrick Hopkins

Unabridged: 9 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/06/2025


Synopsis

The next gripping, atmospheric horror novel from NYT 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, they never expected to see each other again, but when terror enters Ruby’s life, Charlie Book is the only safe harbor she can believe in.
In his work for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Book has been living aboard and studying the Christabel, a 19th century freighter that lies half-sunken in Gulf waters, just 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, full of birds, crabs, and snakes. Though a powerful storm churns through the Gulf, Book intends to sleep on board as usual.
But when he arrives at the dock, preparing to motor out to the Christabel, he’s stunned to find Ruby there waiting for him. And Ruby’s not alone. With her are a mysterious, terrified woman named Johanna and an infant child. They need 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 the coven of witches Johanna has fled, stealing away the helpless infant for whom they had hideous plans…or so Johanna claims.
It’s lunacy. 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, back in Galveston there are shadowed figures out in the storm, sniffing the air like bloodhounds. And despite the worsening wind and rain, the night birds are flying, scouring the coastline as if searching for their prey.

About Christopher Golden

Christopher Golden is the New York Times bestselling author of Of Saints and Shadows, The Myth Hunters, The Boys Are Back in Town, and Snowblind. He has edited the anthologies The New Dead, The Monster's Corner, and 21st Century Dead. Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, cowritten with Mike Mignola, launched the Eisner Award-nominated comic book series Baltimore.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on May 21, 2025

He watched the tangled black silhouettes of the floating mangrove forest. The broken masts and the one remaining smokestack looked like the ruins of a lost city in the jungle. The wind bent branches so that it looked as if things were moving up there. Moving, slipping from one tree to the next, w......more

Goodreads review by Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) on May 18, 2025

2.5 Stars I found this horror novel to be quite underwhelming. I have read novels by this author before and I expected a fun easy page turner. Unfortunately this one fell flat for me. I found the characters to be flat and honestly found the plot uninteresting. I didn't expect or need to one to be a n......more

Goodreads review by Becky on April 01, 2025

Review in the April 1 & 15, 2025 issue of Booklist and on the blog: [URL not allowed] (link live on 4/3/25) Three Words That Describe This Book: pervasive unease, multiple povs, captivating A perfect example of a Horror-Thriller. More words: trapped, witches, balance of characte......more