Christopher Golden is without doubt one of the most prolific and revered horror writers of the previous couple of many years. He’s appreciated within the horror group and is one thing of a author’s author. He bangs out high quality novels and tales in a well timed trend and his newest (Could 2025) is The Evening Birds. The novel is a Locked room/bottle story about reunited lovers, witchcraft, and a child.
Charlie Ebook and Ruby Cahill have historical past. After their love led to heartbreak, they by no means anticipated to see one another once more, however when terror enters Ruby’s life, Charlie Ebook is the one secure harbor she will consider in.
In his work for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Division, Ebook has been residing aboard and finding out the Christabel, a nineteenth century freighter that lies half-sunken in Gulf waters, simply off the shore of Galveston. Over a few years, an enormous forest of mangrove timber has grown up by way of the deck of the ship, making a startlingly stunning enigma Ebook calls the Floating Forest, filled with birds, crabs, and snakes. Although a strong storm churns by way of the Gulf, Ebook intends to sleep on board as regular.
However when he arrives on the dock, making ready to motor out to the Christabel, he’s shocked to search out Ruby there ready for him. And Ruby’s not alone. Along with her are a mysterious, terrified girl named Johanna and an toddler baby. They want Ebook to cover them safely aboard the Christabel whereas they’re on the run, solely it isn’t the police who’re after them. It’s the coven of witches Johanna has fled, stealing away the helpless toddler for whom that they had hideous plans…or so Johanna claims.
It’s lunacy. Ebook needs nothing to do with it. However after the way in which he and Ruby ended issues, and the unstated ache between them, he can’t refuse. But at the same time as he brings them out to the ruined ship and its floating forest, again in Galveston there are shadowed figures out within the storm, sniffing the air like bloodhounds. And regardless of the worsening wind and rain, the evening birds are flying, scouring the shoreline as if looking for their prey.
Charlie Ebook (most individuals name him Ebook) is a scientist residing aboard the Cristabel, a 19th Century freighter that has been run aground on the shoreline of Galveston, Texas for over 100 years. That’s lengthy sufficient to develop an ecosystem, which Charlie research. He leads a workforce of scientists who stay close to the ship, whereas Ebook truly lives on the ship. He’s pretty content material along with his secluded life, however simply when a hurricane-level storm hits, his previous girlfriend Ruby arrives. Ruby will not be alone, along with her is a lady (Mae) who was the girlfriend of Ruby’s sister Bella and Bella’s child Aiden. Ruby, Mae, and Aiden have been on the run for a few days and are looking for shelter. They’re being chased by witches…a coven of witches that dates again to pre-biblical instances and these witches…led by an Ur-Witch (as within the first witch earlier than all different witches) who has sinister designs on Aiden.
The opposite scientists outdoors the Cristabel Ebook works with who aren’t resistant to the powers of the storm and the witches of their makes an attempt to get to Aiden. These secondary characters have sufficient growth to have weight and generate emotion because the witches discover them of their cross-hairs.
A 12 months or so previous to the opening of the novel, a tragic occasion despatched Ruby and Charlie their separate methods considering they’d by no means see one another once more so Charlie is shocked to see her and with a wierd girl and child in tow. There loads of feelings they’re each making an attempt to type by way of their in a particularly tense scenario. That’s the acquainted “trope” of the story – tense relationship beneath the microscope in a harrowing scenario. What makes this case distinctive is the setting, a rusted, enclosed ship and the character of the witches. The mythology that fuels the backstory of Golden’s witches is from Iceland, not one thing usually encountered in tales about witches and the Evening Birds which lend their identify to the title of the novel. This mythology retains issues attention-grabbing.
Add these occasions into the combination, together with the briskly paced narrative and plotting and also you’ve received one hell of a thrill experience. The chaos flows, forcing the pages to show whereas permitting a mounting dread to construct up at a measured tempo. It’s a unusual dichotomy of simmering dread and brisk motion, however Golden’s talent is in how properly he manages to tug off that contradiction.
I favored the characters, I discovered myself empathizing with them to a degree. That time is that this: a few of what Ruby was projecting onto Ebook didn’t really feel 100% real. It didn’t fairly really feel like what Ruby was saying he was doing or how he was reacting was precisely how he reacted. Granted it was that previous expertise they shared was an emotionally painful scenario and grief works in unusual methods, however I felt it was barely hole. That mentioned, all the pieces else Golden did with the characters labored very properly for me and rooting for them towards the Ur-Witch and her coven had me very a lot on their facet.
Golden has spun one other harrowing, darkish, horrific story that takes a few surprising turns alongside the way in which. Whereas I haven’t taken a really deep dive into Golden’s oeuvre, every e book I learn from him encourages me to take that dive and acquaint myself his earlier novels.
Really helpful
© 2025 Rob H. Bedford
Writer: St. Martin’s Pres | Could 2025
Hardcover 304 pages
Excerpt: Click on Right here
https://www.christophergolden.com/
Overview copy courtesy of the writer, St. Martin’s Press
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