[Book Review] Nightlife: Night Terrors By Matthew Quinn Martin & Kicking Horse Coffee 454 Horse Power

Title: Nightlife: Night Terrors
Series/Universe: Nightlife
Author: Matthew Quinn Martin
Publisher: Pocket Star
Publication date: July 6th 2015
Page Count: 800 pages
Age Rating: Adult (language, violence, blood, gore, disturbing imagery)
How I got my hot little hands on it: Received an ARC to review
Publisher’s page: Nightlife: Night Terrors

“Doesn’t get any darker than this; you can actually feel the blood spatter…” –Hugo & Nebula winner James Patrick Kelly

Enter the world of Nightlife, where the streets crawl with unimaginable demons, and a monster can lurk behind every friendly face…

Matthew Quinn Martin first terrified horror fans with Nightlife, the captivating story of two unlikely monster hunters determined to save the city of New Harbor from the Night Angels—bloodthirsty creatures that feed on the forgotten. Jack Jackson and Beth Becker are among the few who can see these creatures for what they really are, but as they hunt the creatures, a mysterious organization known only as The Division is hunting them.

In the novella Hazardous Material, we get a glimpse of The Division’s origins and aims, when a young man stumbles onto a long-abandoned video arcade—which three decades ago was the site of the largest mass shooting in New York history—and unwittingly uncovers a relic of unimaginable power and mind-altering terror.

And in the never-before-released As the Worm Turns, Jack and Beth are back, along with their faithful dog, Blood. For months they’ve been keeping just one step ahead of The Division, whose enigmatic leader has been pursuing them with the single-minded obsession to capture them by any means necessary. But as Jack and Beth continue their quest to rid the world of the creatures once and for all they find themselves facing off against something even more terrifying than the Night Angels––something that could hold the key to humanity’s salvation…or its doom.

Three amazing horror stories in one chilling bundle…the only thing you won’t fear is the price!

“Thrilling, edgy, and scary as hell, Matthew Quinn Martin’s Nightlife is an outstanding debut and––along with Justin Cronin’s The Passage and Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels––it’s also one of the most original takes on the vampire novel I’ve ever read.” —Jason Starr, International Bestselling Author of The Pack

My Review

Nightlife: Night Terrors bundles together three stories, two novel length and one novella length, set in the Nightlife series. The well-written horror series follows veteran monster hunter Jack Jackson and novice Beth Becker as they seek out and kill bloodsucking creatures who feast on humans for their blood, and The Division, a secret organization hunting both the creatures and Jack & Beth.

In Nightlife, Beth starts out ignorant to the existence of “The Night Angels”, creatures who kill humans and drink their blood, until people close to her start going missing. Beth’s search for answers brings her into the path of Jack, a seasoned hunter of the creatures. The two team up in their shared mission to eradicate the deadly killing machines prowling the streets of New Harbor. Nightlife is a bit slow in the beginning and takes a while to build momentum. There are several threads, and several different points of view, that are slowly woven together to set the story up. Well-written and unsettling, but pretty light on horror and gore throughout.

In Nightlife: Hazardous Materials, a guy stumbles upon an old Polybius game cabinet and gets pulled into a nightmare when he tries to play it. This novella takes the urban legend of the Polybius arcade game, a highly addictive game said to cause blackouts, amnesia, and night terrors before being removed from arcades by “men in black” types, and weaves it into a tale of The Division, giving us a closer look at the secret organization only vaguely touched upon in Nightlife, as well as a peek into some of their earlier methods. (Check out my more in-depth review of this novella: Nightlife: Hazardous Materials)

Nightlife: As The Worm Turns hits the ground running and never lets up. The imagery is much more disturbing and the kills exponentially more gory – this book is horror at its finest. Jack and Beth are still hunting the same bloodsucking creatures, struggling to stay one step ahead of The Division’s relentless pursuit. Although Jack and Beth are still the main POV’s, a lot of time is spent seeing things from the perspective of Division agents as well, providing some answers about who The Division is and just what it is they want.

Great action, great horror, and wholly unique monsters – I really enjoyed all three books in this bundle and would absolutely read more books by this author and in this series.

Kicking Horse Coffee 454 Horse Power – deeply earthy and boldly strong, this dark roast coffee is the perfect embodiment of Jack Jackson and Beth Becker in their single-minded, tireless, deadly quest to hunt down and eradicate the blood sucking creatures plaguing humanity.