Queen of All the Nightbirds

From the very beginning, readers will know this novel is not going to have a happy ending. The framing story is the main character, Eric Lynch, in the present day recounting a tale from his teenage days. Present-day Eric is institutionalized, paralyzed, and considered delusional and insane by his caretakers as he recounts the events that led to his present circumstances. This opening makes it clear that the novel is dark and will not end well for teenaged Eric and his friends. Eric is a crude and crass narrator, emphasizing how self-absorbed and shallow he was as a teenager. He and his friends are not terribly likable, and readers are given the impression that, to some extent, they got what they deserved.

As teenagers, Eric and his friends are awkward misfits who live mostly to get drunk and listen to their favourite music. Eric’s story begins with the arrival of a new girl, Rebecca, at the beginning of his final year of high school. Rebecca is everything he has ever dreamed of in a woman; she is beautiful, sexy, and interested in the same music he and his friends are obsessed with. And she is inexplicably dating his equally awkward best friend Doug. Soon Rebecca is firmly a part of their friend group, and Eric’s other friend, Stan, is as obsessed with her as Doug is. Only the fourth in their quartet, Mick, is not completely taken with her. Initially, Eric is also under Rebecca’s sway, but he starts to get visions and visitations from a dark, forgotten event in his, Doug’s, and Stan’s past that allow him to start to see through Rebecca’s beguiling charm to the monster she is underneath. Eric realizes that Rebecca is connected to a tragic event in their past and that she will stop at nothing until she has all three of them completely in her sway. When other friends start dying, Eric realizes that, no matter the cost, he must stop Rebecca.

Queen of all the Nightbirds is a quick and somewhat dissatisfying read. The opening frame story spoils the ending by suggesting that all of Eric’s friends end up dead, thereby removing a lot of the suspense from the story. Eric’s narration has a knowing, callous attitude that reads as stereotypical teenage boy and starts to feel unimaginative and cliché after awhile. The novel is slow to start but eventually becomes a page-turner in the second half, once Rebecca’s origins are revealed. Overall, Queen of all the Nightbirds is more creepy than scary and probably would not be scary enough to satisfy a true fan of horror.