The Shapes of Night

by Mary SanGiovanni

Sometimes, in Bloomwood County, New Jersey, children go missing. Sometimes those children die. And sometimes, strange and alien shapes of night resurrect the bodies of those children for their own.

When Tim Jenkins has a terrible vision of one of his former students, Charlie Bentner, being mangled to death, he seeks Charlie out and unknowingly entangles both of them in a battle against time and space itself, a race against the shapes to stop an evil from entering our world and changing its geometry forever.

136 pages, Paperback

Published March 16, 2023

About the author

Mary SanGiovanni is the author of over twenty books in horror and supernatural thrillers. Her fiction has appeared in periodicals and anthologies for the last decade. She has a Masters degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, Pittsburgh, where she studied under genre greats. She is currently a member of The Authors Guild, The International Thriller Writers, and Penn Writers, and was previously an Active member in the Horror Writers Association.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Shapes of Night is a fun novel of cosmic horror with some interesting quirks and turns. A group of young people open a portal that allows access to our world to a group of geometrically-named beings that embark on a spree of mayhem. It's what Edwin Abbott might have come up with if he'd written Freddie Krueger instead of Flatland. Their former teacher and their friendly neighborhood weed dealer join forces with them in order to try to save the day. It's not a part of her Hollowers series, though they're mentioned several times, so it must be the same world. There were a couple of things that I didn't like; there's a time re-set event that didn't make sense to me, and I thought the teacher's relationship with his wife needed some more exploration, but I enjoyed the read. It's a well-written story that opens with: "The night it started Tim Jenkins walked into the screaming mouth of sin to save a tall, skinny fang of a boy from a nebulous but probable death." which strikes me as an absolutely killer first line. And the the ending is great, too, a long low liner over the left field wall for a walk-off win that left me with a grin for the rest of the afternoon.

[Alyce Lomax · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wouldn’t say this book is technically bad at all, but something about it acted like an Ambien for me. Maybe the writing was too dense somehow, and didn’t bring enough interest? I have no idea. I read before bed and repeatedly over quite a few nights, about 5 minutes in I would literally fall asleep with it in my hand, including a night when I had definitely had enough sleep the night before so the theory that it was sheer exhaustion didn’t work. I finally gave up even though I was almost finished. The premise was interesting but I think it was just the writing style that for whatever reason made me narcoleptic, and since reading is my nightly escapism continuing to slog through 5 minute intervals just wasn’t working for me.

[Zach Hilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Good short cosmic horror reminiscent of HP Lovecraft, the shapes are menacing but even they cower to the mind bending destructive force that follows them
Easy to read prose that doesn’t get boring and characters you loathe and love in equal measure

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! This is the first story i read by Mary. Great ending. Very much recommend! Halfway through i went out and bought The Hollower trilogy and plan to buy the rest of her books.

[Ctgt · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Subtly creepy, what a wonderful cosmic horror novella. Highly recommended.

[Adam Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the creepiest kids you will ever read about in an awesome cosmic horror wrapping.