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Night Songs
Victim of a thwarted love and a near suicide, Colin Ross searches for peace on Haven's End island, but an ancient evil force surfaces to wreak its vengeance on the islanders
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
9 people are currently reading
256 people want to read
About the author
Charles L. Grant
309 books263 followersCharles Lewis Grant was a novelist and short story writer specializing in what he called "dark fantasy" and "quiet horror." He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Geoffrey Marsh, Lionel Fenn, Simon Lake, Felicia Andrews, and Deborah Lewis.
Grant won a World Fantasy Award for his novella collection Nightmare Seasons, a Nebula Award in 1976 for his short story "A Crowd of Shadows", and another Nebula Award in 1978 for his novella "A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye," the latter telling of an actor's dilemma in a post-literate future. Grant also edited the award winning Shadows anthology, running eleven volumes from 1978-1991. Contributors include Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, R.A. Lafferty, Avram Davidson, and Steve Rasnic and Melanie Tem. Grant was a former Executive Secretary and Eastern Regional Director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and president of the Horror Writers Association.
Grant won a World Fantasy Award for his novella collection Nightmare Seasons, a Nebula Award in 1976 for his short story "A Crowd of Shadows", and another Nebula Award in 1978 for his novella "A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye," the latter telling of an actor's dilemma in a post-literate future. Grant also edited the award winning Shadows anthology, running eleven volumes from 1978-1991. Contributors include Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, R.A. Lafferty, Avram Davidson, and Steve Rasnic and Melanie Tem. Grant was a former Executive Secretary and Eastern Regional Director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and president of the Horror Writers Association.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 17, 2023
Grant is famous for his slow-burn horror which normally I really enjoy, but Night Songs gave new meaning to slow and the burn was more of a fizzle. Our main protagonist, Colin Ross, teaches art on a small island off the New Jersey coast, home to maybe a few hundred hardy folks. Grant takes his time here introducing a variety of small town characters (the local cops, the ferryman, the town doc, etc.) and their relations among one another. In particular, we are introduced to one Gran, an ancient transplant from 'the islands' in the Caribbean and his 18 y.o. granddaughter Lilla; the two run a small snack shack on the island.
Most of the novel takes place in just a few days, starting with the death of old Gran. The islanders have a long tradition of sea burial and eventually Gran goes the same way. Via backstory and flashbacks, however, we learn that the once kind, smart and sassy Lilla has been acting really strange and out of character for the last several months, roaming around at night singing strange, haunting songs (hence the title). Meanwhile, Grant exhaustively plots around some island romances, the potential for a mafia-backed casino coming to the island supported by a hotel/restaurant owner (and opposed by Colin) and the coming mayoral election to decide the issue.
Night Songs felt primarily like an island soap opera, and if that is what you are in the mood for, this will fit the bill nicely. Ever so slowly, eventually, however, we get to the foo, which involves zombies, but I will stop on the plotting to avoid spoilers. I will say, however, that of all the zombie books I have read, this one has to be the most boring. After about the halfway point, I kept checking repeatedly to see how many pages are left. Yes, there are some good scenes here but I really wanted more horror and less drama. 2.5 meh stars, rounding up for GR.
Most of the novel takes place in just a few days, starting with the death of old Gran. The islanders have a long tradition of sea burial and eventually Gran goes the same way. Via backstory and flashbacks, however, we learn that the once kind, smart and sassy Lilla has been acting really strange and out of character for the last several months, roaming around at night singing strange, haunting songs (hence the title). Meanwhile, Grant exhaustively plots around some island romances, the potential for a mafia-backed casino coming to the island supported by a hotel/restaurant owner (and opposed by Colin) and the coming mayoral election to decide the issue.
Night Songs felt primarily like an island soap opera, and if that is what you are in the mood for, this will fit the bill nicely. Ever so slowly, eventually, however, we get to the foo, which involves zombies, but I will stop on the plotting to avoid spoilers. I will say, however, that of all the zombie books I have read, this one has to be the most boring. After about the halfway point, I kept checking repeatedly to see how many pages are left. Yes, there are some good scenes here but I really wanted more horror and less drama. 2.5 meh stars, rounding up for GR.
June 19, 2015
A perfectly serviceable novel, but unfortunately, not one of my favorite Charles Grant works. Nothing wrong with, really - I guess I just don't like any kind of (spoiler) zombie novel, even one written by one of my favorite authors.
August 4, 2008
One of my favorites by Grant.
July 29, 2016
I've mentioned before that I get songs stuck in my head from book titles that are the same as or similar to songs I know. I was a Cinderella fan when I was in high school, so of course as I was reading this book, I had "Night Songs" playing on my mental stereo. I suppose it could have been worse -- at least the book wasn't titled Talk Dirty to Me.
This is a zombie novel, but you wouldn't know that from reading the blurb of the book or even from the first half of the book. Like any Grant novel, there's definitely something weird going on, and you know that from early in the story, but you don't really know what, specifically, it is until you've read that far. You're not even certain what the real threat of the story is until you're past page 100.
Once you've figured out this is a zombie story, you spend another quarter of the novel reading about all the characters who unknowingly try to rescue the people they know. During this time, we get an inkling of what's causing this sudden zombification, but for the most part, the story becomes all about showing the tragedy of people being killed by the remains of their loved one. It becomes a little tedious and repetitive at that point, and then there's only a quarter of the novel left to see how the protagonists are going to get out of this mess. Grant's usual slow build-up doesn't work quite as well in a more plot-driven story.
One thing I've noticed in Grant's fiction is that it's populated by white characters. I suppose most of the fiction I read can be characterized that way, but if a non-white character shows up in one of Grant's books, it's because he's using them as a plot point. The Egyptians in The Long Night of the Grave are understandable, but using Native Americans in The Curse and now Haitians in Night Songs is strictly so Grant can exploit the mythologies of those people. It's a little disappointing, but then again, these books are from the 1970s and '80s; I'm not sure diversity was a goal for the fiction of that time.
Despite all that, I still found something to like out of the book. Aside from the hokey story, Grant manages to capture the isolation of the setting (the entire story takes place on a small island), and I'm still pretty amazed at how well he can capture a setting with just a few choice placements of words. Once the plot got going, I stayed engaged, and I felt more of a connection with his protagonists in this book than I have with his previous books.
I'm still not sure if Grant is a writer for just anyone. His style takes some getting used to, and his pacing is very different from modern bestsellers. He's still a compelling writer, and I would recommend him to fans of horror who are looking for something different from all the rest of the horror out there, but it's hard to recommend a single book out of all he wrote.
This is a zombie novel, but you wouldn't know that from reading the blurb of the book or even from the first half of the book. Like any Grant novel, there's definitely something weird going on, and you know that from early in the story, but you don't really know what, specifically, it is until you've read that far. You're not even certain what the real threat of the story is until you're past page 100.
Once you've figured out this is a zombie story, you spend another quarter of the novel reading about all the characters who unknowingly try to rescue the people they know. During this time, we get an inkling of what's causing this sudden zombification, but for the most part, the story becomes all about showing the tragedy of people being killed by the remains of their loved one. It becomes a little tedious and repetitive at that point, and then there's only a quarter of the novel left to see how the protagonists are going to get out of this mess. Grant's usual slow build-up doesn't work quite as well in a more plot-driven story.
One thing I've noticed in Grant's fiction is that it's populated by white characters. I suppose most of the fiction I read can be characterized that way, but if a non-white character shows up in one of Grant's books, it's because he's using them as a plot point. The Egyptians in The Long Night of the Grave are understandable, but using Native Americans in The Curse and now Haitians in Night Songs is strictly so Grant can exploit the mythologies of those people. It's a little disappointing, but then again, these books are from the 1970s and '80s; I'm not sure diversity was a goal for the fiction of that time.
Despite all that, I still found something to like out of the book. Aside from the hokey story, Grant manages to capture the isolation of the setting (the entire story takes place on a small island), and I'm still pretty amazed at how well he can capture a setting with just a few choice placements of words. Once the plot got going, I stayed engaged, and I felt more of a connection with his protagonists in this book than I have with his previous books.
I'm still not sure if Grant is a writer for just anyone. His style takes some getting used to, and his pacing is very different from modern bestsellers. He's still a compelling writer, and I would recommend him to fans of horror who are looking for something different from all the rest of the horror out there, but it's hard to recommend a single book out of all he wrote.
June 15, 2018
First book by Grant; won't be last.
March 29, 2015
A refreshingly original take on the zombie story. Impressive!
March 5, 2022
A beautifully written but ultimately tedious horror novel.
Grant has a lovely style of writing and his prose is intensely elegant and engaging, but the story itself was sluggishly uninvolved. There was a lot of waiting around for something to happen, and the payoff hardly warranted the patience. Mostly off-page slaughtering that resulted in a lot of sighing from this reader since with a body count this high I’d have expected a solid kill scene or two.
There’s some great visual descriptions of the island amidst the storm, and a decent encapsulation of small island living, but all that only added up to a couple of really well crafted horror set pieces and not much else.
I was also not really expecting a zombie novel? The cover of the book, the description of the plot, all had me convinced (and looking for) a story about mermaids or sirens. Not voodoo or hoodoo zombie things. That was a bit disappointing but even once I shifted focus to a novel of that type my complaints and issues were the same. There wasn’t nearly enough carnage for all the buildup. There were also a lot of shitty characters that I was really looking forward to meeting some grisly ends, but I got none of that. A real bummer.
However, I did like Grant’s style and writing enough to be interested in seeking out some of his other horror offerings. The guy has a pretty solid bibliography and I’m sure there’s gotta be a few in there that’ll entertain me a bit more consistently and thoroughly than this one did.
Also, as someone who has written 3 horror novels and a few shorts and cannot for the life of me find (or afford) an editor the amount of typos and mistakes in this novel is breathtaking in the most absurd way. I can’t get my stuff edited to send to agents but the homie Grant here just said fuck all that, they’ll use context clues. Impressively constructed approach and intensely frustrating. Much like the book itself.
Grant has a lovely style of writing and his prose is intensely elegant and engaging, but the story itself was sluggishly uninvolved. There was a lot of waiting around for something to happen, and the payoff hardly warranted the patience. Mostly off-page slaughtering that resulted in a lot of sighing from this reader since with a body count this high I’d have expected a solid kill scene or two.
There’s some great visual descriptions of the island amidst the storm, and a decent encapsulation of small island living, but all that only added up to a couple of really well crafted horror set pieces and not much else.
I was also not really expecting a zombie novel? The cover of the book, the description of the plot, all had me convinced (and looking for) a story about mermaids or sirens. Not voodoo or hoodoo zombie things. That was a bit disappointing but even once I shifted focus to a novel of that type my complaints and issues were the same. There wasn’t nearly enough carnage for all the buildup. There were also a lot of shitty characters that I was really looking forward to meeting some grisly ends, but I got none of that. A real bummer.
However, I did like Grant’s style and writing enough to be interested in seeking out some of his other horror offerings. The guy has a pretty solid bibliography and I’m sure there’s gotta be a few in there that’ll entertain me a bit more consistently and thoroughly than this one did.
Also, as someone who has written 3 horror novels and a few shorts and cannot for the life of me find (or afford) an editor the amount of typos and mistakes in this novel is breathtaking in the most absurd way. I can’t get my stuff edited to send to agents but the homie Grant here just said fuck all that, they’ll use context clues. Impressively constructed approach and intensely frustrating. Much like the book itself.
September 29, 2019
Voodoo zombies, mafia, and island politics combine in Charles Grant's Night Songs. Grant's descriptions of people and places are highly detailed and memorable; however, the novel could have benefited from better pacing, especially the drawn out ending.
August 14, 2024
The island of Haven’s End is a tourist site in summer and a fishery the rest of the time, on the Atlantic coast of New England. There an itinerant art teacher, Colin Ross, is slowly recovering from the loss of his second wife and tentatively wooing a local divorcee, Peg Fletcher and her son Matt. When a local identity, Gran D’Grou dies at age 92, he is buried at sea as is the local custom. Only he is not local. He is from the Caicos Islands north of Haiti and he has unfinished business with the people of Haven’s End. With the aid of his granddaughter Lilla and some dark voodoo magic, he intends to re-inhabit his body and those of the people he has set his eye upon. I trust this isn’t a spoiler but it’s pretty clear that Charles L. Grant has given us a zombie book! And when a cyclonic Carolina Screamer storm descends on the island is when old Gran strikes. With as many clichéd scenes as you can recall from film we get a zombie invasion. It’s certainly entertaining enough but neither the blurb nor the cover picture have much to do with the story. Worth a look if you like this stuff. Carnage happens and the good guys get in lots of trouble.
March 1, 2024
The book took quite awhile to get going, and there were more than a few times that I felt like slapping Colin Ross across the head. Maybe it was supposed to show how damaged the man was, but at the same time he’s supposed to figure out what’s going on and deal with it. Made for a somewhat split personality. Is he weak, strong, a bit of both?
Still, I did enjoy the story once it got going. The characters were interesting, especially Peg, Colin’s love interest, and her son, Matt. The boy plays a large part in fitting the pieces together. He comes across as an inquisitive, yet not annoying kid.
One thing, I wasn’t crazy about the zombie inclusion. I realize that the book is rather old, written before the zombie craze. Yet it couldn’t help but turn me off somewhat.
So not a great book, but I’ve certainly read worse.
Still, I did enjoy the story once it got going. The characters were interesting, especially Peg, Colin’s love interest, and her son, Matt. The boy plays a large part in fitting the pieces together. He comes across as an inquisitive, yet not annoying kid.
One thing, I wasn’t crazy about the zombie inclusion. I realize that the book is rather old, written before the zombie craze. Yet it couldn’t help but turn me off somewhat.
So not a great book, but I’ve certainly read worse.
December 20, 2019
I couldn't finish this book the way I wanted it. From the hundredth page it became boring with no plot and characters. Not like other person here the "racism" and misconceptions didn't bother me. I can understand that different times had different views and I try to understand those views. People not enjoying Lovecraft because he was a racist it's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Everyone was like that back in the day. All our forefathers (and mothers because I don't want to offend the feminists) had something we may disapprove noways. how can I criticize them? different times.
Back to the book. It's boring. Plotwise crap. Characters are several but boring. Enfin not advisable to anyone. Wished for a bit more "horror".
Back to the book. It's boring. Plotwise crap. Characters are several but boring. Enfin not advisable to anyone. Wished for a bit more "horror".
January 31, 2026
I don’t know why but the majority of horror novels insist on having the blandest possible domestic drama stuff going on for 90% of the time. I do not care about land rights on the island, I do not care about the main guy getting remarried to the local pharmacist. Give me the zombies! But in their own special way I still like horror novels for their unhip squareness compared to the more chic youth-skewing casts of horror movies. When this remembers to do zombie stuff it’s decent, there’s just a lot of wheel-spinning going on.
January 14, 2022
Starts off real slow, but once it picks up it is pretty good.
June 25, 2023
Not sure what the big deal is with this guy. Lost interest halfway through.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews