Book Review: "The Gathering" by C.J. Tudor (2024)
The Gathering Book Review
Written by Stuart D. Monroe
Published by Penguin Random House UK
Written by C.J. Tudor
2024, 352 pages, Fiction
Published on April 11th, 2024
Review:
The first time I read C.J. Tudor (in her debut novel, The Chalk Man) I was utterly compelled to review it, though I didn’t start reading it with that in mind. I was simply so floored by her crisp characterization and ability to weave deftly back and forth between various plot points and timelines that I simply had to. She put me flat on my ass with her skill and her voice.
I’ve tried to score ARC’s of her books since then with no success…until now. I was giddy to receive the opportunity, as I’ve become an unabashed fan of her work. She’s continued to get better with each passing novel, and that’s a bold statement for a lady who started with the high bar of The Chalk Man. Upon finding out the novel was a supernatural crime thriller about a vampire murder in an isolated Alaska town, set in a world where vampires are an endangered species hated by society at large, I kind of started to dance about a bit.
This was going to be good.
In the isolated town of Deadhart, Alaska, a young man is murdered by what has to be a vampire (or “vampyr”). The townsfolk are in an uproar and demand a cull of the local colony that lives on the outskirts of town. Enter Barbara Atkins, a homicide detective with a Ph.D. in forensic vampire anthropology. Her job is to find out if it truly was one of the colony that killed Marcus Anderson and potentially to decide if a cull (i.e. extermination) of the colony is called for. Tensions are high in Deadhart. Barbara isn’t your average detective- she’s a bit of a bleeding heart who doesn’t want to see the colony hurt unless it’s legitimately necessary. The citizens of Deadhart want justice the old-fashioned way; they want some more vampire heads to go on the wall of the local watering hole. But as Barbara peels back the layers of this bloody onion, she finds that there are a slew of dark secrets and hidden relationships in the town of Deadhart, Alaska. What’s a conscientious homicide detective to do in the face of a growing mob and rampant bigotry?
The Gathering opens with a high level of tension and its foot on the gas, never letting up while stacking up revelations and further murders like cordwood stacked against the freezing Alaska nights. There’s plenty of social commentary at work, too, and that’s a damn good thing. The use of vampires as “the other” (as opposed to people of color, LGBTQ+, indigenous, or what have you) is no less potent for all its fantastic nature. Tudor makes the premise immediately believable. It’s not subtle, and that’s perfectly okay. There’s a message you’re supposed to get that mirrors the tense times we live in in 2024.
Meanwhile, there’s an interlude that keeps cutting in concerning “the girl”, a captive in an unknown time and place. This adds another mystery to keep you hooked that counterpoints the main mystery succinctly. Just who that girl actually is…and what it means for the present and future of the story…is stunning shit. It’s the kind of thing that makes you tell yourself afterward, “I should have seen it coming!”
C.J. Tudor knows how to weave together a nest of characters both large and small with a deft hand, mingling multiple secrets and dark desires with aplomb. The Gathering is one of those books that lead you down one path only to bring you out somewhere completely unexpected in the best way possible. Barbara Atkins is a simple protagonist that you warm up to instantly for precisely that reason- she’s a good person with straightforward motivations born out of a tragic past and a deep well of personal pain.
Where the book really shines, however, is in the aforementioned social subtext just under the surface of Deadhart, Alaska. I’m not from anywhere near Alaska; actually, I’m from South Carolina. But I instantly recognized this town. The human-vampire relations in Deadhart are instantly relatable to our own tumultuous times. Vampires as second-class citizens is a brilliant twist that gives you a reason to feel differently about bloodsuckers, and that’s exceedingly rare for a vampire novel. Tudor knows how to make you look at things differently while being just heavy-handed enough. That’s a rare talent. The Gathering is a one-of-a-kind vampire novel/police procedural that challenges your preconceived notions and makes you question where you would fall in that scenario.
How’s that for something juicy to sink your teeth into?
