Title: The Night Parade
Author: Ronald Malfi
Genre: Science Fiction, Horror
Age Group: Adult (18+)
Rating: 4,5 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
First the birds disappeared.
Then the insects took over.
Then the madness began . . .
They call it Wanderer’s Folly–a disease of delusions, of daydreams and nightmares. A plague threatening to wipe out the human race.
After two years of creeping decay, David Arlen woke up one morning thinking that the worst was over. By midnight, he’s bleeding and terrified, his wife is dead, and he’s on the run in a stolen car with his eight-year-old daughter, who may be the key to a cure.
Ellie is a special girl. Deep. Insightful. And she knows David is lying to her. Lying about her mother. Lying about what they’re running from. And lying about what he sees when he takes his eyes off the road . . .
Once again, Ronald Malfi’s writing totally blew me away in The Night Parade. This author knows how to write, how to make the words shine on the page, how to craft a story that stands out from others, and stays with you, long after reading.
David Arlen’s world has fallen apart. Wanderer’s Folly, a disease that causes daydreams, nightmares and delusions, is wrecking the entire world, turning people into zombie-like creatures, and eventually killing them. The disease spreads randomly, and no one knows how you get infected. What they do know is that the cure is hidden somewhere inside the body of David’s wife.
But now she’s dead, and the doctors who hurt her, now want his daughter Ellie, who holds the same miracle cure. But David isn’t willing to give Ellie up, not even for the good of mankind. They flee across the country, chased by the disease that strikes randomly, haunted by the remnants of human civilization.
Ellie is a wonderful little girl. She’s nine, and sometimes she acts like a child, sometimes more like an adult – but for her, it makes sense to act that way. She’s a very kind, loving, gentle child, and she touched my heart. David too was an intriguing character. Being the adult he’s left to make the tough choices, and since the book is told from his POV, we spend most time inside his mind, which I did enjoy – he was complex yet relatable.
The book isn’t exactly scary. For horror, it’s rather tame: you don’t get gore (not that much at least) or supernatural over-the-top scares. What you do get is a slow build up of dread. Even though it’s not scary, you do grow scared. The author manages to pull the reader into the story with such excellence that you become part of the story, you feel the dread David feels, your anxiety grows as things are revealed. You can’t just sit and relax: you have to keep on turning the page.
I already look forward to reading my next Ronald Malfi book.
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