“In the spring or warmer weather when the snow thaws in the woods the tracks of winter reappear on slender pedestals and the snow reveals in palimpsest old buried wanderings, struggles, scenes of death. Tales of winter brought to light again like time turned back upon itself.”
Pictured, a Greener Pastures bookmark; not pictured, my two enthusiastic thumbs up.
Hello friends (and foes) at r/weirdlit!
I had the privilege and pleasure of obtaining and consuming an ARC for Michael Wehunt's Nightjars, his second novel, due out 09/29/2026. I wanted to share a few thoughts here, as Michael remains one of my favorite weird fiction writers and it is exciting to see him continue to release novels to a (hopefully) wider audience. He is also hot off a Stoker award win for his debut novel, The October Film Haunt, for Best First Novel.
As I mentioned in my non-review of The October Film Haunt last year, I am not much of a writer, nor any kind of literary reviewer. Check out Gabino Iglesias' review of Brian Evenson's Last Days if you're looking for top echelon reviewing (he made a Pixies band reference in the title of his review, goddammit.) You might like to know that no AI tools were used in the creation of this, from conception to creation. If you want to go into this totally spoiler-free, skip the rest of this and let's talk turkey later this year when you similarly devour Michael's newest book. The stars aligned and life circumstances coincided for me to blow through Nightjars in under a week.
The promotional tagline for Nightjars is "Memento meets Dracula." I'm old enough to have seen (and loved) Christopher Nolan's Memento, a film about the loss of memories and subsequent violent tragedy. Michael gives us another clue as to what Nightjars entails with his use of a Freudian epigraph from Freud's seminal Beyond the Pleasure Principle.
>The patient cannot remember the whole of what is repressed in him, and what he cannot remember may be precisely the essential part of it. He is obliged to repeat the repressed material as a contemporary experience instead of remembering it as something of the past.
If that makes you guess this book moves at the pace of Freudian analysis, guess again. Nightjars sinks its fangs into you early and doesn't let up. I noticed the writing in Nightjars is shorter and punchier than I am accustomed from Wehunt's writing; a lot of succinct metaphors and analogies. The writing in this is utterly propulsive. I won't bore you with all of the notes I put into my phone, but a standout line from me was on p. 153 "... it's a hammer of a thought, a north star in the terrible firmament of his story." This whole damn thing is filled with lines like that!
(I will mention, as a licensed mental health professional in the real world, I felt that the therapy elements of this story were well researched and seemed quite plausible.)
Long-term readers of Wehunt's short fiction will recognize this is not his first stab at "Vampire Fiction." It's evident he has a longstanding love for (and probably a pathological obsession with) those stalkers of the night. Nightjars features classic vampire mythology, as well as some of Wehunt's own original vampire mythology. It honors the old and the new. In a sub dedicated to weird literature, you might be wondering, "well, is it weird?" I'm happy to report much of it curves towards the uncanny, without devolving into arguments over strict genre gatekeeping.
Michael described Nightjars as being both "leaner" and "meaner" than The October Film Haunt. I don't have the figures memorized but I believe Nightjars has about 4/5 of TOFH's word count. Nightjars is also, in fact, a mean book. Corpses pile up, and they do not shuffle from this mortal coil gladly. Bodies are mutilated in increasingly shocking and obscene ways. No one is safe, not kids, or any of the characters you fall in love with. More ranting would delve too much into too many spoilers, but Nightjars has the feel of a foreboding tragedy, in the best Gothic tradition. The climax and denouement were action-packed and quite satisfying.
Can we ever truly outrun our pasts? Can we change what defines us, be it our parents, to our mistakes and histories?
I've been reading a lot of really killer stuff this year. Two of my 2026 favorites so far are Nick Cutter's The Dorians (possibly his best novel out of all eight of them) and Brian Evenson's Phantom Limb (I read the ARC for that, as well, spoiler, it's freakin' awesome.) Expect Nightjars to complete with everything that comes out this year. I really enjoyed The October Film Haunt (true story, I finished it standing up) but will offer that Nightjars feels like a step up for Wehunt. I'll be on the lookout for whatever he cooks up next.
Hi friends and peers at r/weirdlit!
Last weekend I had the distinct pleasure and privilege to spend time with Michael Wehunt and Nathan Ballingrud, who are both (in my non-expert opinion) two of our finest modern writers of weird literature. Also pictured is Greg “Fisher of Men” Greene (u/igreggreene; Chthonica channel) who I am honored to call a friend and who has mentored me in these weird worlds, and Michael’s partner Natalia. This hangout stemmed from our interview of both authors in the fall of last year.
We talked about various horror fandoms, and unanimously agreed that r/weirdlit is a welcoming community and solid resource for fans of the weird.
Michael’s second novel Nightjars comes out this fall, and he is hard at work on his third novel.
Nathan’s Kingdom of the Conqueror Worm drops in 2027.
On the trip, I picked up Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man, Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket, Ellen Datlow’s Monstrous anthology, and David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green (Nathan recommended him as one of the finest modern prose stylists.) Michael also kicked me a copy of Adam Golaski’s Stone Gods (I’ve given him two books and hope he will drop a 500 word review in here for them any day, just kidding, the dude is super busy.)
I wanted to share this here because overall it was just an amazing experience! Have a good rest of the weekend y’all and stay Weird.
