Customer Reviews

30 Days of Night (Movie Novelization)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book scared the crap out of me. I'm talking the lying-awake-at-2am-thinking-I'm-hearing-something-rustling-under-my-bed-scared. I haven't been that freaked out by a book since Stephen King's "It".

I read it in two days, and that's what kept me awake, wondering how they were going to get out of this remote Alaskan village without getting violently ripped to shreds. It was well-done and extremely descriptive.

I hope they do well with the movie, but the book was vivid enough for me. Lebbon is a madman. Excellent book if you love horror.

Most movie novelizations are pretty b-novel material. They get second tier writers, and the writing is reminisicent of a romance novel. Not in this case. This book is suspenseful, well-written, and could easily stand on its own. I really can't wait to see the movie and read the graphic novels!

As a side note, FINALLY someone has written about vampires that are bloody scary! Enough of the brooding, angst ridden vampire that's just misunderstood. These are not vampires that women will be dreaming about each night! These are the "real" thing! Bravo! Right up there with Vltraviolet (the BBC one).

A well written novelization. Vampires were scary as all get out! Was a bit dissapointed in the end, but I guess it was the only way to end it! I recommend this book to vampire fans. I look forward to seeing the movie!

30 Days of Night (Movie Novelization) / 978-1-4165-4497-5

As a disclaimer, I have neither read the original graphic novel series on which this movie is based, nor have I seen the actual movie in question. But I love vampire stories and this book caught my eye with the interesting premise of an isolated arctic town besieged by vampires during an entire 30-day blackout period.

In many ways, this book does not disappoint. The suspense starts immediately, with a mysterious stranger drifting into town and wreaking minor acts of vandalism and property destruction that slowly escalate as the town becomes increasingly cut off from the outside world. And when the vampires finally do show up in mass numbers, they are everything a reader could hope for - palpably frightening, even to readers thoroughly glutted with vampire literature, as I no doubt am.

The author does a superb job of highlighting the vampire's natural strengths, as they creep silently over rooftops and lay in wait for their prey, oblivious to the cold - and the terror is heightened when the hunters frequently (and without warning) abandon silence and stealth and instead ransack random houses through to the very roof shingles, looking for survivors. Though the vampires are intelligent, there is no discernible pattern to their searches, which frightens the hiding humans further - they never know when they will be next. Can the vampires hear them? Smell them? Sense them? It's clear that at least one house contains "known" survivors, which the vampires are saving as a snack for later... are our own main characters similarly known and simply living on borrowed time? The result is truly quite terrifying and claustrophobic.

If I did have to criticize this book, it'd be that characters shouldn't be made stupid in order to advance the plot. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone was able to knuckle down and come to grips with vampires as a reality early on, only to be disappointed when one of the characters decides to decamp from their hiding place in order to try to rescue a young woman being used by bait by the vampires. They're watching her every move, so there is literally no chance to rescue her, and if her 'rescuer' is caught, he'll be tortured into revealing the location of the survivors, but no one has any objection to his leaving the hideout and possibly exposing them all. Maybe it's a small complaint, but that sort of thing just irks me. Add to that the astonishing number of people who are willing to shout, argue, and fight whilst 'hiding' and I start wishing, perhaps unfairly, that the sensible people would strike out on their own and leave the rest to their well-deserved fate.

The vampires, too, are rather poorly characterized here, and while this seems like a failing, it's hard to say whether the solution would have been *more* characterization or *less*. The lack of obvious characterization heightens the horror and terror - like the humans in the novel, we do not understand why the vampire behavior is so arbitrary and cruel. Their unpredictability and capriciousness makes them more alien, and more frightening, because they cannot be reasoned with, and their next move cannot be easily predicted. On the other hand, however, more characterization would be nice to explain why so much of their killing seems to be so inefficient - they seem, mostly, to be killing for fun, not for food. One suspects that the author split the difference and went for a little characterization covered with a lot of mystery, but the end result feels slightly unsatisfying.

There's a lot of Fridge Logic that accompanies pretty much any vampire book - notably here as "Do all the residents who left town for the 30 days *really* not call their friends and loved ones for the entire month, not even to check to see if the dog has been fed? Really??" - but that goes with the genre, and the important thing is to just not dwell on those logic flashes. All in all, I enjoyed the book immensely and it definitely got me through a long plane ride.

~ Ana Mardoll

Wow, this book is truly spectacular. Although I haven't seen the film itself, Mr. Lebbon does a fantastic job bringing the people and the fear of being hunted to life. Though these aren't your classic vampires, they are terrifying nonetheless.

I would recommend the novel to readers of vampire novels and fans of books based on graphic novel.

PARTY ON, DUDES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great book! Stayed up late finishing it. I am an avid reader and found this book to be more suspenseful than scary. Worth the few hours I lost in sleep. And I hope the movie is as good.

I'm not that interested in novelizations of movies, but I was so fascinated by the movie 30 Days of Night that I decided to give the book a try. It was surprisingly good. I felt like I was with Eben and the rest of the characters throughout. It's scary and follows along perfectly with the movie. If you're a fan of the movie, don't expect any extra surprises in the book. It's essentially the same thing, with very few extra details about the characters or plot.

If you like fast-paced scares, this novel will entertain you. I have not seen the movie, but was intrigued by the prospect of trying to survive for a prolonged period of time without the limiting effect of daylight on vampires.

While a little light on characterization, you really won't mind, as the scenes fly by. Besides, odds are, you didn't pick out a vampire book for deep character development, but the terror and escape such a story brings.

This is an interesting tale of survival and a vampire tale with a setting which favors the monsters...... how can the townsfolk hope to make it for a month?

Read and see if they do!

Now THIS is what I'm talking about! I don't know how the movie will be, but this book was great. If you love vampire and/or zombie novels, you'll truly enjoy this. This is the first book I've read by author Tim Lebbon, but if he writes this well in all of his books, it won't be my last!

This is probably one of the best movie tie-in novelizations I have ever read. Usually books based on the movies are rather watered down and pale in comparison to the movie. Strangely enough, the power of the written word in this case wins out. The novel moved at a fast pace and was difficult to put down; the author did a fantastic job of fleshing out the main characers and I thoroughly enjoyed it reading it within two days.

The story revolves around the sleepy secluded town of Barrow, Alaska, battening down the hatches and preparing for the annual 30 days and nights of darkness. Sheriff Eben Oleson and his estanged wife, Deputy Stella Oleson are struggling to keep the threads of their marriage together but soon discover that their marriage is not the only thing they are soon fighting for, because this time, something is hiding under the cover of the Dark, which begins with the mysterious arrival of the Stranger and his portent of an impending evil, then suddenly the Olesons find they are cut off from civilization and the townsfolk are being hunted and savagely and swiftly slaughtered by an evil horde of vampires who have decided to make this their feasting ground....can the survivors last the remaining days til daylight??? Great storytelling and better than the movie! Tim Lebbon has outdone himself!