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Deep Night

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For Seth Roman and his younger brother Raymond, it was supposed to be a getaway from their dull, corporate jobs and empty, troubled lives, a week of card playing and drinking at a cabin in the remote woods of northern Maine. But when a young woman staggers into their camp with her clothes covered in blood, their lives are changed forever. The woman brings with her something ancient, deadly and inhuman.Held in its clutches, they must fight an all-consuming evil from which there is no escape, an evil born of the darkest corners of human existence.

375 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

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373 people want to read

About the author

Greg F. Gifune

79 books352 followers
Called "One of the best writers of his generation" by both the Roswell Literary Review and author Brian Keene, Greg F. Gifune is the author of numerous short stories, several novels and two short story collections. His work has been published in a wide range of magazines and anthologies all over the world, and has recently garnered interest from Hollywood. His novels include The Bleeding Season, Deep Night, Saying Uncle, A View From The Lake, Night Work, Drago Descending, Blood In Electric Blue and Dominion.

Along with his short story collections, Down To Sleep and Heretics, his work has been nominated for numerous awards and is consistently praised by readers and critics alike across the globe. For seven years he was Editor-in-Chief of Thievin' Kitty Publications, publishers of the acclaimed fiction magazines The Edge: Tales of Suspense (1998-2004) and Burning Sky: Adventures in Science Fiction Terror (1998-2003), and currently serves as Associate Editor at Delirium Books. 

The son of teachers, Greg F. Gifune was educated in Boston and has lived in various places, including New York City and Peru. A trained actor and broadcaster, he has appeared in various stage productions and has worked in radio and television as both an on-air talent and a producer.  Earlier in life he held a wide range of jobs, encompassing everything from journalism to promotions.

The author of numerous novels, screenplays and two short story collections, his work has been consistently praised by critics and readers alike, and has been translated into several languages and published all over the world. Greg and his wife Carol live in Massachusetts with a bevy of cats. 

Discover more about his writing at GregFGifune.com and UninvitedBooks.com.

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5 stars
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47 (25%)
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28 (15%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
Profile Image for mark monday.
1,874 reviews6,305 followers
February 10, 2017
it's not you it's me, Deep Night. your story of an extra-dimensional invasion that seeps slowly but inevitably from within and without, infecting the unwary and driving the wary mad... it was well-done. your author is an accomplished professional with a steady hand when it comes to characterization and pace and slowly unfolding a mystery and creating a wintry, rainy, dreary atmosphere. I especially appreciated his fondness for unsettling dreamscapes and macabre, bloody imagery. I usually eat all of that right up!

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unfortunately you are not what I wanted to read. it is completely my fault, I know. I'm not blaming you for not being what I wanted you to be! but I thought I would be reading a disturbing tale set in a cabin in the woods in the dead of winter, close friends going crazy and doing unspeakable things, all of that delightful stuff. and instead I was reading a serious version of the film They Live, in novel format. and so the distance between my expectations and the reality of your actual plot made this experience rather a grueling one, and not in a good way. I should have read the synopsis more closely but alas! I led myself astray.

just look at the fetching cover that originally drew me in:

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Profile Image for Robert Dunbar.
Author 33 books734 followers
April 22, 2016
There’s a moment in the movie THE THING (the 1951 version): a blizzard has been raging throughout the night, and the people in the outpost suddenly realize they’re trapped with some unnamed horror. Even repeated viewings don’t diminish that chill.

Snowfall can be terrifying. Ask any of the characters in Greg Gifune’s Deep Night.

As always with Gifune’s work, the muscular prose gets a headlock on the reader almost at once. An evening of snowbound trauma permanently marks a group of friends, one of whom has suffered from night terrors all his life. (In a curious way, this gives him an advantage, because unreasoning fear constitutes a new experience for the others.) When they can’t bring themselves even to discuss the events of that night, demons track them down, one by one, an easy task since the group now carries a spiritual infection within them ... and demons of course thrive on this sort of thing.

Be warned. The level of creeping dread grows increasingly intense. This is a profoundly unsettling book, on many levels a philosophical consideration of the nature both of demons and of evil itself. Greg Gifune’s writing rarely offers conventional thrills. Nothing so obvious. Though enough visceral terror lurks in these pages to satiate even the most avid gore fan, the horrors at the heart of Deep Night are no less existential than those haunting A View from the Lake or The Bleeding Season, never mind the flashes of razor-sharp wit or the complex moral issues presented.

“Their eyes met as both men tried their best to quiet the echoes of screams bellowing in their minds – screams of relentless agony and terror – all the while ignoring the shadows growing along the walls and everything hidden within them.”

Strong stuff, but then Gifune’s work has never been for the weak hearted. Or the weak minded. He remains the thinking reader’s horror writer, and his fiction always evokes serious issues. For instance … what is insanity? What if it could be spread like a disease from mind to mind, plunging individuals into never-ending nightmares. And if reality is nothing more than consensus, what happens if all members of a group have gone mad?

Or have they? Maybe it’s all true. Demonic possession. Alien abduction. Everything people fear in the dark. Perhaps there are malevolent entities that exist between worlds, and perhaps some “gifted” individuals really can see them.

And be seen.

Imagine being trapped in an elevator with a madman: no escape… until the cable snaps. That experience is not unlike reading a novel by Greg F. Gifune. Deep Night offers all the joys (and metaphysical terrors) that his ever-growing number of fans have come to expect: three-dimensional characters so richly conceived as to be virtually unique within the genre, fascinating and natural dialogue (an especially high order of accomplishment considering the heightened unnaturalness of the situations), and the inexorable horror of a plotline constructed like a steel trap. Gifune has a way of demonstrating that nothing is as it seems, that anything might happen at any moment… and that the worst events imaginable are imminent.

The concept of deep evil, deep woods, deep night will haunt the reader for a very long time.
Profile Image for DJMikeG.
502 reviews30 followers
August 3, 2010
This is my first Gifune experience and I am completely impressed with his work. This is one giant whopper of a scary novel, and its head and shoulders above pretty much all other horror writing I've come across. This guy is on another level. He goes for big, heavy, deep, existential yet extremely disturbing and down to earth scares. He asks the Big Questions, and he toys with the reader's mind like nobody else I've read save for Philip K. Dick. I don't want to get into the story, as this book unfolds in such wildly unpredictable directions that its better to not have any hints going into it. Gifune manages to work on so many levels, its really astonishing. Social commentary, spiritual and religious commentary, poignant familial insights all weaved together with incredibly scary and nightmarish imagery that is somehow terrifying, beautiful and disorienting all at once. I sat down and read the last 200 pages of this book this evening, I simply could not put the book down. This is a modern classic of horror, and one of the best novels I have ever read. It isn't for everyone, but if you have an open mind and are ready to experience something completely unparalleled in horror fiction, this book just might blow your mind like it did to mine.
Profile Image for Karl.
3,258 reviews372 followers
Want to read
October 24, 2016
This book is 85 of 150 copies of the hardcover and is signed b Greg F. Gifune.
Profile Image for Dan Corley.
91 reviews2 followers
June 13, 2017
I really couldn't connect with the characters in Deep Night. The story itself starts out fairly promising, but it got weird really quick. The pacing of it all was a bit too slow to keep the pages turning quickly. Seemed a bit dragged out to a conclusion that was probably predictable, but by then I didn't really care. The craziness going on in the character's minds was a bit too out there for me.
Profile Image for Michelle {Book Hangovers}.
461 reviews191 followers
November 2, 2021
Deep Night gets all the stars!!
I’m gonna keep short & to the point….
WOW! WOW! FUCKING WOW!!!
This was InFREAKINcredible! This is only my second book by ⁦‪Greg F. Gifune‬⁩ and I AM IMPRESSED & OBSESSED!! This dude can write!
Alright… what’s next? I need more Gifune ASAP
Profile Image for Bogdan.
986 reviews1 follower
March 22, 2020
Interesting, trippy and horrifying in the same time, but, overall, I wasn`t impressed in the same manner like the previous volumes that I`ve read by him.

Anyway, it was a nice take & effort on the whole Body Snatchers mit.
Profile Image for Richard K. Wilson.
749 reviews129 followers
January 6, 2023


The book I had read right before this, was the same author's "Children of Chaos" and let me tell you what.....it was incredibly gruesome, creepy and so well written, I was really hoping that this one was going to be just a good. I was wrong. This is about two brothers Seth and Raymond. Seth and Raymond were two brothers who could not have been any more different from one another as kids as they were. Raymond suffered from extreme night terrors and was considered 'special and gifted' as his Grandmother constantly told Seth as they were growing up. And this was something that would be explained to Seth one night in an extreme snowstorm when both he and his brother are at the family's cabin with a couple friends, when a young woman appears at the door almost naked and covered in blood!

I was so disappointed in this book because it was so much more Sci Fi than it was horror and or even scary; and I had it completely figured out almost 3/4 of the way into it.
Cannot recommend this one. Skip it.

2.5 🤔
Profile Image for Jason.
1,179 reviews288 followers
April 18, 2016
4 Stars

Deep Night by Greg F. Gifune is a wonderful piece of horror and psychological mayhem. Gifune is one of my favorite authors today and his writing deserves to be recognized as literary even though he writes in a genre, horror, which is often overlooked for it's quality and style. Deep Night is a story that is best read without having read too many reviews or synopsis.



"Darkness. The forest. That night unfolding before him, the snow draping everything and coming down with unusual ferocity. Sounds of his boots crunching beneath him, and his own gasping, labored breathing. The flashlight in his hand bouncing and shaking, its beam cutting enough of a fissure in the night to reveal blurry views of Christy running several yards in front of him, maneuvering through the trees and along the uneven terrain, her nude body impossibly impossibly pale amidst the darkness. Another cabin coming into view, the door open…"

I really enjoyed the back story of Seth and Raymond. Gifune gave us two brothers that we could route for and identify with. Seth takes his role as the older brother as a lifelong mission. His world evolved by trying to protect and take care of his young brother Raymond.

Deep Night is a psychological thriller as much as it is a horror novel and Gifune takes the reader down the rabbit hole into madness...or does he?

Gifune is a master story teller and this one is tough to put down. Deep Night is well written and has a very satisfying ending. Highly recommended!
Profile Image for Amy .
344 reviews2 followers
November 4, 2018
For me this was about 200 pages to long and very depressing. We keep jumping to different characters and nothing really ever comes of it. Basically felt like I was reading the body snatchers. Started off interesting then went off in a completely long tangent on political and moral issues that ended in nothing. I have to give credit for the writing as it was very well done and the original idea would have been great, still looking for that John Carpenters The Thing twin. However, gonna have to read some my little pony books to wipe the brain clean.
Profile Image for Sjgomzi.
361 reviews162 followers
March 17, 2019
More of the great characters, tight plotting, genuine creepiness, and brilliant writing I’ve come to expect from Greg Gifune. A cerebral, terrifying reworking of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. One of my favorite books of the year!
Profile Image for Ariana.
61 reviews9 followers
June 9, 2016
It started out pretty good, it reminded me of "the dreamcatcher" and got very involved in the whole mysterious abduction like trama, but as it moved forward it became increasingly repetitive, the metaphors started to get a bit overused and annoying, the "all engulfing darkness" without further explanation started to bore me to the point where I was skipping whole paragraphs in hopes of reaching a conclusion to it faster.. and only because I was so intrigued about finding out what exactly was this dark force after all, and at the end the revelations are not satisfying at all, it doesn't answer any of the early questions, im still not sure if they were dealing with an actual dark force or just mental illness itself.. or if the whole point was to suggest they are both the same thing.. the points of view from the other characters make it all even more confusing .. it was disappointing im glad I'm done with it so that I can move on to my next book :)
Profile Image for Jeannie Sloan.
150 reviews21 followers
May 18, 2010
I almost gave this book 5 stars but there was just an undercurrent of religiosity that I found a little distracting so hence the 4 stars.Otherwise this book was very good and very creepy.I am sure that I will read other books by this author in the future as long as the religious symbolization is not offensive.I just have a hard time with the assumption that there is only one 'God' and everyone believes in 'Him'.
The tension does build and build throughout this book but I found myself a little let down when there was no definitive answer for some of the most basic questions in the book.I can't really be more specific than that or else it would give too much away.
Anyone who enjoys literary horror would like this book because it is the unknown that makes it so scary and not blood and grue.
Profile Image for Robert.
1,146 reviews59 followers
July 19, 2013
This was a decent book just not that great. Four guys spend some time in a cabin in the woods, while there something occurs that will change their lives forever. Now let's take some old movies (Invasion Of The Body Snatchers,Jacob's Ladder and Conspiracy Theory) throw them in a blender and see what comes out. Something like this story. A book that really makes an attempt at psychological horror. With lots of strange scenes that could or could not actually be happening. And just who is behind all of this weirdness? Angels? Demons? God? The devil? The government? Evil corporations? Aliens? Rosie O'Donnell? Dr. Phil? Montel Williams? With a story the size of a 1972 Cadillac powered by an anemic four cylinder engine this one does move a mite bit slowly.
Profile Image for Tessie.
154 reviews1 follower
July 28, 2013
I felt this book was a bit repetitive and drawn out. It was also kind of wordy. I also was a bit all over the place. Those are my only complaints with the book. The rest of it I enjoyed. I liked the way it dove into the mind of a psychopath as well as questioned the power of one's own memory. There is always a disconnect between reality and what one remembers. Memory is a composite of what one believes happened as well as what others mention about an event. Much of what we think we remember is really just hearsay from what others say. I really enjoyed the end that left you wondering, who is the one insane here? I am convinced the main character, Seth, suffered from a bit of paranoid schizophrenia. But it also makes you wonder, what if that one person everyone thinks is crazy are actually telling the truth. To them it really is the truth. But because it is against the norm, people believe that person is crazy. Psychiatrists have the difficult job of picking out truth from fiction. It is not an easy task.

I am left with mixed feelings about the book. Of course I feel sympathy for the main character, but the end convoluted onto itself. I was convinced up to the end that he was a pawn in a conspiracy and wanted to find out what it was. But at the end it took a turn towards "never mind just kidding, he was crazy all along." Which left me with a conflicted feeling.

All in all I thought it was a good book although a bit wordy.
Profile Image for Ken.
192 reviews11 followers
March 1, 2012
This is my first Greg Gifune novel and I have to say that I was very impressed.

The man can write.

I felt every character, step-by-step, breath-by-breath as they walked through this intricate, slowly evolving story of the deepest, darkest impending doom.

This is a very cerebral, thinking man’s book and if you’re looking for a story with a quick horror “pay-off”, this isn’t the book for you. The horror (the scare) is slow in coming and doesn’t creep to its pounding crescendo until the very end.

I was instantly reminded of the Jody Foster movie, Contact.

You know the one…

…Where you keep thinking you’re going to see the aliens at the end of the movie (but you don’t). You do see something though it’s not really clear what it is.

Greg never comes right out and tells you what the horror actually is. He leaves it for the reader to decide. Is it aliens? Or is it demons? Perhaps it’s just a Stepford Wife type of conformity that’s gripping mankind?

Looking forward to reading his latest !

Rating: 7.0
Profile Image for Love to Read.
250 reviews156 followers
September 3, 2022
You ever read a book that simultaneously inspires you to write and makes you feel like there's no point in writing because it'll never be that good? This is that book. Can't wait to get through the rest of Gifune's books.
Profile Image for Sara Twigg.
84 reviews2 followers
March 24, 2022
Seemed to be never ending and it took me a while to read. Didn't keep me enthralled unfortunately.
Profile Image for Boris Cesnik.
291 reviews3 followers
March 4, 2018
Judging by this book only - my first ever written by the author - I can tell straight away that Greg can write, narrate and describe. He has a knack for top notch ideas and effective introduction to the story.

What I didn't get from this book, and this book alone, is that an eruption of potential and talent has been tamed by overtly long excursions into side stories whereas the whole idea underneath should have been allocated much more space and narration.

The action being restrained within a small circle of friends is always a welcome setting but the implications of the Deep Night topic would have benefited from a much broader space and time in the story. There's a hint in the book towards the end of what these implications could have taken the writer to. Unfortunately a hint is just a hint.
Profile Image for Kari Dennis.
107 reviews2 followers
February 8, 2015
Really good book

Really well written, with characters that felt real, that you cared about. As the book moves forward, the feelings of claustrophobia and paranoia become more and more intense. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because in the middle, nothing much seems to happen for a while. I know it was about setting the atmosphere, etc, but a couple of chapters where nothing really happens, just a lot of words that boil down to 'something bad happened and I'm scared' kind of get repetitive. At least that's what I thought. Still, really great book, fantastic writing.
Profile Image for Brooke.
54 reviews5 followers
May 2, 2016
Wow! Just...wow! An amazingly good book! This is my 2nd book by Greg Gifune and I'm officially hooked! I want to get my hands on all his books and sit in the dark and devour them! This book was a monster of a book. I tend to not love big, thick, long books. So many of these lengthy books I find can become a bit boring. There are things in them that just don't need to be there. This is not the case with this book! It speeds right along...to the point of not wanting to put it down. I highly recommend this book!
Profile Image for Mike.
41 reviews2 followers
February 22, 2009
Well written, but the story never kicked in... too much of the same point over and over.
Profile Image for Marcus Schubert.
26 reviews1 follower
March 16, 2017
Interesting Start devolves into a hard to comprehend and confusing Story about lifeforms capturing our minds. Mediocre at best.
Profile Image for Olivia.
167 reviews8 followers
October 27, 2020
The real villain in this book is the toxic masculinity of the characters.

Seth is the worst protagonist. He doesn't listen to anybody, he constantly asks people questions only to interrupt their answers with "I know!" (So why did you ask?! Also he doesn't.) he is really creepy with his therapist and almost beats the shit out of his wife, he did absolutely nothing when his brother was being bullied as a child, suffocates the reader with his guilt and still centres himself in that narrative every single time it comes up (theres a part hes actually like "I suffered too!" How?!?)...he leaves his wife then acts like a hurt dog when she moves on... all this before we even figure out what the fuck is going on...then the narrative tries to blame his bad behaviour on unseen demons #!!@#*#@!

Darian is such a dull character smh I didn't even care for him he did so little and mattered even less, if anything he just emphasised the toxicity of his friend group -they call him Mother because he tells them to wear jackets when it's cold? Idk its just a really weird thing that keeps coming up.

Louis... fuck Louis.

Raymond is Seth's brother and the woiye character, he is treated badly by everyone and then they get mad when he acts out in retaliation, his brother is a turd who doesn't believe anything he says and is constantly talking about how much he also suffered yet it's pretty clear that Raymond had the worst childhood. Like hes probably the most likeable character, but the rest are all awful so the bar isn't so high.

The plot takes forever to build up, and honestly Seth's interruptions just serve to make the story longer - there is no reason that this book isn't 180 pages long, but it goes on for 180 more. Everyone gets a side plot, if they're mentioned once you'll definitely see them again in another chapter (the number of times I was like WHO?) You get a storyline, you get a storyline, everybody gets a storyline! Then the grandmother's speeches omg like my God woman start a podcast. What are these long winded monologues!?

Also it becomes a Christian novel in part 4?!?!??!?

I hate DNFing books but omg this was a terrible ride. I might come back to finish it just to know what else the author had to say for 130 more pages (DNFd at pg 223) but aiii unlikely. I got this off a Reddit recommendation for books with a sense of dread - the dreadful thing is the poor communication.
Profile Image for Amit.
770 reviews3 followers
May 11, 2020
Mixed feelings but not my favourite read from Greg F. Gifune. With Deep Night I really was expecting something like terrifying story but it didn't come out like that. Decent story? Yeah you can say that at least...

I can divide this book in 3 parts. 1st part was really something and promising to read like this going to be a great book. When in 2nd part it's slow and too much description of characters amd events like I am reading somewhat boring article from online web pages. For 3rd part well I can agree it was then the tale peak up it's speed but not the way I thought it would...

Anyway four peoples spending a night at cabin all by themselves to enjoy some leisure times. It's mainly about Seth Roman and his brother Raymond. So while spending the moment suddenly a young woman staggers into their camp with her clothes covered in blood. They couldn't make out what on earth did happen with the lady. The girl's name was Christy. She happened to seem frightened at the first meeting but there's more to the story behind her background. She vanished too day after the next day while having no trace of her disappearance. So, after that the story kept going and so their lives too changed forever. The woman brings with her something ancient and deadly, evil and inhuman, and something secretly familiar to Raymond. Who had dark past of his life, experiencing unexplained night terrors as a child and it still torment him as an adult. So, what's exactly behind all the torment and nightmares they started having after encountering the girl? Evil? Satan? God? Demons? I know what's exactly the outcome but you have to read it to find out the answer...

Looking for next book from Greg F. Gifune...
5 reviews1 follower
February 7, 2022
Snowfall can be terrifying and Greg F. Gifune made sure of that. This book made me cold, depressed,slightly manic and frustrated because the metaphors and descriptions seemed to go on and on . At some point got me yelling "we get it the characters are deeply disturbed and dark and very helpless and the monsters are ruthless and very deceiving". All these qualities seeped from the book and got into my head but the author didn't have to repeat it a 100 times.By then I was over it. The premise seemed to go round and round not providing the answers that you desperately seek. The only thing that kept me going finally was to know about these "beings" but the author managed to evade that while getting the book done with . Oh and the dog too .
Bottomline I appreciate the dreary,scary ,chilling atmosphere but this was a hundred pages too long and as if that wasn't enough often repititive.
Also the lovelife of the protagonist broke my heart. :(
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews

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