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The Overnight
A bookstore can be a wonderful, welcoming place of both commerce and curiosity. That's the goal for Woody, an American recently transferred to England to run a branch of Texts. He wants a clean, orderly store and lots of sales to show his bosses when they arrive from the States for a pre-Christmas inspection. Not easy given the shop's location in a foggy strip mall.
And things keep going wrong. No matter how often the shelves are put in order before the doors are locked at night, when the staff returns in the morning, books are lying all over the floor, many damp and damaged beyond repair. The store's computers keep acting up-errors appear in brochures and ads and orders disappear completely. And even when the machines are turned off, they seem to glow with a spectral gray light.
The hit-and-run death of an employee in the store's parking lot marks a turning point. One employee accuses another of making sexual advances and they come to blows. Between one sentence and the next, one loses his ability to read. The security monitors display half-seen things crawling between the stacks that vanish before anyone can find them.
Desperate, Woody musters his staff for an overnight inventory. When the last customers reluctantly depart, leaving almost-visible trails of slime shining behind them, the doors are locked, sealing Woody and the others inside for a final orgy of shelving.
The damp, grey, silent things that have been lurking in the basement and hiding in the fog may move slowly, but they are inexorable. This bookstore is no haven. It is the doorway to a hell unlike any other.
And things keep going wrong. No matter how often the shelves are put in order before the doors are locked at night, when the staff returns in the morning, books are lying all over the floor, many damp and damaged beyond repair. The store's computers keep acting up-errors appear in brochures and ads and orders disappear completely. And even when the machines are turned off, they seem to glow with a spectral gray light.
The hit-and-run death of an employee in the store's parking lot marks a turning point. One employee accuses another of making sexual advances and they come to blows. Between one sentence and the next, one loses his ability to read. The security monitors display half-seen things crawling between the stacks that vanish before anyone can find them.
Desperate, Woody musters his staff for an overnight inventory. When the last customers reluctantly depart, leaving almost-visible trails of slime shining behind them, the doors are locked, sealing Woody and the others inside for a final orgy of shelving.
The damp, grey, silent things that have been lurking in the basement and hiding in the fog may move slowly, but they are inexorable. This bookstore is no haven. It is the doorway to a hell unlike any other.
396 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2004
13 people are currently reading
820 people want to read
About the author
Ramsey Campbell
858 books1,594 followersRamsey Campbell is a British writer considered by a number of critics to be one of the great masters of horror fiction. T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today," while S. T. Joshi has said that "future generations will regard him as the leading horror writer of our generation, every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
March 7, 2020
summary
: communication breakdown in a chain bookstore
This is a brilliant book. And a rigorous one, as it makes no concessions to basic horror fan expectations nor does it respect the standard literary novel reader's distaste for visceral horror. It is neither basic nor standard, and also somewhat hard to recommend. I loved it from beginning to end. The Overnight is both engagingly familiar and highly original. Campbell is, as always, up for challenging his readers and I am down for the challenge.
Over 300 pages depicting dull, prosaic reality pass before the horror fully presents itself. There are creepy, ambiguous hints here and there, but blink and you'll miss them. Prior to the horrific "overnight" itself, the story moves slooowly from character to character as they go about their days, living their very normal lives, reflecting on their individual situations, their hopes and fears, bumping up against each other, sympathizing or supporting or feeling varying degrees of scorn, distaste, dislike, and sometimes affection for each other. This is an unremarkable slice of life and each character is completely real. Most are easy to relate to, a couple are monsters - but the sort of everyday monsters that we all deal with in real life. Almost imperceptibly, relationships between the workers at Texts begin to chip and fray. People give in to smallness more and more easily. Communication in all forms become broken. What was a recognizable work environment with its predictable ups and downs becomes a Ligotti-esque factory that deadens the soul and eliminates any interest in empathy.
And then the horror strikes and the story transforms from a glacially-paced art film that focuses on the mundane into a vicious and surreal murder party featuring an unknowable supernatural threat that first isolates, then destroys.
If you are of a cynical bent, it's sort of fun seeing all of the low ratings and outraged and/or angrily bored responses to this book. I bet the idea of "slaughter in a bookstore during an overnight stocking session" drew many readers in with the hopes of The Overnight being a gleefully savage rollercoaster of mayhem. Er not so much. This text is not for them, nor is it for anyone who doesn't understand that Campbell is never going to be about schlocky thrills. Not that I am against schlocky thrills! But he's not that author.
The most gripping sequence occurs near the end, when one of the cast slowly, almost subconsciously, begins to understand the nature of the threat and forces some of her co-workers to actually work together with her, in a way that seems irrational to them, but also in a way that literalizes the idea that people have to help each other if they want to move forward. A simple message and a profound one.
moral of the tale : if you let the daily pressures and pettiness of life rule you, if you can't live with your fellow humans without being toxic or violent... you may as well be dead
This is a brilliant book. And a rigorous one, as it makes no concessions to basic horror fan expectations nor does it respect the standard literary novel reader's distaste for visceral horror. It is neither basic nor standard, and also somewhat hard to recommend. I loved it from beginning to end. The Overnight is both engagingly familiar and highly original. Campbell is, as always, up for challenging his readers and I am down for the challenge.
Over 300 pages depicting dull, prosaic reality pass before the horror fully presents itself. There are creepy, ambiguous hints here and there, but blink and you'll miss them. Prior to the horrific "overnight" itself, the story moves slooowly from character to character as they go about their days, living their very normal lives, reflecting on their individual situations, their hopes and fears, bumping up against each other, sympathizing or supporting or feeling varying degrees of scorn, distaste, dislike, and sometimes affection for each other. This is an unremarkable slice of life and each character is completely real. Most are easy to relate to, a couple are monsters - but the sort of everyday monsters that we all deal with in real life. Almost imperceptibly, relationships between the workers at Texts begin to chip and fray. People give in to smallness more and more easily. Communication in all forms become broken. What was a recognizable work environment with its predictable ups and downs becomes a Ligotti-esque factory that deadens the soul and eliminates any interest in empathy.
And then the horror strikes and the story transforms from a glacially-paced art film that focuses on the mundane into a vicious and surreal murder party featuring an unknowable supernatural threat that first isolates, then destroys.
If you are of a cynical bent, it's sort of fun seeing all of the low ratings and outraged and/or angrily bored responses to this book. I bet the idea of "slaughter in a bookstore during an overnight stocking session" drew many readers in with the hopes of The Overnight being a gleefully savage rollercoaster of mayhem. Er not so much. This text is not for them, nor is it for anyone who doesn't understand that Campbell is never going to be about schlocky thrills. Not that I am against schlocky thrills! But he's not that author.
The most gripping sequence occurs near the end, when one of the cast slowly, almost subconsciously, begins to understand the nature of the threat and forces some of her co-workers to actually work together with her, in a way that seems irrational to them, but also in a way that literalizes the idea that people have to help each other if they want to move forward. A simple message and a profound one.
moral of the tale : if you let the daily pressures and pettiness of life rule you, if you can't live with your fellow humans without being toxic or violent... you may as well be dead
August 15, 2022
A book that is supposed to be a horror book set in a bookstore, well what could go wrong? Apparently a lot...
This is a thirteen POV book, told by the POV´s of way too many people.
With literally 13 different main characters and 13 different POVs I had such a hard time trying to keep up with everything and with everybodies story. There were just too many main character and I ended up not caring about a single one of them because their stories got so muddled together. I think a few less main characters would have done this book good, in my opinion even 6 main stories and POVs is a bit much to keep up and that should be the maximum.
There were not really any side characters because everyone and their mother seemed to be a main character in this, so I can´t judge the book on side characters.
The plot felt so tedious. The extreme amount of POVs made the pacing so slow and the book feel so boring. Everytime something did happen and I got a bit interested in the book, the POV switched again and I was left with an open ending to what happened to that person. Regarding the horror aspect of this book, there wasn´t really any until the very, very end of the book. Normally I am a person who scares easily (even with books) but this didn´t faze me at all. They hear a few voices and that is basically it and then in the end they decide to all go off on their own, because that works so amazingly well every time as we all know. Also sadly no surprising twists or turns.
Overall it was a not so great read that just wasn´t for me. I´m glad I didn´t spend that much money on it.
trigger warnings: death/loss of loved ones
This is a thirteen POV book, told by the POV´s of way too many people.
With literally 13 different main characters and 13 different POVs I had such a hard time trying to keep up with everything and with everybodies story. There were just too many main character and I ended up not caring about a single one of them because their stories got so muddled together. I think a few less main characters would have done this book good, in my opinion even 6 main stories and POVs is a bit much to keep up and that should be the maximum.
There were not really any side characters because everyone and their mother seemed to be a main character in this, so I can´t judge the book on side characters.
The plot felt so tedious. The extreme amount of POVs made the pacing so slow and the book feel so boring. Everytime something did happen and I got a bit interested in the book, the POV switched again and I was left with an open ending to what happened to that person. Regarding the horror aspect of this book, there wasn´t really any until the very, very end of the book. Normally I am a person who scares easily (even with books) but this didn´t faze me at all. They hear a few voices and that is basically it and then in the end they decide to all go off on their own, because that works so amazingly well every time as we all know. Also sadly no surprising twists or turns.
Overall it was a not so great read that just wasn´t for me. I´m glad I didn´t spend that much money on it.
trigger warnings: death/loss of loved ones
September 10, 2018
This hard cover edition is copy 28 of 500 and is signed by Ramsey Campbell. Note a slipcased edition was also produced.
Campbell reveals in his acknowledgments that he found himself short of funds in March 2001 and went to work at a British branch of Borders. In the story the book store staff is assembled together for an overnight stock sake and the things outside move inside. The characters are under attack and they don't even realize it. Not until too late for most of them anyway.
Campbell reveals in his acknowledgments that he found himself short of funds in March 2001 and went to work at a British branch of Borders. In the story the book store staff is assembled together for an overnight stock sake and the things outside move inside. The characters are under attack and they don't even realize it. Not until too late for most of them anyway.
March 9, 2021
Every time I try to read one of Ramsey Campbell’s novels I vacillate from frustration to terror to boredom to nail-biting. EVERY DAMN TIME. I relate so much more to his short fiction but I really do love his writing and this swampy journey was no exception. Having worked in several bookstores over the years, Mr. Campbell did a commendable job of capturing both the pressure and monotony of retail “box store” book selling. The Lovecraftian murk was an added touch. I was initially irritated that all of the characters were so detestable but I ultimately understand why they needed to be. The horror was almost wholly atmospheric but there were some gasp-inducing moments that would be awesome on film. Overall, this lengthy slow-burn of a novel was quite rewarding in the end albeit a bit depressing as well. Once you finish reading it, I recommend breathing in some fresh air and watching “The Booksellers” documentary.
July 17, 2008
I've taken dumps that were more frightening than this book.
I've worked in bookstores: new, used, independent and big-ass chain stores. You want scary? Write about the incompetence rife in Barnes & McNoble's management. I've been out of there for more than a decade & I still twitch sometimes late at night (and occasionally over daiquiris in the afternoon). The horror...
Hold me.
I've worked in bookstores: new, used, independent and big-ass chain stores. You want scary? Write about the incompetence rife in Barnes & McNoble's management. I've been out of there for more than a decade & I still twitch sometimes late at night (and occasionally over daiquiris in the afternoon). The horror...
Hold me.
December 21, 2018
This book was super trippy. Also, it had plenty of Machen overtones.
October 12, 2022
I thought this would be a homerun. I love horror and I love book stores and obviously I love books. Easy recipe for success right?
Well not quite. This was my introduction to Ramsey Campbell and it was a decent intro and it won't deter me from trying another one of his novels. With that said, This was an average read for me.
The pros are very well done. The first half of the book definitely was slow but it built atmosphere. The attitude between co workers, the misplaced books, the vehicular man slaughter, the sudden onset of a characters dyslexia, the eerie fog, the phone calls, all built tremendous suspense and horror. I do wish the author dove into the violent past of Fenny Meadows more. The "sluggies" themselves were fun to read about and some deaths were well done and , although not gory, definitely horrific. For me, the last page of Jill's last chapter was the scariest part of the book. That was great writing.
The cons- well I didn't like the fact that the climax seemed too anticlimactic. The slow burn and buildup was too much for what the ending presented. I thought this overnight was going to be epic in a violent / gory sort of way. It was not, although not alot of ppl survived. I didn't like the multiple POVs for every character. Each chapter was through the eyes of a different worker. Also, I understand that ppl need jobs, but I didn't understand how not one character told Woody, to keep this job and shove it.
Overall , 3 to 3.5 stars .
Well not quite. This was my introduction to Ramsey Campbell and it was a decent intro and it won't deter me from trying another one of his novels. With that said, This was an average read for me.
The pros are very well done. The first half of the book definitely was slow but it built atmosphere. The attitude between co workers, the misplaced books, the vehicular man slaughter, the sudden onset of a characters dyslexia, the eerie fog, the phone calls, all built tremendous suspense and horror. I do wish the author dove into the violent past of Fenny Meadows more. The "sluggies" themselves were fun to read about and some deaths were well done and , although not gory, definitely horrific. For me, the last page of Jill's last chapter was the scariest part of the book. That was great writing.
The cons- well I didn't like the fact that the climax seemed too anticlimactic. The slow burn and buildup was too much for what the ending presented. I thought this overnight was going to be epic in a violent / gory sort of way. It was not, although not alot of ppl survived. I didn't like the multiple POVs for every character. Each chapter was through the eyes of a different worker. Also, I understand that ppl need jobs, but I didn't understand how not one character told Woody, to keep this job and shove it.
Overall , 3 to 3.5 stars .
January 20, 2009
I expected to adore this book, because I love bookstores and I love horror, so what could be better than combining them? As it turns out, what could be better is combining them and then actually writing a climax and ending that had anything at all to do with the previous foreshadowing and buildup.
To me, it seemed as if Campbell spent about two-thirds of the book preparing to tell a story, and then got bored and decided to just have some monsters eat everyone instead of actually telling that story. The hints at backstory we're given about the bookstore's violent past and the seething tensions set up among the cast of Texts employees strongly suggested (at least to me) that something truly horrifying, not just on a supernatural level but on a human level, was going to happen once the doors were locked for that fateful overnight inventory.
Instead... well, some monsters ate everyone. And a certain character who had become steadily more detestable, repulsive and even frightening over the course of the novel is suddenly snapped back into the role of protagonist at the end-- I suppose it can be explained away by the novel's constant switching of POVs, but it was still jarring, especially since I was fully expecting that character to go in the exact opposite direction and become the true "villain" of the piece.
Admittedly, the creepy atmosphere is built effectively, and some of the satirical character moments are well-done... and the ambiguous ending of Jill's final POV chapter is incredibly disturbing in a subtle way, and one of the more effective horror moments I've read recently. Too bad it couldn't have found a place in an overall better book.
To me, it seemed as if Campbell spent about two-thirds of the book preparing to tell a story, and then got bored and decided to just have some monsters eat everyone instead of actually telling that story. The hints at backstory we're given about the bookstore's violent past and the seething tensions set up among the cast of Texts employees strongly suggested (at least to me) that something truly horrifying, not just on a supernatural level but on a human level, was going to happen once the doors were locked for that fateful overnight inventory.
Instead... well, some monsters ate everyone. And a certain character who had become steadily more detestable, repulsive and even frightening over the course of the novel is suddenly snapped back into the role of protagonist at the end-- I suppose it can be explained away by the novel's constant switching of POVs, but it was still jarring, especially since I was fully expecting that character to go in the exact opposite direction and become the true "villain" of the piece.
Admittedly, the creepy atmosphere is built effectively, and some of the satirical character moments are well-done... and the ambiguous ending of Jill's final POV chapter is incredibly disturbing in a subtle way, and one of the more effective horror moments I've read recently. Too bad it couldn't have found a place in an overall better book.
October 13, 2024
My buddy-reader made me read this because the author used to have as much shelf space in bookstores in the 80s. this book even won an award for crying out loud.
The premise, too, sounded as if it would be right up my alley:
Weird things keep happenign in a bookstore to its employees. Books suddenly stand on the shelf the wrong way round, orders disappear, books turn up damaged, stuff topples down off carts and (eventually) someone is even killed. Particularly this last incident has the employees turning on each other. Even the electronics right down to the security cameras are no help.
So the store's manager decides to have an overnight stay and the store and that might be the worst idea in the history of disastrous ideas.
Sounds great, right? Well, I never even made it to the supernatural stuff. I get that wokring in retail is horror enough for many people, but it wasn't enough for me. The writing wasn't actually BAD but it wasn't truly great, let alone riveting. In short. I got bored.
In the end, I DNFed the book even and anyone knowing me for only 3 seconds knows that I hardly ever do that.
Too bad, considering the trouble I went to to get a copy of this since there is no audio available.
The premise, too, sounded as if it would be right up my alley:
Weird things keep happenign in a bookstore to its employees. Books suddenly stand on the shelf the wrong way round, orders disappear, books turn up damaged, stuff topples down off carts and (eventually) someone is even killed. Particularly this last incident has the employees turning on each other. Even the electronics right down to the security cameras are no help.
So the store's manager decides to have an overnight stay and the store and that might be the worst idea in the history of disastrous ideas.
Sounds great, right? Well, I never even made it to the supernatural stuff. I get that wokring in retail is horror enough for many people, but it wasn't enough for me. The writing wasn't actually BAD but it wasn't truly great, let alone riveting. In short. I got bored.
In the end, I DNFed the book even and anyone knowing me for only 3 seconds knows that I hardly ever do that.
Too bad, considering the trouble I went to to get a copy of this since there is no audio available.
July 15, 2013
Gotta say, that Ramsey Campbell writes some pretty disturbing sh*t .... Not in the Stephen-King-piledriver sense at all (see Under the Dome)... almost the opposite – Campbell crawls inside your head, gets nice and comfy, and then opens up his little box of dark slimy things after it's too late for you to uninvite him. As of this writing, I am about 75% of the way through both this book, and Silent Children, and I have, shall we say, paused for a while, because both tales have gotten to the point where they have become more or less relentlessly disturbing, in a way that King or D. Koontz hardly ever is. King, for example, always breaks up his horror with humor. But there is nothing funny going on in the last 30% of The Overnight, and it requires a certain grim dedication to, even relish for, the sheer horror of the situation, to keep on reading in earnest. I do intend to do this! But I want to do it when I'm in the proper frame of mind, so that I can properly appreciate the horrific sequence of events for which Campbell has so carefully, even lovingly, prepared us.
A word of mild warning: Some readers will find said "preparation" to be intolerably "slow" or "boring" or "pointless". I say this without having read any other reviews of the book because, as I say, I haven't finished reading it yet, and I don't wish to be confronted with anything even remotely resembling a "spoiler"! But let me say, the comments of anyone who makes this sort of remark really should be taken with a serious chunk of salt; I do believe it says more about their troublesome attention spans than it does about the book they're reading, and more about their unwillingness to invest more than a minimal amount of energy in a book in return for its "payoff". Most readers who are in that category probably haven't even gotten that far in this review, I imagine. But if you are, and if you have, please forgive me for intentionally making fun of you, but also consider the possibility that The Overnight, and Ramsey Campbell in general, may not be "your cup of tea". Not entirely sure it's mine, either ... but we'll see.
UPDATE: Finished the book, and my rating stands, although the ending did pack more of a punch than I expected ... another example of Campbell's insidious writerly ways of shocking the reader but saving the most unsettling shocks -- appropriately enough -- for the end.
A word of mild warning: Some readers will find said "preparation" to be intolerably "slow" or "boring" or "pointless". I say this without having read any other reviews of the book because, as I say, I haven't finished reading it yet, and I don't wish to be confronted with anything even remotely resembling a "spoiler"! But let me say, the comments of anyone who makes this sort of remark really should be taken with a serious chunk of salt; I do believe it says more about their troublesome attention spans than it does about the book they're reading, and more about their unwillingness to invest more than a minimal amount of energy in a book in return for its "payoff". Most readers who are in that category probably haven't even gotten that far in this review, I imagine. But if you are, and if you have, please forgive me for intentionally making fun of you, but also consider the possibility that The Overnight, and Ramsey Campbell in general, may not be "your cup of tea". Not entirely sure it's mine, either ... but we'll see.
UPDATE: Finished the book, and my rating stands, although the ending did pack more of a punch than I expected ... another example of Campbell's insidious writerly ways of shocking the reader but saving the most unsettling shocks -- appropriately enough -- for the end.
Read
August 10, 2020DNF on page.... 30. LOL.
My coworker lent me this because we both enjoy horror, but I cannot, for the life of me, find the motivation to read this. Seeing mostly negative reviews doesn’t help either.
Not sure how I’m gonna break the news when I give this book back to its owner?!?
My coworker lent me this because we both enjoy horror, but I cannot, for the life of me, find the motivation to read this. Seeing mostly negative reviews doesn’t help either.
Not sure how I’m gonna break the news when I give this book back to its owner?!?
February 19, 2013
Ramsey Campbell is an author seemingly as prolific as he is influential – I'm a big fan, but I've still got a number of his books to read. Fortunately my wife got me four of his books newly reissued as paperbacks from PS Publishing for Christmas. The first I've read is The Overnight.
(Before we start, I’ll say that these paperbacks from PS Publishing are very good quality-wise – not something I often notice with paperbacks, but these are nice books to read, seemingly on better paper than most paperbacks and with good covers and designs. But anyway.)
This edition has an interesting and enthusiastic introduction from Mark Morris – obviously a keen fan of Campbell, and as he admits possibly an indirect catalyst of the book itself, because it was Morris who first got Campbell a job in a bookshop... and The Overnight is set in Texts, a bookshop in a foggy retail park known as Fenny Meadows. (Incidentally, the fact that an author as talented as Campbell had to get a job to support his writing is profoundly depressing, isn't it? We should be putting up statues of the man, not have him stacking bookshelves.)
I suspect some horror fans won’t get on with The Overnight. The story is told from multiple points of view, and there is a looooong build up before things get truly nasty (but believe me, they do). Some of the devices used to generate tension in the earlier sections of the novel might seem hackneyed in lesser hands – unseasonal fog, mysterious noises, strange substances like slug-trails ignored. In his short stories, Campbell is the master of describing partially seen horrors that the characters rationalise away (and sometimes that refusal to see is as scary as the thing itself). Here, over the length of a full novel, it can sometimes seem annoying that all of the characters constantly display the same trait: not one of them thinking the thing that looks like an evil-fog-monster-thingy might actually be an evil-fog-monster-thingy.
But this adds a strength to the narrative as well - each character only sees part of the picture; it’s only the reader who sees the connections, only the reader who realises just how bad things are getting out there in the fog... Of course if they were talking to each other, the employees of Texts might realise too, but the book's characters often seem like they are talking a different language to each other (and not just between the American manager Woody and the rest of them). One of the themes of The Overnight is miscommunication: arguments & misunderstandings between the characters; electronic voices failing in the lift and on the speakers; videos becoming corrupted and books unreadable... and the taunting, mimicing voices of the unseen things themselves.
The final third of the book is a compelling set-piece, as Woody gathers all of his staff together for an overnight stock-take and the things outside move in - the characters are under attack and they don't even realise. Well, not until too late for most of them anyway - it's hardly a spoiler to say that not all the characters make it out of Texts alive. But, as befitting a novel about how miscommunication can leave us isolated, most (but importantly not all) of those who do die do so alone, unable even to warn the others...
It's a bleak message, but an exhilarating book. Highly, highly recommended.
(Before we start, I’ll say that these paperbacks from PS Publishing are very good quality-wise – not something I often notice with paperbacks, but these are nice books to read, seemingly on better paper than most paperbacks and with good covers and designs. But anyway.)
This edition has an interesting and enthusiastic introduction from Mark Morris – obviously a keen fan of Campbell, and as he admits possibly an indirect catalyst of the book itself, because it was Morris who first got Campbell a job in a bookshop... and The Overnight is set in Texts, a bookshop in a foggy retail park known as Fenny Meadows. (Incidentally, the fact that an author as talented as Campbell had to get a job to support his writing is profoundly depressing, isn't it? We should be putting up statues of the man, not have him stacking bookshelves.)
I suspect some horror fans won’t get on with The Overnight. The story is told from multiple points of view, and there is a looooong build up before things get truly nasty (but believe me, they do). Some of the devices used to generate tension in the earlier sections of the novel might seem hackneyed in lesser hands – unseasonal fog, mysterious noises, strange substances like slug-trails ignored. In his short stories, Campbell is the master of describing partially seen horrors that the characters rationalise away (and sometimes that refusal to see is as scary as the thing itself). Here, over the length of a full novel, it can sometimes seem annoying that all of the characters constantly display the same trait: not one of them thinking the thing that looks like an evil-fog-monster-thingy might actually be an evil-fog-monster-thingy.
But this adds a strength to the narrative as well - each character only sees part of the picture; it’s only the reader who sees the connections, only the reader who realises just how bad things are getting out there in the fog... Of course if they were talking to each other, the employees of Texts might realise too, but the book's characters often seem like they are talking a different language to each other (and not just between the American manager Woody and the rest of them). One of the themes of The Overnight is miscommunication: arguments & misunderstandings between the characters; electronic voices failing in the lift and on the speakers; videos becoming corrupted and books unreadable... and the taunting, mimicing voices of the unseen things themselves.
The final third of the book is a compelling set-piece, as Woody gathers all of his staff together for an overnight stock-take and the things outside move in - the characters are under attack and they don't even realise. Well, not until too late for most of them anyway - it's hardly a spoiler to say that not all the characters make it out of Texts alive. But, as befitting a novel about how miscommunication can leave us isolated, most (but importantly not all) of those who do die do so alone, unable even to warn the others...
It's a bleak message, but an exhilarating book. Highly, highly recommended.
January 30, 2018
This is one of those novels I've wanted to read for many years now, partly because I'm a fan of Campbell's work in general, and partly because, as someone who has worked as a bookseller since 2004 (which, coincidentally, is the year this novel was published), the subject matter (a haunted bookstore) seemed of interest to me. And yet for whatever reason I just kept putting it off... it probably doesn't help that it seemed to get a lot of very negative reviews. But I finally got to it recently and I really enjoyed it, and while not without its flaws (at over 400 pages, it does seem a little lengthy for a Campbell novel, most of which usually fall somewhere in the 300-350 page range), overall I found it a genuinely enjoyable reading experience. One thing that differentiates this book from others of his that I've read is that it has a very large main cast, and he made the decision to make each chapter the point of view of a specific character (I recall he did something similar in his novel Obsession, though with a far smaller cast): but because there are 13 POV characters and only 27 chapters, most characters only get 2 chapters at most from their perspective. With its numerous mentions to mud and fog, the decayed atmosphere generated by the book is quite oppressive and suffocating, and despite all the negative reviews that complain about how boring the book is I found some scenes in the second half to be quite creepy... the ending of one chapter towards the very end of the book in particular concludes on a note of chilling ambiguity. But I think the main reason why I like this book was I found it interesting comparing my experiences as an American Barnes & Noble employee to that of a British Borders employee (though it must be said Campbell only worked at Borders for around half a year, whereas I'm still truckin'), and noting the similarities and differences. In some ways this book made me very nostalgic, because the store operations and procedures described herein reminded me of my first few years on the job, before the advent of accursed e-reader devices. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I think this book's ideal audience are readers who have worked at a major mainstream bookstore chain...
June 25, 2010
This slow-burn British flesh-crawler is populated by a mostly unlikable group of rather dreary worker bees who succumb one by one to the nasty supernatural evil that rules over the Borders-like corporate-owned bookstore that employs them. A lot of people here really seemed to hate this book and I can understand the feeling – the characters are hard to root for and the length of the novel is perhaps excessive (I could’ve lopped off a good 75 pages at least, with no discernable detriment to the overall story). The subtle satire of the soulless corporation almost literally consuming its drones is clever, and there are more than a few major creep-outs: one character gets trapped in a cramped lift with all the lights extinguished, with something awful eventually paying her a visit and my claustrophobia went into hyperdrive. Plus it all wraps up satisfyingly, with a few surprises here and there. Ramsey Campbell is considered one of our finest contemporary horror writers, and I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment, but I think he’s strongest in the short story format; perhaps The Overnight might have worked best as a longish short story or even a novella. The characters here are, as usual in a Campbell narrative, drab, ordinary, smaller-than-life specimens - not the most thrilling company to keep for 390 pages, though the human villain, the bossman named Woody, is definitely colorful in a thoroughly obnoxious way. In the end I would recommend this mostly to devoted fans and advise the casual horror reader to look elsewhere.
February 19, 2008
This really struck me as one of those books that famous people write because they know someone will buy it, and not because they have anything worthwhile to say. I mean, come on, a haunted Borders? By the end I was just counting the pages until it was done.
While he hinted at some dark and gruesome history to the place, he never actually made clear what that history was, and it felt he just killed everyone off so that he could call it good and say he'd finished the book.
For the king of atmospheric horror, this was about the dullest thing I think he could make. It didn't even have the frenzied claustrophobia of The Hungry Moon to redeem it.
Granted, I did like that the single mother and the druggie survived, but that's only due to the principle of the thing, and not because I was ever given a particularly good reason to like them. Also, it did have the trademark Campbell twist, where the reader can't decide if the spooky things are spookier, or the mundane stupidity of the outside world, and I like that.
Overall, I'd rather have a quick and mildly amusing read like this than another book like Instance of the Fingerpost weighing on me, but that doesn't mean I'd go out of my way to find it.
While he hinted at some dark and gruesome history to the place, he never actually made clear what that history was, and it felt he just killed everyone off so that he could call it good and say he'd finished the book.
For the king of atmospheric horror, this was about the dullest thing I think he could make. It didn't even have the frenzied claustrophobia of The Hungry Moon to redeem it.
Granted, I did like that the single mother and the druggie survived, but that's only due to the principle of the thing, and not because I was ever given a particularly good reason to like them. Also, it did have the trademark Campbell twist, where the reader can't decide if the spooky things are spookier, or the mundane stupidity of the outside world, and I like that.
Overall, I'd rather have a quick and mildly amusing read like this than another book like Instance of the Fingerpost weighing on me, but that doesn't mean I'd go out of my way to find it.
June 4, 2023
Casi me veo en la obligación de escribir esta reseña, pues creo que tengo que advertir de lo tremendamente soporífera que es esta novela.
La sinopsis cuenta que en una librería empiezan a ocurrir cosas extrañas y que unos seres extraños que viven en el sótano de la librería son los causantes de esos fenómenos y de incluso alguna muerte. Visto así parecía tener buena pinta. Pues bien, lo más interesante ocurrido en las primeras 240 páginas es que una persona llama a la librería y luego cuelga antes de dar el nombre, lo cual crea una discusión entre varios empleados, y que cada vez que hacen unos folletos publicitarios acaban siempre teniendo faltas de ortografía.
Tal cual, eso es lo más destacado.
Cuando iba leyendo páginas, como siempre hay una niebla que va envolviendo la librería y alrededores, pensaba que podía tener dejes de ' La niebla' de Stephen King. Y como era una obra coral, en la que aparecen muchos personajes,y ninguno parece tener más importancia que otro, y que además se intuyen discusiones entre ellos, también me recordaba a ' La tienda', también de King. Pero cuan equivocado estaba. Cero de ritmo, cero inquietud, cero problemas con un mínimo de sentido, cero de una buena ambientación.
Cuando minimamente aumenta el ritmo, aunque sigue siendo con problemas estúpidos, es a partir de la página 240. Pero es que los seres del sótano apenas aparecen las últimas 10 paginas, y ni siquiera al final ofrecen una digna explicación de porqué ocurre lo que ocurre.
Como lectura de una narrativa pausada se podría recomendar, pero para las personas a las que les gusta sentir inquietud y angustia lo que les recomiendo es que lean a partir de la página 240, como si fuera un relato largo, ya que no hace falta saber todas las aburridas vidas de todos los personajes para entender el final.
Lo último que quiero comentar es que en poco tiempo he leído 3 libros de Ramsey Campbell. El primero fue 'Nazareth Hill', que me defraudó muchisimo; el segundo fue 'Influencia', que me gustó mucho, pues de principio a fin sientes angustia y terror; y el tercero es este, que tampoco me ha gustado nada. Con esto quiero decir que si quieren sentir incertidumbre y un buen terror psicológico, y no cientos de páginas de relleno lean 'Influencia'.
La sinopsis cuenta que en una librería empiezan a ocurrir cosas extrañas y que unos seres extraños que viven en el sótano de la librería son los causantes de esos fenómenos y de incluso alguna muerte. Visto así parecía tener buena pinta. Pues bien, lo más interesante ocurrido en las primeras 240 páginas es que una persona llama a la librería y luego cuelga antes de dar el nombre, lo cual crea una discusión entre varios empleados, y que cada vez que hacen unos folletos publicitarios acaban siempre teniendo faltas de ortografía.
Tal cual, eso es lo más destacado.
Cuando iba leyendo páginas, como siempre hay una niebla que va envolviendo la librería y alrededores, pensaba que podía tener dejes de ' La niebla' de Stephen King. Y como era una obra coral, en la que aparecen muchos personajes,y ninguno parece tener más importancia que otro, y que además se intuyen discusiones entre ellos, también me recordaba a ' La tienda', también de King. Pero cuan equivocado estaba. Cero de ritmo, cero inquietud, cero problemas con un mínimo de sentido, cero de una buena ambientación.
Cuando minimamente aumenta el ritmo, aunque sigue siendo con problemas estúpidos, es a partir de la página 240. Pero es que los seres del sótano apenas aparecen las últimas 10 paginas, y ni siquiera al final ofrecen una digna explicación de porqué ocurre lo que ocurre.
Como lectura de una narrativa pausada se podría recomendar, pero para las personas a las que les gusta sentir inquietud y angustia lo que les recomiendo es que lean a partir de la página 240, como si fuera un relato largo, ya que no hace falta saber todas las aburridas vidas de todos los personajes para entender el final.
Lo último que quiero comentar es que en poco tiempo he leído 3 libros de Ramsey Campbell. El primero fue 'Nazareth Hill', que me defraudó muchisimo; el segundo fue 'Influencia', que me gustó mucho, pues de principio a fin sientes angustia y terror; y el tercero es este, que tampoco me ha gustado nada. Con esto quiero decir que si quieren sentir incertidumbre y un buen terror psicológico, y no cientos de páginas de relleno lean 'Influencia'.
July 25, 2015
I love bookshops. I love the feel of being surrounded by books. They transport you into worlds you would otherwise never visit. Ramsey Campbell worked, for a couple of years, in a branch of Borders, in Cheshire and his inside knowledge of the mundane routines of shelf-stacking and stock rotation are put to good use here. Especially when things start to happen during the performance of those daily tasks.
It starts with a fog. seemingly innocuous enough at first - well, the store is on a retail park called Fenny Meadows - marshland all around providing a magnet for low lying, swirling mists. But this fog persists, it gets worse. It invades, insinuates itself and provides a highly effective cloak for whatever is lurking in its shadowy depths. The author builds the plot and characters deliciously. A mysterious death, staff behaving oddly - or are they? Wonderful tension between the characters that we can all relate to in a working environment. The action moves forward. By now there can be no doubt in the reader's mind that something is about to go horribly wrong for the staff of Texts. Then comes the overnight shift... Wonderful reading. Highly recommended.
It starts with a fog. seemingly innocuous enough at first - well, the store is on a retail park called Fenny Meadows - marshland all around providing a magnet for low lying, swirling mists. But this fog persists, it gets worse. It invades, insinuates itself and provides a highly effective cloak for whatever is lurking in its shadowy depths. The author builds the plot and characters deliciously. A mysterious death, staff behaving oddly - or are they? Wonderful tension between the characters that we can all relate to in a working environment. The action moves forward. By now there can be no doubt in the reader's mind that something is about to go horribly wrong for the staff of Texts. Then comes the overnight shift... Wonderful reading. Highly recommended.
November 8, 2016
Ugh! This is one of the worst books I have ever read!
I picked it up because I thought it was about a haunted bookstore. I work in a bookstore, so I thought "Cool, this could be fun and spooky". Wrong!
I was 3/4 the way through the book before anything really happened, and even then it wasn't much. I kept reading though, thinking ok, it's going to get better, have a good ending. Wrong.
What a pointless, disjointed mess of a book!
Anyone who is thinking of reading this, don't!
Shame on you Ramsey Campbell for this total waste of time!
I picked it up because I thought it was about a haunted bookstore. I work in a bookstore, so I thought "Cool, this could be fun and spooky". Wrong!
I was 3/4 the way through the book before anything really happened, and even then it wasn't much. I kept reading though, thinking ok, it's going to get better, have a good ending. Wrong.
What a pointless, disjointed mess of a book!
Anyone who is thinking of reading this, don't!
Shame on you Ramsey Campbell for this total waste of time!
November 11, 2010
I always wanted to work in a bookstore. Ramsey Campbell did and it inspired him to write a book that will make you want to never ever even consider thinking that shelving books for a living could be fun. The book itself is pretty slow and reserved for a horror genre, scarier than the creatures is the mundane work place rut and the soul sucking passive aggressive co-workers. That, I think, Campbell captures very accurately. I don't yet know what to make of him as a horror writer, but I think I like him as a writer and I'd read more books by him.
May 24, 2009
This book was like reading a policy manual for a new job. I felt like I'd been hired on at an only slightly interesting bookstore. A few chapters in I started to feel the grass would be greener at a different job, I mean book. Seriously, way too much detail about the bookstores procedures. It did not add anything to the plot or characters descriptions!
July 3, 2009
It took me over 300 pages to realize I hated this book. British restraint isn't the most conducive thing to horror... countless descriptions of the greyness of fog just aren't scary. Quit reading it, and still wonder why I didn't make that decision sooner.
September 13, 2010
A horror novel with not a single sign of anything horrific for the first 160 pages, except a ghost who sets off alarms and makes computers misspell words? A lame book by any standard.
August 2, 2023
Primer acercamiento al autor. Puede que el último.
August 27, 2007
I would have given this two and a half stars if I had the option. Instead it gets two. The writing feels awkward at times, and the pace of the book is on the slow side. By the time the horror begins I was thinking oh good now it will get exciting, except that it became obvious very quickly that the bad things would happen in a formulaic manner. I'd say more but it might ruin the experience for others, and I like knowing that my own painful experiences may one day be experienced by others in a similar manner as I experienced them. Although the moment when I realized that the plot was sort of ripped off from a late 1980's sequel made the already persistent feeling that I was only wasting my time reading this swell to new heights of disappointment. On second thought now this book does deserve 2 stars.
February 15, 2021
This one gave me nightmares but he had the chain store details dead right. A horror writer too scary for me to keep reading.
Library copy
Library copy
August 2, 2017
Another classic Ramsey Campbell, who brings to like stark terror in the mundane fears, conflicts, and weaknesses humans have. His work derives its punch from a surreal sense of displacement, confusion, and the way we flail our way through life.
November 22, 2007
Campbell manages to superbly capture the unique social hierarchy and experience of working in a book store. He offers a fun yet sharp edged take of everything from corporate policy, to weird customers, to inter-employee politics, and so on.
There is no term which can better describe this book than “slow burn.” The novel is divided into chapters, each chapter titled with a character’s name rather than a chapter number. This gives us a chance to get to know the myriad cast of characters by dividing out clearly, little chunks of the book dedicated to each. Almost right from the start, we see a gradual change in each character’s personality. The effect the store has on each character is to simply make them more and more irritable towards each other. In fact, seventy-five percent of the book is comprised of the characters not getting along with each other. While this creates the “slow burn” that pushes us towards the book's final act, it also renders most all of the characters very unpleasant. It’s not that the characters aren’t fully developed; they are. You simply have to be prepared for about three hundred pages of bickering. Of course Campbell, being the great writer he is, uses these petty conflicts to bring out small background and personality details in each character. So, I must warn you, that if you’re the type of reader who demands likable characters, you might have a problem with this book.
The problems I had with this book were ones of a contradictory nature. While I like the amount of the novel dedicated to character development, I found that what we did learn about each person only really scratched the surface and resulted in somewhat easy to describe characters: the gay one, the corporate stooge, the single mother, the drug user, etc. Also, I felt a bit let down by the amount of closure at the end of the book. A handful of the character’s fates are not explored. While I often like that kind of ambiguity and being given the responsibility of having to make your own mind up about a few things, I just felt that after this “slow burn” towards a climax, the climax just wasn’t very climactic. Especially after having some trouble with the incredible amount of nastiness between characters,
I felt I really needed that payoff.
Now, I do not wish to imply that the supernatural shit never hits the fan, because it does, and these parts are easily the best bits of the book and what Ramsey Campbell does best. The threat remains unclear throughout the entirety of the novel, right down to how it manifests itself. We are never given a very clear description of anything. All of the threats are half glimpsed or dismissed as nerves or imagination lending a wonderfully creepy “there’s something just around the corner” feel to the whole affair. While the scary bits are highly satisfying on a visceral level, Campbell’s use of the slowly encroaching fog and the idea of the store and its employees being “swallowed up” by the earth itself as a metaphor for the place of books and book lovers in our modern world is simply brilliant. This book is definitely not going to be an easy read for everyone, and those who like their horror purely blood and guts should look elsewhere. However, that said, if your looking for something different and creepy I recommend this book, especially if you’ve ever worked retail.
There is no term which can better describe this book than “slow burn.” The novel is divided into chapters, each chapter titled with a character’s name rather than a chapter number. This gives us a chance to get to know the myriad cast of characters by dividing out clearly, little chunks of the book dedicated to each. Almost right from the start, we see a gradual change in each character’s personality. The effect the store has on each character is to simply make them more and more irritable towards each other. In fact, seventy-five percent of the book is comprised of the characters not getting along with each other. While this creates the “slow burn” that pushes us towards the book's final act, it also renders most all of the characters very unpleasant. It’s not that the characters aren’t fully developed; they are. You simply have to be prepared for about three hundred pages of bickering. Of course Campbell, being the great writer he is, uses these petty conflicts to bring out small background and personality details in each character. So, I must warn you, that if you’re the type of reader who demands likable characters, you might have a problem with this book.
The problems I had with this book were ones of a contradictory nature. While I like the amount of the novel dedicated to character development, I found that what we did learn about each person only really scratched the surface and resulted in somewhat easy to describe characters: the gay one, the corporate stooge, the single mother, the drug user, etc. Also, I felt a bit let down by the amount of closure at the end of the book. A handful of the character’s fates are not explored. While I often like that kind of ambiguity and being given the responsibility of having to make your own mind up about a few things, I just felt that after this “slow burn” towards a climax, the climax just wasn’t very climactic. Especially after having some trouble with the incredible amount of nastiness between characters,
I felt I really needed that payoff.
Now, I do not wish to imply that the supernatural shit never hits the fan, because it does, and these parts are easily the best bits of the book and what Ramsey Campbell does best. The threat remains unclear throughout the entirety of the novel, right down to how it manifests itself. We are never given a very clear description of anything. All of the threats are half glimpsed or dismissed as nerves or imagination lending a wonderfully creepy “there’s something just around the corner” feel to the whole affair. While the scary bits are highly satisfying on a visceral level, Campbell’s use of the slowly encroaching fog and the idea of the store and its employees being “swallowed up” by the earth itself as a metaphor for the place of books and book lovers in our modern world is simply brilliant. This book is definitely not going to be an easy read for everyone, and those who like their horror purely blood and guts should look elsewhere. However, that said, if your looking for something different and creepy I recommend this book, especially if you’ve ever worked retail.
April 29, 2013
Any self-proclaimed aficionado of horror, be it in any form, ought to be ashamed of themselves if they aren't the least bit familiar with the brilliant body of work Ramsey Campbell has presented to the world over a period of time long enough to make him equal in ranks to horror literature as, say, Asimov, Heinlein and (Arthur C.) Clarke is to science fiction, what Romero or Argento are to genre film. Do your homework and find out for yourselves, for those of you who don't know any better.
Now take the author and exclude him from the mix, and let's look at this book as a work without any presuppositions, as if an unknown submitted an Overnight manuscript to my office and I had no idea who the hell wrote it.
That renders me with another bias: I myself was employed at a few book stores at one time or another, was a store assistant manager for a good while. I know what it's like pulling an overnighter in one of those places, in an unfamiliar part of town, working my ass off trying to ready the establishment for an inspection by the corporate top brass the next day.
That's exactly what's going on at an English branch of the retail book store chain "Texts," situated in the always abnormally foggy Fenny Meadows retail park. Sinister and shapeless forces lurk there in the fog, and store manager Woody Blake's team of employees must deal with a cavalcade of poltergeist-like mischief that time and again confounds their efforts to have the store in top shape by dawn.
That mischief starts to get nasty. Employees begin dying in ways that can't be totally explained and progress "overnight" into an utterly hallucinatory and claustrophobic nightmare. All the while, Woody's office door mysteriously locks him in, keeping him oblivious to the mayhem afoot and the fact that he's loosing his team, one by one, to the shadows that claimed the store and the souls within as their own. All Woody's concerned about, throughout, is whether or not his team are on their toes and dealing with their problems in a timely manner, and always with a smile.
Indeed, Campbell's brand of Mythos fiction resurfaces here, and this time before a backdrop of the familiar modern landscape of what it's like working in retail as a minimum-waged average Joe.
Under Lovecraftian conditions, of course.
A great home-alone, up-late-at-night read, expertly executed with a compact and vivid group of characters under dire situations you wouldn't want to be in. That's merely touching the surface of The Overnight. It makes for a good example of dark literature we should all pay attention to, because that's how it's done.
Ramsey's works, in particular The Parasite and the complete edition of The Face That Must Die, were profound early inspirations which motivated my own writing further into the macabre backwoods of telling stories. If it were not for Ramsey's writing and a roundup of a dozen or so others, yes, I'd still be a writer, but at this point I'd probably be only publishing cute poetic anecdotes for a newsletter the bar down the street puts out every month, and that would be the extent of where my professional writing life would be by now, without that sort of inspiration.
---originally from "Nick Reads & Reviews"
Now take the author and exclude him from the mix, and let's look at this book as a work without any presuppositions, as if an unknown submitted an Overnight manuscript to my office and I had no idea who the hell wrote it.
That renders me with another bias: I myself was employed at a few book stores at one time or another, was a store assistant manager for a good while. I know what it's like pulling an overnighter in one of those places, in an unfamiliar part of town, working my ass off trying to ready the establishment for an inspection by the corporate top brass the next day.
That's exactly what's going on at an English branch of the retail book store chain "Texts," situated in the always abnormally foggy Fenny Meadows retail park. Sinister and shapeless forces lurk there in the fog, and store manager Woody Blake's team of employees must deal with a cavalcade of poltergeist-like mischief that time and again confounds their efforts to have the store in top shape by dawn.
That mischief starts to get nasty. Employees begin dying in ways that can't be totally explained and progress "overnight" into an utterly hallucinatory and claustrophobic nightmare. All the while, Woody's office door mysteriously locks him in, keeping him oblivious to the mayhem afoot and the fact that he's loosing his team, one by one, to the shadows that claimed the store and the souls within as their own. All Woody's concerned about, throughout, is whether or not his team are on their toes and dealing with their problems in a timely manner, and always with a smile.
Indeed, Campbell's brand of Mythos fiction resurfaces here, and this time before a backdrop of the familiar modern landscape of what it's like working in retail as a minimum-waged average Joe.
Under Lovecraftian conditions, of course.
A great home-alone, up-late-at-night read, expertly executed with a compact and vivid group of characters under dire situations you wouldn't want to be in. That's merely touching the surface of The Overnight. It makes for a good example of dark literature we should all pay attention to, because that's how it's done.
Ramsey's works, in particular The Parasite and the complete edition of The Face That Must Die, were profound early inspirations which motivated my own writing further into the macabre backwoods of telling stories. If it were not for Ramsey's writing and a roundup of a dozen or so others, yes, I'd still be a writer, but at this point I'd probably be only publishing cute poetic anecdotes for a newsletter the bar down the street puts out every month, and that would be the extent of where my professional writing life would be by now, without that sort of inspiration.
---originally from "Nick Reads & Reviews"
July 19, 2015
US bookshop chain Texts opens its newest branch in Fenny Meadows, an as-yet unfinished retail park that soon proves to have a bit of a problem with fog — not to mention being the site of several ancient massacres. (Don’t they look into this sort of thing at the planning application stage?) When staff at the store seem to be losing the battle against poor sales, typos in promotional materials, constantly messed-up shelves, damaged books and a growing antipathy between themselves, manager Woody — a truly frightening caricature of corporate flag-waving and employee motivation — suggests they all work through the night to get ready for an executive visit. By this time, there’s already been one death among the staff, but things are about to get a lot worse.
Although by no means a bad novel, I wouldn’t say this is one of Campbell’s best. The supernatural horror element, though nicely subtle in its gradual build-up, is too unfocused to really mount up to a single horror. If it had just been the effect Fenny Meadows, with its dark and violent past, had on the staff (particularly the over-focused Woody), that would have made for an excellent story; but we also get a mix of gloopy, sloppy, muddy things emerging to add a bit of horror — why are they needed, if the supernatural force beneath the shop can get the humans to do the worst for themselves? They seem like horror elements brought in just for horrific effect (and rather standard horrific effect, as gloopy, sloppy, muddy things are Campbell’s go-to entity for horror) rather than to build up to some single, larger revelation. It’s a pity, as the title, The Overnight, sounds like a wonderful pun mixing the drudgery of work with Lovecraftian horror, but there’s not enough sense of the latter for this to be the case.
The Overnight is also something of a transitional work for Campbell, as it’s halfway towards the sort of dark, dry horror-comedy of his next novel, The Grin of the Dark (which is one of his best). The Overnight can be read as straight horror, but it works better if you see it as a slightly over-played and very dark absurdist horror-comedy about work. Woody is surely the best (though somewhat underused) part of the novel, in this regard — an over-zealous and inhuman corporate manic entirely focused on forcing his employees to smile at every moment. ‘There’s too much thinking getting in our way round here,’ being my favourite Woody quote.
Overall, I’d say The Overnight is for the Campbell fan (of which I’m one) than a reader new to his work. If you are new to Campbell, head for The Grin of the Dark. You know it’s waiting for you.
Although by no means a bad novel, I wouldn’t say this is one of Campbell’s best. The supernatural horror element, though nicely subtle in its gradual build-up, is too unfocused to really mount up to a single horror. If it had just been the effect Fenny Meadows, with its dark and violent past, had on the staff (particularly the over-focused Woody), that would have made for an excellent story; but we also get a mix of gloopy, sloppy, muddy things emerging to add a bit of horror — why are they needed, if the supernatural force beneath the shop can get the humans to do the worst for themselves? They seem like horror elements brought in just for horrific effect (and rather standard horrific effect, as gloopy, sloppy, muddy things are Campbell’s go-to entity for horror) rather than to build up to some single, larger revelation. It’s a pity, as the title, The Overnight, sounds like a wonderful pun mixing the drudgery of work with Lovecraftian horror, but there’s not enough sense of the latter for this to be the case.
The Overnight is also something of a transitional work for Campbell, as it’s halfway towards the sort of dark, dry horror-comedy of his next novel, The Grin of the Dark (which is one of his best). The Overnight can be read as straight horror, but it works better if you see it as a slightly over-played and very dark absurdist horror-comedy about work. Woody is surely the best (though somewhat underused) part of the novel, in this regard — an over-zealous and inhuman corporate manic entirely focused on forcing his employees to smile at every moment. ‘There’s too much thinking getting in our way round here,’ being my favourite Woody quote.
Overall, I’d say The Overnight is for the Campbell fan (of which I’m one) than a reader new to his work. If you are new to Campbell, head for The Grin of the Dark. You know it’s waiting for you.
June 25, 2012
Where oh where to begin? Actually, this review will be short and sweet - this book SUCKS.
There is nothing interesting about the story except for the above description. At every turn the writer fails to engage the reader. It has no climax after all the buildup to it - the whole thing was a disaster. It reminds me of a story someone might have written for NANO - where you are reaching the deadline and you still have 10,000 words to write so you write whatever and call it finished just so you can be a "winner" of the contest. I hated the way the story was told to us rather than making me feel a part of it - I yawned so many times trying to wade through it. It I had bought this in hardbound or even paperback, I swear I would have tossed it into the campfire.
I'm not sure I've ever given an F before but, in my opinion, this one definitely earned it. Too bad I couldn't give it negative stars.
There is nothing interesting about the story except for the above description. At every turn the writer fails to engage the reader. It has no climax after all the buildup to it - the whole thing was a disaster. It reminds me of a story someone might have written for NANO - where you are reaching the deadline and you still have 10,000 words to write so you write whatever and call it finished just so you can be a "winner" of the contest. I hated the way the story was told to us rather than making me feel a part of it - I yawned so many times trying to wade through it. It I had bought this in hardbound or even paperback, I swear I would have tossed it into the campfire.
I'm not sure I've ever given an F before but, in my opinion, this one definitely earned it. Too bad I couldn't give it negative stars.
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