The Night Church

by Whitley Strieber

Two congregations worship at the Holy Spirit Church. By day Catholics kneel at the altar of the tiny chapel in Kew Gardens, Queens. But at night the rafters echo with Satan's music. Feared by the Vatican and as old as Christianity itself, a terrifying alternate religion has flourished in the darkness for two millennia, keeping alive the blood rituals of the Middle Ages while embracing the gods of high technology. Preparing the way for the evil product of thousands of years of genetic engineering--the birth of the Monstrum--the anti-man and the death of humanity.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Ebooks, Audiobook, Paranormal

Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

American writer best known for his novels The Wolfen,The Hunger and Warday and for Communion, a non-fiction description of his experiences with apparent alien contact. He has recently made significant advances in understanding this phenomenon, and has published his new discoveries in Solving the Communion Enigma.

Strieber also co-authored The Coming Global Superstorm with Art Bell, which inspired the blockbuster film about sudden climate change, The Day After Tomorrow.

His book The Afterlife Revolution written with his deceased wife Anne, is a record of what is considered to be one of the most powerful instances of afterlife communication ever recorded.

Reviews

[Supratim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had first come across the Whitley Strieber’s name while doing a random Google search on top werewolf novels or something. His novel Wolfen was there in the list. So when I found this book by the author in a second hand book shop, I decided to give it a try.

The plot of the story is that a satanic cult – the Night Church has existed from the ancient times and as usual they want to take over the world. They have prepared a bacterium to wipe out mankind and bring forth a new species of anti-man.

The book has all the ingredients to create a thrilling pulp fiction-ish horror novel: murders, conspiracy, arcane satanic rituals, warrior priests who have fought the Night Church for centuries, a determined cop and the list goes on. But, the execution of the story was really bad. The protagonists were always whining and the writing was not that good either. I felt the author could have used the warrior priests to make the story more interesting.

I had started the book with very high expectations, but what a disappointment this book turned out to be!! I felt bored and irritated. The only reason I finished it is I hate to leave a book unfinished.

I am giving the book a rating of 1.5. Maybe I am being a bit too harsh. But the book did not live up to my expectations.

If you really like books about satanic cults, then I am sure there are other good books in the market. You will be better off exploring those.

[Grady Hendrix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly what you want in a book about a Satanic cult engineering the birth of the "anti-man": children raised under hypnosis, a holy inquisition with a fondness for blowtorches, sad alcoholic priests making deals with the dark side, horrible labor experiences, a sprinkle of New York City urban squalor for flavor, and repeated use of the word "anti-man."

[Alexandra Scarborough · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a long-time fan of both Whitley's fiction and non-fiction, and this is one of his few early books I hadn't gotten around to reading. While I don't think it's his strongest fiction work (I still hold the Hunger series as his best), it was at times chilling and definitely unnerving. Some moments felt a bit dated/anachronistic, but then it would, wouldn't it? We've come a long way since the Satanic Panic days of the past, and neuroscience has definitely evolved since the early 80s--but we haven't developed anything close to the mind-reading mechanism that was used but never explained.

With that sort of "dangling end" issue in mind, I think it points to the most interesting part of this work, which is its connection to Whitley's abductions, as he mentions themes in The Night Church as being directly related to his experiences in his later non-fic works. The book's narrative reflects a loss of faith in/a betrayal by an institution that helped shape his understanding of the world by using the "dark side" of the Catholic Church as a metaphor for the confusion, anger and loss that emerged through the life-altering realization he would experience only a few years later. In that way, I found it a profoundly sad work--for me, it presented a mind beginning to comprehend the impossible, and attempting to make sense of it through fictional narrative. It was hard to separate the machinations of Whitley's subconscious at work with the work itself, but that made it no less effective.

[Stewart Sternberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the late eighties I worked a crisis line, sometimes taking the midnight shift. I would talk to runaways, lonely people, and an occasional potential suicide.  I sometimes got calls from people at three am, mostly women,, claiming to know about a Satanic plot where babies were sacrificed and cultists drank blood. Those calls marked the hysteria of Satanism that dominated urban legend of that era. It also apparently gave rise to this novel.

The plot has major issues, the info dumps are painful, the struggle with certain emotion laden passages that show a maudlin weakness for depicting sincere interpersonal interaction,  and  there's the expected sexism of the 80s.

No blood drinking or child sacrifices here, but cults and pseudo science. 

And yet Strieber manages to be compelling. How? That is something that is worth study. It is one thing to keep people turning pages when the story is great, but to hold interest in the ridiculous, that is something altogether different.

Perhaps I'm just a good subject for suspending belief? I don't think so. I found myself thinking, "stupid..get on with it." Yet, I kept going and looking forward to the journey.

[David B · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pair of young lovers gradually discovers that they are integral parts of a centuries-old Satanist conspiracy to rule the world. A good idea that begins well is largely undone by mediocre prose and plotting that fails to integrate the threads of its story. The most fascinating aspect of the novel, the revelation of a secret history of warfare between the Catholic Church and a powerful dynasty of Satanists, is tossed off in a series of asides that turn out to have little to do with the main story. We are set up to anticipate the arrival of a certain character who is dispatched as soon as he pokes his head up. Whitley Streiber could have done better.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another strong Strieber story. On and on and on, to an amazing finish. Having read "Wolfen" a couple of times, I had high expectations for this book, and I was not disappointed. I reserved the fifth star, but I will not reveal why, to prevent any hint of a spoiler. You, the reader of this review, are left to ascertain why I might have had a reason to doubt perfection in this griping tale.

[Kyle Trimper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brief Synopsis: When a young woman is brutally raped and mutilated on the altar of a Brooklyn cathedral, it uncovers the existence of the Night Church, as secret organization within the Catholic Church who are attempting to bring into existence the Anti-Man, a creature that will end all mankind.

Review: Whitley Strieber is best-known for his fresh takes on classic horror fare: in Wolfen and The Wild, he revitalizes the werewolf legend, while the Hunger modernizes the classic vampire tale. Strieber's body of work is uneven, with a fair share of both hits and misses: unfortunately, The Night Church is a miss, especially as a follow-up to the brilliant Black Magic. The plot of The Night Church is particularly complex, and Strieber never really explains what is happening. By the time Strieber gives the reader enough information to get some kind of grasp on what is happening, we are halfway through the novel: most of this information is contained in faux communiques and diary entries, rather than in the narrative itself. I almost stopped reading this book when I was almost halfway through and had no idea what was happening. Strieber is a brilliant writer, but The Night Church seems unfocused and unrestrained. If you're looking for Strieber's best, start with The Hunger or Black Magic.

[Andy Nieradko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed The Night Church. I've always been fascinated by conspiracies and the supernatural. In this story something awful, dangerous, and huge is hiding in plain sight. Thirty years later this book still holds up well. Certainly a "page turner." Many moments of true horror. The addition, to the narrative, of journal entries and communiques between key players within the evil plot of the Night Church, add to the mystery and intrigue of the battle they've waged for thousands of years. Without giving away any spoilers, lets just say, there's a subtle point made that the Spanish Inquisition was to some extent justifiable(within the context of the story.) That's just a brilliant, terrifying idea.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rosemary's Baby + groomed orphans + devilish rationalizations for bubonic genocide.

1983 publocation which foreshadows or echoes-forward themes later explored in a nonfiction context in Strieber's 1987 book Communion.

Dual use church was also the theme of Margaret Irwin's "The Earlier Service."

https://youtu.be/rfrIyJHT15s?feature=...

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Satanic cult wants to end mankind by breeding 2 specially bred humans to make the ultimate anti-man. A combination of horror and some science. Entertaining for what it is. Starts out with a good creepy opening scene.

[Dvdlynch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surprisingly pulpy horror potboiler from Strieber. This ticks the cults box of the Bingo card.

[Ethan Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to read a bonafide 1980s horror paperback for the *~* v i b e s *~* but little did I know those vibes would be so yawn-inducing. Imagine Rosemary's Baby except transposed (physically, spiritually, aesthetically) from Manhattan to Queens. Essentially this book details a young couple yearning to be boring normie suburban hetero perfect Reagan-era marrieds but a worldwide cabal of Wicked Satanists keep getting in their way with hypnosis. Feels like a 250-page prelude and then the climax is over with such a lack of fanfare it's like Strieber got tired of writing and wanted to wrap it all up as fast as possible.

[Avel Rudenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pair of young lovers gradually discovers that they are integral parts of a centuries-old Satanist conspiracy to rule the world. A good idea that begins well is largely undone by mediocre prose and plotting that fails to integrate the threads of its story. The most fascinating aspect of the novel, the revelation of a secret history of warfare between the Catholic Church and a powerful dynasty of Satanists, is tossed off in a series of asides that turn out to have little to do with the main story. We are set up to anticipate the arrival of a certain character who is dispatched as soon as he pokes his head up. Whitley Streiber could have done better.

This book is standard Strieber, great concept flattened by mediocre writing. A Satanist cult is out to destroy the world with a super plague. Somewhere between The Stand and The X-Files, just nowhere near as good.

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up to read while staying at a cabin in the woods near the east shore of Lake Michigan. Mike Miley had recommended Strieber's Communion but I was suspicious that it was just another horror novel billed as being factual. So, before reading it, I resolved to read the author's straight horror and science fiction.

This book is the worst thing I've read by Strieber, generally a safe bet for sf and horror fans. It's mostly (yawn!) horror, but has some science elements--thus the shelf categorization.

Since reading this and several other Strieber fictions I've finished Communion and its first successor book, Transformation. I'm still not sure how much of it is real, how much made up. I suspect there's at least a kernal of truth, that Strieber has had some weird altered states of consciousness, but that it's been embellished for the sake of story-telling and sales.

[David Bonesteel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pair of young lovers gradually discovers that they are integral parts of a centuries-old Satanist conspiracy to rule the world. A good idea that begins well is largely undone by mediocre prose and plotting that fails to integrate the threads of its story. The most fascinating aspect of the novel, the revelation of a secret history of warfare between the Catholic Church and a powerful dynasty of Satanists, is tossed off in a series of asides that turn out to have little to do with the main story. We are set up to anticipate the arrival of a certain character who is dispatched as soon as he pokes his head up. Whitley Streiber could have done better.

[Arin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not a book that I couldn't put down, but the story definitely kept me coming back. The last 40 pages or so were very intriguing. I love this kind of ending too, so I was overall very happy with the book. The story was very cool, and wasn't too loaded with historical facts and allusions.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good horror novel from Strieber.

[Jerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

A young couple, a cop and a priest are cought in the clutches of a satanic cult that wants to create the anti-christ.... erm... anti-human, and destroy humanity.

I have this weird thing where I just have to finish a book, no matter how bad it is. And boy, was this one a turd...
Usually I can enjoy a bad book or film at a certain level, but this one had one flaw I just couldn't forgive. The story starts with a sexual assault of a young woman in a church. She's been abused so badly that she has broken bones and is paralyzed from the waist down.
You might think this would leave some kind of trauma, but no, not here. Even as she's sitting in her wheelchair slowly healing from her wounds, she starts to get romantically and sexually obsessed with a guy she has only known for 30 minutes and who turns out to be the rapist. (No spoilers here. No mystery either since everything's out in the open from the very beginning of the story.)
But maybe they'll be able to overcome their troubled past because they love each other so very, very much.

And then there's the cop, who doesn't do much investigating. He just seems to know everything all of a sudden.
There's also some kind of secret service from the Vatican. The same Vatican who has been aware of everything that's going on from the beginning. To fight the end of humanity by a cult involving hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, they send one guy. That's right, only one. We only meet him for two or three pages before the cult captures him and we never hear from him again. (That part was actually unintentionally hilarious).
To top it all off, there's this virus the cult is working on, but that doesn't seem to be contagious. By the end, even Strieber seems to have forgotten all about it.

It's clear that Strieber wanted to write a story like The Omen or Rosemary's baby. But making sure you've got all the ingredients and throwing them in a blender doesn't always make a tasty smoothie.

The writing's bad (plotholes gallore), the pacing is all over the place and the dialogue is completely laughable. Normally I would've gotten some pleasure out of this pulpy garbage and I would have if it wasn't for the insensitive handling of something as serious as rape.

To conclude the story, the same girl is raped once again in the same church by the same man/monster after which the cop kills him, saves her and they drive off into the sunset so she can give birth to the anti-christ... erm... anti-human.

What a wonderful world.

[George Dunn · Rating 2 out of 5]

QOTD: Do you have a guilty pleasure?

... mine is trashy 80s horror.

"Until I inadvertently stumbled across my battered second hand copy of “The Night Church,” (which may I add, was a bargain), Whitley Strieber was not an author I was familiar with. A cursory glance at Google told me all I needed to know. Perhaps best known for his take on the werewolf in “Wolfen,” or his auto-fiction alien novel “Communion,” it’s safe to say I went into this book expecting some bizarre sh*t, and my expectations were not just met, but surpassed. “The Night Church,” is as gloriously freaky and delightfully strange as one would expect a book about religious cults and an “anti-man,” race to be, and is a must-read for fans of old-school weirdness."

"Strieber effectively creates an atmosphere where the sacred and profane intertwine, rich with the gothic and eerie- but that’s not to say that his writing is perfect… or even mediocre. The man can set a scene that is both haunting and immersive, that much is obvious from the prologue, but he certainly doesn’t finesse his way through the narrative. The clunky information dumps are about as subtle as a foghorn in a library, with the sexism being quite the opposite, glaringly obvious. At least this time around, Strieber relies wholly upon his intrepid and outlandish plot, which certainly pulls some weight, but it’s safe to say the book is not without its flaws."

READ MY FULL REVIEW: https://fanfiaddict.com/review-the-ni...

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Night Church’ has the potential to be diabolically effective. The elements show potential: satan, the occult, and black masses. The overall structure and delivery of the novel, however, reminded me why I stoped attending church once I became an adult. It was boring.

A young couple living in NYC are lured into a maniacal congregation because they are the final piece to a centuries old puzzle for the creation of the anti-man, a demonic beast that will eventually wipe out the human race. The Night Church is merely the selected venue to carry out the unholy and wicked task where rapes, premature burials, and mind control hypnosis occurs on a weekly basis. The most shocking revelations, which include ancient holy wars and the Inquisition, completely disregard the dull and uninviting Night Church. The chapters taking place in France were enticing, and that is where Streiber’s writing truly shines.

My biggest complaint is Jonathan. His nerdy approach to solving the mystery behind the church involving computers, wavelengths, calculations, whatever...really devalues the other characters, which were much more likable than him.

My shelf has other Streiber paperbacks which I will still check out.

[William Worsham · Rating 2 out of 5]

80s Satanism, sex & completely unbelievable scenarios. I thought about DNFing this turd a quarter of the way through, halfway through and three quarters of the way through but, each time, figured it was such a short read that I'd just suffer through for the laughable dialogue.

A secret global satanic cabal intends on wiping out the human race and replacing it with anti-men, monstrous analogs of Satan resulting from centuries of careful genetic manipulation & brainwashing. An interesting subplot involving a still-extant, secret but dwindling Inquisition, acting at the direction of the Vatican, aiming to foil the evil Night Church's plans is hinted at but then completely abandoned. This results in a ridiculous amalgam of domestic drama/crime thriller/YA rape romantasy. I gave it an extra star for its power to compel me to finish it. It's craptastic.

[Robert More · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I got through 200 pages, but I probably should have stopped at page 20. The pacing is way too fast. So much happens in those 20 pages that you can't make sense of what's going on. The pacing did get better after that, and I kept going because the plot is kind of interesting. Satanic cult? Sign me up. But even that couldn't keep me engaged. The characters are stock, cliched tropes with no goals or internal conflicts. Good ideas only matter insofar as they challenge and push the characters to overcome a short coming in themselves. The Night Church only challenges them superficially.

[Kristine Bromberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Night Church delivered for me. As a child of the 80s I remember well the hysteria of the satanic panic. My preschool was one that saw educators sentenced for satanic ritual abuse. To be clear, I witnessed no abuse and did not hear of it from other children. With this in mind, The Night Church was an interesting romp through the world of “what if…” As others have mentioned, the protagonists are truly unlikeable. This is a relief because they endure horrible torture. The story drags a bit in the second half, but I enjoyed the conspiracy and threat of monstrous evil.

[Fred Klein · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was interested in the plot when I started this novel -- an evil religion that meets in a Catholic church at night with a connection to a couple that was meeting for a blind date (or so the couple thought).

Unfortunately the story got repetitive, boring, and -- yes -- pretty stupid. I only continued for the sake of finding out what happened in the end.

I'm a little surprised that this waste of time came from the author of "Wolfen".

[Megan Hex · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is entirely awful and I only finished it because it’s so ludicrous, I had to see how it ended. You may think it sounds fun but there’s a point where a man, presented in a way that is sophisticated and seductive, says “sixty-nine” in French and it’s entirely serious. Note that it took me a year and a half to finish. Please don’t read this.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

Good 80s horror novel dealing with a satanic church and what amounts to bringing back the antichrist and creating hell on Earth. About what you'd expect, and in this case, that's not a bad thing.

[Aussie PROUD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funnily enough. Out of all the books I've had the pleasure of reading. This is the only book I have read, In my life so far, non-stop cover to cover.
It was a very easy read & held my interest easily.

[Susieq_reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story on a “Cult” that wants to bring about the end of humanity and start the New World with “anti-man”. For me the story was interesting and had its horrific moments. However it was very detailed and long. I would read more from this author.

[Carson hall · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made it to page 75. I try to get to page 100 before I quit, but I just could not get into this one.

[Bob Box · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in 1983. An ancient Satanic cult takes over a church in Queens each evening with the goal of breeding monstrously evil creatures. Strieber is a horror master. One of my favorites that year.