Coffin Moon: A Novel

by Keith Rosson

“This is mind-blowingly good. A horror novel that will keep you awake long after you turn the last page.”—Stephen King

From the author of Fever House and The Devil by Name: a Vietnam veteran and his adopted niece hunt—and are hunted by—the vampire that slaughtered their family.

“Grabs you by the throat and doesn’t relent.”—Cassandra Khaw, author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth

A VULTURE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

It’s the winter of 1975, and Portland, Oregon, is all sleet and neon. Duane Minor is back home after a tour in Vietnam, a bartender just trying to stay sober; save his marriage with his wife, Heidi; and connect with his thirteen-year-old niece, Julia, now that he’s responsible for raising her. Things aren’t easy, but Minor is scraping by.

Then a vampire walks into his bar and ruins his life.

When Minor crosses John Varley, a killer who sleeps during the day beneath loose drifts of earth and grows teeth in the light of the moon, Varley brutally retaliates by murdering Heidi, leaving Minor broken with guilt and Julia filled with rage. What’s left of their splintered family is united by only one vengeance.

So begins a furious, frenzied pursuit across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. From grimy alleyways to desolate highways to snow-lashed plains, Minor and Julia are cast into the dark orbit of undead children, silver bullet casters, and the bevy of broken men transfixed by Varley’s ferocity. Everyone’s out for blood.

Gritty, unforgettable, and emotionally devastating, Coffin Moon asks what will be left of our humanity when grief transmutes into violence, when monsters wear human faces, and when our thirst for revenge eclipses everything else.

Genres: Horror, Vampires, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Thriller, Audiobook, Historical

Audible Audio

First published September 9, 2025

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️

This isn’t your typical vampire story. It’s dark, melancholic, and gritty, focusing on revenge and the toll it takes mentally and physically when you hold on to it too tightly. Grief and regret play a large role in this novel. I loved the 1970s setting. You can feel the dread right from the start, and the tension just keeps building at a steady pace.

The three main characters are really well drawn. Duane Minor is a Vietnam vet struggling with PTSD, his adopted niece Julia is dealing with her own trauma after her mother went to jail for killing her abusive husband, and John Varley is the vampire whose actions set everything in motion. They’re all flawed, and their arcs are well developed, which makes the story even more compelling.

This is part horror and part thriller, though in this genre the line between the two often blurs. Overall, this was a gripping read that kept me hooked from beginning to end, eager to see how it would all play out. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title/Author: Book Response: COFFIN MOON by Keith Rosson

Format Read: Audiobook I purchased on LibroFM

Pub date: September 9, 2025

Publisher: Random House

Page Count: 320 pages / 11 Hours audio

Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/978059373...

Recommended for readers who enjoy:

-Books set in the 70s

-Complicated family dynamic and relationships

-Deeply emotional, raw, and vulnerable character-driven narratives

-Revenge stories

-Vampires and vampire lore

-Older man (Father figure role) on a journey with a young person. Think, The Last of Us (HBO show), The Road, The Wolf Road, The Professional (movie), The Dark Tower (Roland & Jake) Interview with the Vampire (Louis & Claudia)

__

Minor complaints:

-Zero complaints. Flawless execution.

Final recommendation: Duane Minor is going through a lot in his personal life which doesn't stop him from trying to be a good person and do right by the ones he loves. He even goes the extra mile when it comes to his 13 year old niece, Julia who comes to live with him and his wife, Heidi. Things are going along when suddenly, a situation turns Minor's entire life upside-down. He loses everything--and so does his niece Julia and they have to rely on each other to seek out the one who ruined their lives.

Minor and Julia are everything. I love that we stay in Minor's POV the whole time--he's our narrator but the book really could be titled "Julia", she's kind of the star. Their journey as they confront each other, face their own inner demons, while they chase down a real life demon, is the stuff of HORROR LEGEND. I mean, this is genuinely WHY horror fans choose horror over and over again...these kind of "horror with heart" stories that break the reader wide open spilling all your contents on the floor just so it can scoop you all up and put you back together again at the end.

This is that kind of novel and it can't be missed. Do not sleep on it. Also, the audiobook is perfection. The narrator is perfect.

And it's scary as hell. There are scenes that will stay with me and haunt me whenever I think about this book or recommend it. Some seriously dark stuff. Really good. All the stars

Comps: Think, The Last of Us (HBO show), The Road, The Wolf Road, The Professional (movie), The Dark Tower (Roland & Jake)

Also, revenge vampire stories like Rovers by Richard Lang and The Suicide Motor Club by Christopher Buehlman, also a little Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

[Gareth Is Haunted · Rating 5 out of 5]

The modern vampire novel that you have been waiting for!

This exceptional novel mostly follows Duane, a Vietnam vet, through a plethora of horrors and tribulations. When a series of horrific events decimates his family, Duane sets off in search of answers and retribution.

This book shocked me, I hadn't expected it to be such a beautifully tender and yet excessively brutal tale.
Excuse the pun, but there is plenty to get your teeth into, from gruesome scenes of violence and moments of beauty and awe to extremely tender and heartbreaking events, which made me think deeply about my humanity. This novel has it all!

Rosson has created an absolute masterpiece here and one that'll live in my memories for a long time. A must read for horror fans.

[Glenn Rolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this was a super cool book!

COFFIN MOON reads more like a Hard Case Crime book (which is perfectly fine with me) than a traditional horror novel. The story takes place in the 70s and has that noir, grime feel lingering throughout. What a cool choice!
This is my first book from Keith Rosson, and it definitely won't be my last.

"Everything hurts...Sorrow, vengeance, even joy. Everything's got teeth on it."

We follow Duane Minor, a Vietnam vet, and his niece, Julia. After some bad choices and some worse tragedy, the two are forced to flee for their lives. Eventually, they decide to hunt down the mysterious John Varley. Getting revenge on a vampire is not the easiest of pursuits.

"He ruined you, didn't he? Broke your heart. Left pieces of those people on the ceiling..."

I loved the feel of this book. I grew to love Rosson's style, and every character was memorable in their own way. I cannot express how much joy that brings me when reading any book. Not everyone can do that, and Rosson makes it look easy.




I give COFFIN MOON 5 stars!

It feels like there's been a resurgence in great vampire novels over the last half decade, and COFFIN MOON is a welcome addition!
For more cool vamp stories check out: The Gathering, In the Valley of the Sun, Bless Your Heart, The Traveling Vampire Show, and The Summoning. (Also, I'm assuming you've already read 'Salem's Lot and Rice's Vampire Chronicles)

[Debra - can't post any comments on site today grrr · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vampire walks into a bar...... Sounds like the opening to a joke, doesn't it? But Coffin Moon is no joke! It reads like a '70s noir horror film, and I mean that in the best way possible! Coffin Moon is gripping, dark, mesmerizing, gritty, and moody. I would go so far as to say, it's a bloody good book! If you enjoy a good vampire book, this is the book for you. But be warned, these are not Twilight vampires. These ones are violent, scary, dark, and horrific.

It's 1975 and Duane Minor is back home and working as a bartender after a tour in Vietnam. His marriage to Heidi is rocky, and he is trying his best to take care of his thirteen-year-old niece, Julia. But then a vampire walked into the bar where he works......

I enjoyed the darkness in this book and the quest for vengeance. I enjoyed this look at who the real monsters are, what one does for love, what one is willing to do for revenge, and what happens when all hope is lost. This book took me and the characters on a road trip of rage, revenge, blood, grief, heartbreak, and connection. People, man, they will break your heart. Duane and his niece, Julia, do just that in this book. The author did a tremendous job with their characters and had me caring for them, fully invested in their plight, and their bond.

Dark, horrific, heartbreaking, gritty, and raw!

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narration was fabulous.

Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com 📖

[chantalsbookstuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Searching for John Varley, the vampire who killed Minor’s wife Heidi, Minor and Julia will do anything to hunt him down. What a journey this was! The character development is off the charts, and the writing is so raw and emotional that I felt like I was right there with them. A brilliant effort from Keith that hooked me from the very first page.

[Elyse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books where there is so much character and relationship development that it almost feels light on horror, even though the horror is actually a brutal, constant threat. The writing is amazing. I loved the ending. My favorite part was that the main characters did not feel typical for their roles -- the little girl was not helplessly frozen by fear, the protagonists and antagonist went down unexpected paths. I wish there was a little more to pad out the middle section, especially around the time jumps, but overall it's an incredibly crafted novel.

[Ginger · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ebook format 📖

Here’s a few reasons on why you should read this if you like horror and vampires:

✔️ 1970s setting with a crime noir feel to the book. Gritty is my name!

✔️ Set in the PNW which has themes of gloom, isolation and fog slowly crawling up from the ground.
Always a good location for horror and true crime. 🧐😂

✔️ Vampires that actually FEEL like a monster. 👏

✔️ Beautiful at times, but also brutal and gory. Just how I like my horror!

I’m super glad I gave Coffin Moon a chance along with reading Keith Rosson for the first time. It won’t be the last!

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hot damn this was phenomenal!!!

1970's, Portland, Oregon

Duane Minor has returned home from Vietnam with PTSD and nightmares that plague him every time his head hits the pillow. He knows he should be grateful for even being alive. He has the love of his life, Heidi, and supportive in-laws, that allow Duane to run the bar they own. They recently have taken in Heidi's sisters daughter, 13 year old Julia, after her mother is sent to prison for murder.

One night at the bar two men enter with menace twinkling in their eyes. Duane knows their bad news but Duane wasn't prepared. He had know idea that in confronting them would destroy his entire life.

Now it's just Duane and Julia. Both of them are full of rage and hell bent on vengeance.

They head out on the road to find the beast of a man that brought their world crashing down upon them.

Prepare yourself for the ultimate confrontation.

This book was everything I wanted in a vampire novel. It's gritty, it's violent, and it's bloody as hell. What I hadn't expected was how well written this is. I can't tell you how many highlight worthy lines there were. Rosson grab me by the heart and then twisted it with glee. I was so truly invested in these characters. I loved them all. Except, you know, the vampires. That said, John Varley, our brutal antagonist, was so well drawn that it was impossible to not be intrigued by him, his background, and how he became the monster he is. So, yeah, I was 100% invested from the beginning to the end. I may have even shed a tear or two. This will undoubtedly be one of my favorite books of the year. ALL. THE. BLOODY. STARS!!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🧛‍♂️

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for my complimentary copy.

[Ga.selle (Semi-hiatus) Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Everything hurts. Is that rude of me? Everything hurts, always. Sorrow, vengeance, even joy. Everything’s got teeth on it.”

[megs_bookrack · Rating 4 out of 5]

**4.5-stars**

Coffin Moon centers around Duane Minor, a Vietnam Vet working as a bartender in his wife, Heidi's, parent's bar, and his 13-year old niece, Julia, who the couple recently took in.

Duane is struggling with his sobriety, while Julia is struggling with some very traumatic events in her home life that has left her separated from her mother and brother.



When Minor ends up crossing the baddies that try to pull some shady sh*t at the bar, it changes all of their lives forever. Leading the charge for the bad guys is a man named John Varley, not your average killer, who sleeps during the day and whose teeth grow extra long at night.

After Heidi is killed in retaliation for Minor's interference, he is wracked with guilt, while Julia is filled with rage. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game of pursuit across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Their goal is to root out John Varley and make him pay for all he's taken from them.

Will any amount of blood be able to sate their grief and guilt?



This was devilishly good. Set in the 1970s, I feel like Rosson did a fabulous job channeling the gritty Crime Fiction vibes of that era. The tone of it, it's morose, devastating and heavily vengeance-focused. We love to see it.

I'd love to read this again and take more time with it. This time through, I went rather quickly, so focused on what was going to happen. In future, I think it would be worth a revisit to focus in more on the character work and relationships.



I loved both Minor and Julia. Their interactions together and the way their bond evolved, it felt so natural and it truly tugged at my heart-strings.

Additionally, John Varley was fascinating. We learn quite a bit about him and his history, and those are some of the moments that I would like to revisit the most. There was something sweeping and epic-feeling about his story that brought even more to the historical meat of this story.

There were so many devastating moments in this book. Moments where I would read it and think, OMG, how would you get over that? But Minor and Julia just kept on going on, and I love that resilience and even if it was driven by rage in Julia's case, I respected the hell out of their strength.



It felt like Rosson poured a lot of emotion into this one. It hurt my heart a bit, not gonna lie, but it was so worth it. I was sad about much of it, but impressed with the fact that Rosson could make me feel so much for these characters in such a short amount of time.

Overall, I found this to be such a unique and classic-feeling Horror story. I have never read anything from this author before, but I will be reading more in the future.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Random House, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I think this will definitely be one of my most memorable reads of 2025!

[Donna Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

“One thing you can be certain of, boy. Things change. Even for those such as us.”

In 2018, I read a book by a promising local author titled Smoke City. It was complex and kept me on my toes, and all told, it was a good novel. Since I enjoyed it, the small publisher he was working with sent me another of his books, The Mercy of the Tide. I liked it, too.

Fast forward. I received a galley this year by the same author, but he was no longer working with the itty-bitty press. No, he was published by Random House. This made me sit up and take notice! My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House for the invitation to read and review Coffin Moon, the scariest straight-up horror novel you’re likely to find on the shelves this year. It will be available to the public September 9, 2025.

The premise is this: our protagonist, Duane Minor, is back from Vietnam. The year is 1975; the place, Portland, Oregon. His wife Heidi is living in an apartment over the bar her parents own, and Duane goes to work for them. Heidi’s 13-year-old niece, Julia, comes to join them as well after her mother is sent to prison. Duane is a bit shaky, following his tour of duty, but he’s sober, has pulled himself together, and things are going pretty well. That is, until the vampire takes over the bar.

That’s all you need to know of the plot to get started. In fact, I don’t even recommend reading the promotional blurb, because it’s better if you come to it on your own. What I will say is that this is not just any horror novel. There is more depth to it than you typically see, philosophical questions inextricably wound into the decisions that Duane and his niece must make. There’s also far more character development than I generally see in this genre. Finally, the word smithery Rosson brings to it makes this book grittier, more heart-rending, and far more thought provoking than other books of its ilk. Mr. Rosson was a good author before, but the brilliance of his prose has surged since his early work.

As I get older, I find I only have enough fortitude to read one or two horror novels each year; the rest of the time, I reach for other genres. If you are also an infrequent reader of horror, I strongly urge you to make this story a priority. It’s the sort of novel that stays with you long after the last page is turned.

But the sun is coming up; I must leave you.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coffin Moon is heavy stuff, and Keith Rosson handles it with absolute mastery. He's crafted an eloquent, emotionally charged and terrifying story of trauma and grief that's both visceral and deeply moving. The book thrives on contradiction: an innocent victim consumed by guilt, rage and revenge; a brutal killer with moments of tenderness and vulnerability. At its heart, it's about innocence lost in the wake of brutal violence, the guilt we suffer by endlessly faulting ourselves, and the struggle to keep our own inner monsters under control. My only quibble is that some of the mystical vampire elements feel a little hokey, but at least they are not really consequential to the main narrative. Coffin Moon now joins Christopher Buehlman's The Lesser Dead as not only my favorite vampire novels, but my favorites in the genre.

[Gyalten Lekden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unflinching and razor-edged, Rosson pushes vampire storytelling into new directions without re-inventing the mythology, and that combination of old and new, retro-chic with diamond-edged fangs, is remarkably alluring. The best part of this story is its heart, with a conflicted and complicated main characters right in the bloody center of it. The story doesn’t shy away from being emotional and it finds the perfect vehicle for that vulnerability in its characters. The main character, primary antagonist, and handful of ancillary characters are all unique and engaging, each with their own jagged edges and personal tragedies. No one feels convenient or phoned in, but genuine and messy and real, and that really shines through.

Compared to Fever House the story is much less frenetic, but it still has a good sense of momentum. The tragic events that are given away in the description don’t happen immediately, we have a hefty section of the story where we are getting to know these characters and start to care for them and their difficulties as well as their triumphs before the rug is pulled out from under us. On one hand the set-up is a very tried and true revenge story set-up, and although it has a few uncommon shades thrown in to decorate it the larger plot is not unexpected in the genre. However, he uses that formula to great effect, adding enough backstory and twists and turns to keep it lively, again exploiting the retro feel of the world-building and the narrative conceit to give a timeless story about love and responsibility. After the initial setup the story moves at a good pace, never frenetic or out of control feeling but always with an air of desperation, a devil-may-care attitude of nothing left to lose that really kept me invested. The writing is crisp and descriptive, doing a good job of helping set the atmosphere and explore our characters’ inner lives without ever feeling treacly or manipulative. There are a handful of action scenes that all feel energetic and well-choreographed, they are easy to visualize but still feel sloppy and realistic. There isn’t an excess of gore but when blood and guts are called for Rosson doesn’t shy away from them, using spectacle to move the story and characters forward.

I do think there was some missed potential here. The story is short and propulsive, and the length fits the story told, but I feel like there was a chance to expand the story a bit and add more speedbumps to the journey that would have been fun. There is a dark road trip at the center of this story, a going and a returning, and there is more that could have been done with that. I am all for a lean story and generally that’s preferred to one bloated and unwieldy, but I wouldn’t have minded if some character motivations were a little more fleshed out and there was just a little more gristle to chew on. Thematically, though, Rosson hits the mark. Every character, antagonists included, is a complicated combination of tragedy, circumstance, and bad decisions. Ideas of family and redemption are front and center, but trauma/PTSD, substance abuse, dedication, loyalty, self-awareness, and what it means to be a perpetual outsider are all woven into the story. The vampire mythos isn’t wildly new, but it is a fresh take, both in terms of vampire morphology and vampiric emotional reality. The atmosphere and general world-building are tight and really immersive, and the story is exploiting its genre sensibilities to tell a painfully human story.

I want to thank the author, the publisher Random House, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Debbie Y]

DNF

[willowmoth · Rating 3 out of 5]

GRIT. 🍻 GORE. 🩸 VAMPIRES. 🦇 Coffin Moon drops us straight into the dark and gritty world of 1970s Portland, where Vietnam vet Duane Minor’s quiet life gets ripped apart after crossing paths with a man he should’ve never underestimated. What follows is messy, fast, and full of vampire mayhem; sometimes fun, sometimes brutal, sometimes frustrating. It feels like a slasher flick mashed up with an action movie, complete with a brooding antihero and plenty of gore.

This book really does feel like an adventure. It is chaotic, fast, and sometimes unhinged. We meet our antagonist quickly, and the setup is kind of like an old action movie trope: protagonist pisses off antagonist, they butt heads, and then suddenly it’s way bigger than the main character realizes. In this case, our antagonist, John Varley, decides to go absolutely feral (committing a whole bunch of murder over what basically amounts to a cock block... MEN 🙄) and from there the story just doesn’t let up.

The downside of that quick start is that it didn’t give me much space to connect with the characters. Things moved fast, sometimes too conveniently, and the emotional weight never fully settled for me personally. And when I say that things moved too quickly and conveniently, I'm saying that just a few chapters in, I couldn't make sense of some of the decisions that were being made. I found them to not be believable or true to what had been built of the characters so far... and because of that, they felt like convenient plot points.

AAAAND here’s where my bias shows: guys like Duane absolutely annoy the hell out of me. My guess is he’s not written to be especially likable, but I still struggled with him. I want to be clear here: I have PTSD and violent trauma myself, so it’s not that I don’t understand or that I think everyone should process the same way. It’s just that the way Duane is written often felt less like a layered human being and more like a stylized ’70s action star with a chip on his shoulder. He’s got that “don’t mess with me, I could be dangerous” vibe, almost Rambo-like… (except he never really lives up to that larger-than-life image). It was hard for me to care about him in the way I wanted to. His grit and grime, his way of thinking, annoyed me more than it made me feel sympathy for him (you're dark inside; we get it, bro).

Julia, Duane’s niece, is the other major character, and I think Rosson really wanted her arc to hit with emotional impact. I could see what he was going for, how this trauma and this world shaped her and guided her actions, but for me it didn’t quite land. It felt a little unfinished, like the emotional threads didn’t get tied off tightly enough.

But here’s the thing: even though I wasn’t emotionally attached, I did find myself having fun with the ride. There’s some vampire lore here that was genuinely new to me and that I thought was really cool (like vampires puking if they drink too much blood). These little details made the book stand out in ways I appreciated.

The stretch of the book I liked most was the third quarter. That’s where the pacing clicked and felt right: it was bloody, fast, and fun. I especially loved the chapters told from John Varley’s perspective—his story was a blast, and I found him to be more compelling than the other characters. The gore throughout the book, especially in Varley's chapters, is very slasher-film: quick, messy, a little disturbing, but also occasionally comical (though that might just be me).

Another thing that tripped me up was the writing style. Rosson bounces between very workmanlike, straightforward prose (“he walked into the room, he picked up the thing, he left”) and bursts of gory, purple-prose action-film energy (think: guts slushing, heavy breathing in the middle of a kill scene). Sometimes it worked and hit hard, but sometimes it just left me wishing for more consistency and more feeling; less telling me what someone did, more letting me feel it with them.

And I know the tone of this review probably makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy the book, but that’s not the case. I did. It’s a fun vampire novel, and I think it would actually make a really great film. But it wasn’t surprising to me. I saw most of the twists and even the ending coming. And for that, it isn’t one of those stories that I’ll hold close to my heart forever.

So here’s my final thought: if you love vampire books and action movies, this will be right up your alley. If you’re into vampire lore and like finding those little fresh details to tuck away, you’ll enjoy that too. But if you want something unpredictable, deeply emotional/more vampiric, or unforgettable, this probably won’t be it. As a bloody, chaotic, cinematic romp, though? It absolutely works.

--------------


MY ORIGINAL PLACE HOLDER REVIEW:

I have a lot of feelings about Coffin Moon
(both good and not-so-good). For now I’ll just say: it’s chaotic, it’s gory, and it would probably make a killer movie. Full review later today. 🩸

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one will put its “teeth” into you. There is no letting go either, so hang on for the whole ride. It's easily what I liked most, and also the fact that I could not guess at Rosson's choice of direction. Continually inventive. Bloody, yes for sure, but it goes with the territory. He turned old motifs on their head! 4.25

[Adrienne L · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

[Debbie H · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 ⭐️ Dark and terrifying Vampire tale! This is on par with Salem’s Lot it’s that good!

Set in the 1975, Duane Minor is a vet trying to deal with post war trauma, living with his wife Heidi and their niece Julia, above the bar owned by his in-laws.
Things seem to be going well til a strange man, John Varley and his biker cohorts show up at the bar making demands to sell drugs. Duane’s actions set into action a bloody massacre that changes his and Julia’s life forever!

Alternating chapters give the back stories of Duane, Julia, and John Varley. There is a lot of blood and gore in the telling of this story, but the prose is excellent.

Keith Rosson has written a frightening vampire story that I couldn’t put down. If you like horror, you don’t want to skip this one!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Random House publishers for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Frank Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This was hands down the best vampire novel I've read in years!! 5-Stars, without a doubt!

Keith Rosson’s Coffin Moon is a dark, atmospheric revenge tale that feels like it could only belong in the 1970s. The setting is more than just a backdrop—it’s woven into the bones of the story. The bars, the back roads, the music, the grit and grime of the decade—it all gives the book a raw, lived-in quality that adds to the tension and brutality at its core.

At its heart, this is a story about vengeance, and Rosson doesn’t flinch from showing what that truly looks like. The action comes hard and fast, and there’s no shortage of blood and gore along the way. What impressed me most, though, is how balanced it felt. The violence never veers into excess for shock’s sake—it’s brutal, yes, but purposeful, and it underscores the desperation and intensity of the characters. How far would you go for revenge - and at what cost?

The novel has a grindhouse feel—unapologetically pulpy, stylishly violent, and packed with momentum—but there’s also a surprising amount of thoughtfulness behind it. The characters aren’t just archetypes; they’re flawed and human (or are they?!), making the revenge all the more impactful. I found myself caring about them, especially Julia, in between the blood-soaked set pieces, which gave the whole book a strong emotional current.

Coffin Moon is the kind of novel that feels cinematic—you can practically see the cigarette smoke curling in a neon-lit bar or hear the crunch of gravel under boots on a deserted highway. It’s action-heavy, bloody, and dark, but never too much to push me away. Instead, it’s exactly the kind of revenge-driven horror I love: stylish, gripping, and unflinching.

This is a story packed with many potential triggers, but if you can move past those elements, it's an incredibly rewarding read. For anyone drawn to tales of vengeance, grit, atmosphere, and just the right amount of blood, Coffin Moon is highly recommended.

[Chantel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Establishing a balance between the gruesome & the pathetic seems an easy road to trapeze. One might feel it so obvious a juggle to teeter that there is no need for any discussion at all. Perhaps they are correct. Meeting a failed attempt within the pages of a book one knows cannot be written with them in mind, one longs to seek the pathway one such person felt overcome to take; a pathway that appeared difficult, challenging, between pedantic blood loss & vile terror.

I have sat with myself after reading this story because I felt that I had nothing to say. This is partially untrue because I have a lot to say, as evidenced by the length of these reviews. However, in the context of this story, the weight of the obvious, that is, the clarity with which I knew I was not the target reader, has left me feeling as though I might prefer to hold my tongue. Indeed, what is the point in writing forty pages about my disappointment if I might have spared myself by simply closing the book when the clock struck the hour?

Therefore, in an attempt to be clear before roaming the lane of wordiness, as is my habit, I wish to acknowledge the type of horror that is found within this book. Certainly, readers who appreciate the realism of terror as I do within books may find the mark has been missed within this plot. The author has sought to include a vampire, indestructible & villainous as no other, while colouring his being with silly emotions like hesitancy & a maniac’s inability to be in control. Each of the characters fits into this typecast; none are particularly unique enough to warrant a story being told about them & yet when one takes note of the details of their person, they become disjointed.

Why would the story follow a man who was in his mid-twenties with the personality & lifestyle of a man in his middle age? Was the decade of the 1970s so different than the current decade that his person might easily have been mistaken for someone in their forties or fifties? I pose this question because Duane, the main character, did not fit into his role & I began to grow tired of the truth, which is that he was too young to be so naïve & too old to be so hopeful; I note with purposeful phrasing.

Duane is presented as a tired person. I cannot fault him for feeling this way; his life has been a series of highs & lows, categorized by his life-altering experiences in the Vietnam War (1955-1975). I could understand how the hopefulness of his early years might have been dashed when drafted, being left to battle a society of people for reasons that were unclear even to the most learned among Americans. Indeed, the life & times of Duane’s character were a draw for the story. The setting within which he exists is evocative of more than just the casual haunts of men who experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & who roam in dreams to escape themselves.

Duane represents an era during which political stamina for action & misdirection were rampant; much of what is now romanticized today stems from the political direction & policies adopted during this era. The greatness of casual calls to war, so soon after a monstrous world war; the enemy who has been isolated due to their face & race; the patriarchal pressure to remain headstrong; the list goes on. This story advocates for a reflection by the reader on such realities & although I will not seek to include political discourse on the rights & wrongs of the United States Army & their political propensity for invading Vietnam to oust Communism, I do believe its relevance merits inclusion in this review.

Without the Vietnam War & the involvement of the United States, men like Duane would not have been faced with the nightmares they carried for the rest of their lives. It feels kinder to reflect on Duane’s circumstances by noting that he did not want to fight, nor did he wish to kill. Duane is introduced to the reader as a pacifist who has found love & whose life feels at ease in the flow of mortality. Perhaps this is why I felt put off by his age. I acknowledge that perhaps the author chose to make him so young to drive home the point that horrors are not age-restricted.

It is a personal opinion that sees me reflect on the age of all of the characters & the way this fell flat in the context. Surely, for readers who are seeking to consume a story about young adults whose lives have been carried away by circumstances outside of their control, this will be the ideal book. One notes that many, if not all, of the characters are young. Heidi’s parents are no more than fifty years old, which makes them old in the context of Duane & Heidi’s ages, but not in terms of life on Earth.

I remark on this as such a point of contention for me because it felt at odds with the events. Duane is saturated & soaked by his alcoholism; Julia is too young to be insightful & continues to make the wildest decisions; Heidi’s parents are crass & brokenly naïve to believe that becoming a drug mule will grant them financial freedom; I ask then why that is. Why are all these characters so well accustomed to the world & its complexities, & yet stifled by the youth of their age that they make such wildly juvenile choices?

The story follows the consequences of their choices. Julie becomes a vampire child, ignoring the fact that, should she live forever, she will be no more adept at life than she is right now. Duane does not put his foot down & refuse this course of action, choosing instead to pretend that getting drunk while Julia plots her escape might dissuade her from sneaking out in the night to become a vampire.

Back & forth, one wanders amongst these decisions & although one may be more tender-hearted than I am coming across in this review, enough to forgive the characters for their naivety, I cannot help but gawk at their stupidity.

This frustration is a tricky thing to develop while reading, for one must acknowledge that had anything been different, one would not be reading the story as it exists. The story that might have existed had Duane understood the craftiness & determination that Julia fostered to fight a vampire beast that she could not win against would have led to the author writing an entirely different novel. Therefore, I note the uselessness of feeling frustrated by characters who were shaped the way the author intended.

Praise should be given to the author for framing & shaping characters the way that he has, for indeed they appear as real individuals might in real life. Although a reader might not long for their companionship, their presence on the page felt entirely true to their beings & for that, the author has accomplished his feat of giving his story wings to fly.

Many of my qualms lie in the tone of the story & while paired with characters who were both too young & too old, as noted earlier, I found the shift to quirky horror decidedly odd. The main villain did not seem like much of a deviant at all.

John Varley, the very young twenty-five-year-old vampire, transformed in the summer of 1917 by an original vampiric creature, murders at random & enjoys galivanting in the beds of anyone who might have a penchant for the deranged. His reputation precedes him; his murderous follies speak for themselves, but when John is left to speak for himself, his foolish & trite personality left me with a crinkle in my brow.

What makes a vampire such a scary creature is its ability to live forever. The author has included traditional lore associated with vampires & brings forth a character who embodies the cruelty of psychopathy. I could not help but hope for more from John Varley. His teetering between understanding the brutality of his abilities & the loneliness of his circumstances, to trust someone whom he didn’t know from Adam, all felt very ill-conceived. Would a vampire need someone else when all the while he spent his life not needing anyone? What left John feeling certain that the casual murder of the elderly man in the restroom was significant enough to trust the hitchhiker?

So many instances raise questions & yet, I return to my main point, which is that the target reader for the quirky horror genre is not me. Ultimately, I appreciated the musings of the author as he crafted characters whose flaws did not lead them to despair. I appreciated the marooning of a magical realism that existed while mortal men flew overseas to evoke war on the snipers & unsuspecting. There are aspects that any reader may appreciate if they choose to do so.

However, when it comes down to it, skimming the majority of the middle of this book would not leave one any worse off than if they had read it. The changing perspectives gave me more ammunition to dislike the way each character was & their choices. For another reader, this approach will grant them the intimacy with each main player they long for.

Although I cannot say I had a fun time or a fulfilling time reading this book, I am glad to have done so, for it gave me a better appreciation of the structure of the genre. For readers who enjoy the twinge of cringe that marches alongside malevolence, this book will be their bread & butter, jam & jelly.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, & Keith Rosson for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Natalie all_books_great_and_small · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via Black Crow Books and Black Crow Pr.

Coffin Moon is the fresh taste of horror we've all been waiting for. We follow three main characters: Dwane Minor, Julia, and John Varley.
Julia (age 13) has been taken into the care of her aunt Heidi and her husband Dwane after her mother murders her step-father. Dwane and Heidi live above the family run bar where Dwane is fighting to stay sober after the horrors he experienced in the Vietnam war when one evening, some unsavoury visitors make an appearance in the bar and Dwane and Julia's lives are irrevocably changed. For Dwane has crossed John Varley, a dark and dangerous vampire who cares for nothing and no one and who takes revenge not just seriously but in the most horrific measures.
This then sets a game of cat and mouse between the three, but who will be left standing...?
This was such an unputdownable read from start to finish. Each character was so well fleshed out, and I loved the 70s setting, which fit the story perfectly.
What really captivated me was the underlying tones of both trauma and tenderness woven through the story, which makes you question not only humanity but how differently we all cope with it, despite not always being understood by others.
I'm so excited to see what Keith Rosson has in store for us next!

[Stacey Markle · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh boy...I have thoughts
Did I just read the best book of 2025? I think perhaps I have.
This horror story centered around Duane and his family, gives me everything I love in a book. Fast paced action, deep characters to absolutely love (and love to hate!) and vampires with an agenda that just means death to everyone.
The first part of the story introduces us to Duane, his wife and niece along with his in-laws. While flawed, Duane is trying to be a good husband, navigate being a surrogate dad to a teenage Julia, and battle his past. I love them all and the writing is just so good, it made me love them.
One night, things go wrong in the bar they own and it sets them all on a path of incredible loss and destruction. Meeting John Varley will change their lives forever. Hate fueled actions and insanely brutal violence ensues.
The journey that Duane and Julia go on is fraught with danger, often of their own making. There are more characters that enter the story, some who help and some who hurt. The twists were just stunning!
I can't say enough about this book...I plan to read it again soon because I know I flew through it so fast I missed some. Easy 5 stars. Please let there be a book #2 coming (I feel like there is more to this story!)

I was honoured to receive this story as an ARC so thank you to #blackcrowpr and #NetGalley for the opportunity!

[kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Duane Minor—newly retired Vietnam vet, newly sober, with rage ready to bubble over and nightmares that come almost every night—is back in Oregon helping his mother-in-law run the bar that was handed down to her. But an encounter with a ma—a dangerous man—named John Varley, upends Duane’s life forever.

The novel gives readers flawed but lovable main characters as they try to fight their way to a better life, a better being, regardless of the absolute shit of a past they have endured. Duane and Julia forever! And of course you can’t have good horror without a villain and our villain here, John Varley, is the one you love to hate; the one that commits the most vile, careless acts that you cannot look away from.

Coffin Moon is a terrifying, gritty, fun little blood bath, as any good vampire book should be. Revenge-fueled, intense, and really hard to put down. 🧛🏻‍♂️🧛🏻‍♂️
Thank you Random House for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. Available Sep 09 2025

[Matt M · Rating 5 out of 5]

You want scary vampires? Keith Rosson has scary vampires for you. Coffin Moon, like his Fever House duology, is a fantastic blend of horror with gritty, violent crime fiction. Unlike those other books, this novel has a smaller and more focused cast of characters, which, for me, really ramps up the intimacy and the heartbreak.

Coffin Moon is a blood-soaked, grief-fueled revenge tale of monsters, human and otherwise. And when I say blood-soaked, I mean it. This novel is unflinching in its violence and gore. There are some really shocking moments in this book. There is an omnipresent sense of danger on every page and he is able to keep the tension going while also allowing some breathing room for some very heartfelt character moments and heartbreaking realizations.

This is my new favorite Keith Rosson book. I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves horror. It’ll be in my top of the year contention.

Thanks so much to Random House for the eARC!

[♡ retrovvitches ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

this ripped my heart out and stomped on it repeatedly and i would let it do it again and again. i’m a sucker for a vampire story, and this one was so full of grief and revenge, and weirdly enough love. makes you reflect on the choices you make and how that’s your burden when the time comes. just wow what a book. loved it

[Amos · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There's room to breathe here. The quiet isn't dangerous."

I never thought I would be misty-eyed after all the blood and guts...but I guess the world still holds a few surprises for me. What a book! Bravo, Mr Rosson, for creating a truly unique vampire tale - one stuffed with humanity and hurt, regret and resistance, love and confusion, and revenge without forgiveness. And don't forget about that boatload of blood and guts!! Quite the enjoyable read.

4 1/2 Silver Stars


P.S. - Thank you Goodreads for the Uncorrected Proof via giveaway ;P

[Justine · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Wow. This was terrific! I was so impressed by Rosson’s Fever House duology, Fever House and The Devil by Name, and so I admit to my expectations being set cautiously high for Coffin Moon. I was not disappointed.

Rosson captures the gritty 70’s feel perfectly, the aftermath of Vietnam and the permanent darkness it set over the hearts of returning soldiers, many of whom had been drafted into service. He paints a picture of a regular group of working-class people of modest means, doing their best to cope with some already intense family difficulties and hoping for a better future.

The unspeakable and violent events that shatter a fragile family already trying to rebuild itself sets off a chain of events and takes us on a dark journey fuelled by revenge. We see how far the ties that bind people to others can be stretched and tested. The question of what makes someone a monster looms ever larger in the background, and also whether the things we do for love are worth the cost.

A few years ago I read an absolutely fantastic book called Rovers by Richard Lange, which was bit like Of Mice and Men but with a pair of itinerant vampires doing what they could to survive together. Since then, books such as Night's Edge and Blood Like Mine have used to good effect the idea of vampires as people of ordinary means struggling with their ties to family and friends and how those relationships cement, twist, bind, and shape the people involved. If you’ve read and enjoyed any of those books, then Coffin Moon will be entirely satisfying for you.

A note on the audiobook: the narration is absolutely excellent and definitely recommended if this is the format you prefer.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

TLDR: This book had so much potential but ultimately felt like a drag when none of it paid off.

I was really into the first 100-150 pages of this one: the setup was intriguing, the characters seemed promising, I enjoyed the level of detail in the writing style, and the vampy horror vibe was so perfectly atmospheric for October reading. Personally I love when a fantastical story starts out really grounded in reality before getting outright weird, as that usually brings the weirdness to vivid life, so everything at the beginning here was a go for me.
But unfortunately, I really struggled with the second half of this story, which felt like a drawn-out string of missed opportunities. To be fair, I did know going in that this was a revenge story, but I expected it to be more than violence. It wasn’t the gore that bothered me in the end as much as the lack of any deeper thematic exploration behind the violence. Some of these characters just really like hurting people for the sake of hurting people, which feels lazy and isn’t my type of read.
I also felt pretty strongly that this should’ve been Julia’s story- she’s the one exerting her agency here, and with everything she’s been through and the choices she makes she should have such a rich main character interiority, but Rosson barely scratches the surface with her. She’s just there to keep things happening to Duane, who is way too checked out to be much of a guardian, much less a proper protagonist. His arc is so simple and straightforward and frankly: boring. Johan also could’ve saved this very basic plot a bit by having a single ounce of complexity, but he is yet another character who is just exactly how they first appear and nothing more. Everyone here is much too devoted to telling the truth and making a spot-on first impression to actually become interesting. Every scene plays out exactly how you’d expect it to, every character comfortable in their limited role, zero surprises. The relationships feel no deeper than shared proximity. Even the vampire aspect came across so much duller than it could’ve- Rosson uses the “mysteriously magical” approach, where the vampires just know things and no reasons or explanations are given. Even the origin story is just “there was another vampire before.”
This rating feels a bit harsh for a story that isn’t outright harmful or nonsensical; I can see other readers enjoying it more than I did and I’m cool with that. It just was very much not for me in the end.

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this in one sitting, what a read! Coffin Moon is for all of you who have read Mongrel by Stephen Graham Jones and reveled in its originality. Or if you liked the level of psychological character development in the horror novel Diavola by Jennifer Thorne, you'll love what is happening here. This is the vampire novel I was waiting for. While I love the sub-genre, over the years, I had begun to feel like I was merely reading the same five or six vampire plot lines told with different character names in slightly different styles. Coffin Moon is a brilliant departure from what I had come to regard as the expected. It also happens to be my first Keith Rossen read, and it won't be my last.

The Basic Premise:

Julia's mother is serving time, so Julia comes to live with her aunt and uncle and grandparents who run a low key bar highly favored by locals. They are good people, real people, flawed but generally happy, and they try to do right by Julia. She's begun to settle in and feel stability for the first time in her life. Her uncle Duane on late shift has an unfortunate, chance encounter with three men who change all of that abruptly. What ensues is a string of gruesome murders and a call to vengeance.

Prose Structure & Style:

Rossen certainly doesn't shy away from the creative use of sentence fragments, but he uses them quite deliberately to mimic Duane's thought process. If overdone, this might've become annoying, but Rossen strikes an excellent balance between expressing Duanes scattered thoughts and then offering these perfectly sculpted passages or profound sentences that follow. Despite the breakneck speed with which I felt compelled to keep reading, I stopped and wrote several of these lines down. For example, this rather eastern notion about all of life being a state of suffering is a response from Adeline, a minor but fascinating character: "Everything hurts. Is that rude of me? Everything hurts, always. Sorrow, vengeance, even joy. Everything's got teeth on it."

The novel is sectioned by alternating POVs and also by time and place. This sounds distracting, but it felt seamlessly smooth, and I was never confused. The reason for this structure is brilliant. By staggering the flow of time and allowing past flashbacks to resurface and interrupt the primary timeline, Rossen's structure imitates his primary theme, the nature of trauma. Both Julia and Duane have traumatic pasts which are haunting them. They both carry undeserved guilt associated with these traumas. Julia even asks at one point, "Is it my fault," blaming herself for what she simply could never have caused. When the plot structure organically switches to these sections, readers experience their trauma once again as they do, suggesting classic Caruthian Trauma Theory. As Cathy Caruth famously theorized, recovery from a trauma is only possible if someone outside of the trauma serves as witness (like a therapist ie). Without an outside witness, trauma will cycle, and you will experience it again in slightly different ways as you age through life.


Originality:

I mentioned SGJ's novel Mongrel, one of the most innovative werewolf novels I've ever read, because like SGJ, Rossen never gives away the subject matter. No where in Mongrel do the main character directly discuss being werewolves. And in Coffin Moon, the word "vampire" is actually only used once, "to take its power away by naming it." Instead of telling readers the typical array of cliches associated with vampires, we are shown--we experience--what living that life would feel like in the most original way. In the beginning, the subject matter is only vaguely alluded to by including snippets of description. Men wearing clothes from another decade, outdated politeness (which made me smile), odd accents, and a sheen in the eyes are really the only hints that we get. It has the effect of making readers hunger almost for direct confrontation like the Freudian Death Mydriatic or Thanatos. It generates such suspense that I personally couldn't read fast enough.

The characters themselves are so refreshingly, recognizably real. Uncle Duane is still suffering from the horror he experienced in Vietnam. Technically, we see he has ptsd, but back during the time of this setting that wasn't a cultural buzz word the way it is now, and Duane never uses it. He recognizes that he is forever changed by the things in his past which haunt him and by a sense of nagging guilt, but he is still a kind and loving husband and tries to be a caretaker. He at first seems to be every bit "the good ole boy" (and with a name like Duane), but yet he is triggered by homophobia and feels the ardent need to stand up to bigots on behalf of a homosexual former soldier. Julia is just as complex. She's marred by her own past, the horror of an abusive stepfather and of her mother's attempt to save her and her brother. But these events have not made her a victim. She's fiercely loyal and determined. There's this wonderful passage in which Duane watched Julia eat dinner with her back hunched and her arms around her food--the same way he eats. And he thinks to himself that both of them have a past which has given them such a posture. Even the more minor characters are never romanticized in Coffin Moon. Adeline, for example, appears to be a child at first though is very old, and she runs what she calls a children's museum home to a macabre array of 36 starving vampires who refuse to eat enough. Even the investigating police officer who clearly cares about the primary characters and manages to ask poignant questions resists cliche.

Basically, none of the contemporary overused conventions which plague most vampire novels ruin this ride. What Rossen has given us in Coffin Moon is new, and you know it from line one: "Early afternoon, with bruised, ugly clouds hanging above the notched teeth of the buildings across the street, the sleet all coming down sideways, holiday lights blinking red and green in the windows of the bar." Finally, a vampire book without boogie, streamlined, wealthy, one dimensional characters falling in and out of love with prey. Finally, a horror novel with characters I can actually imagine into daily life.

Magical System:

Rossen doesn't waste time trying to reinvent vampirism, but I was surprised by just how thoroughly he put his own stamp on what being a vampire means in Coffin Moon. Silver is the primary method for slaying or weakening as it seems to be poisonous to them. Silver bullets are used by at least four slayers scattered throughout America. Daylight is still dangerous to them and they go essentially comatose during these hours. One vampire discusses his fantasy of one day retiring to Alaska (that made me smile). They can't drink animal blood as a substitute for human blood. And a Maker is apparently Rossen's word for an old one, or an original vampire which doesn't look fully human and which has more power than the average vampire. For a short, character driven novel, set in the real world circa 1970's a great deal of information is conveyed, and this is accomplished by sprinkling details via dialogue as the story unfolds, but never as an information/exposition dump.

The Horror Itself & Thematic Implications:

This isn't a traditionally terrifying novel. It's an extremely suspenseful, thrilling novel with macabre scenes. It will definitely keep you up at night, but only because you feel driven to keep reading--not because you have a sudden, paranoid fear of the dark. The gore, largely the product of murder scenes, is not overly stated, and I never felt my stomach turn. I really don't fully enjoy novels which indulge overly disgusting descriptions anyway, so that was just fine with me.

This is a novel that probes the nature of trauma and how we begin to wear that trauma from day to day if it is never witnessed and subsequently addressed by that witness. Past traumas denied cycle into predictive futures. Set in 1975 when very few Americans sought treatment plans or really any minor help at all for very severe traumatic events, this is a novel about how the mind will return again and again to the horror of living out their worst experiences, and thus the worst of us begins to define us.

Over all:

This is the sort of horror novel I love the most, the kind that stays with you and provokes thoughtful discussion. It's also just damn fun to read. It's the kind of book that I tell everyone about. I loved every page.