Judgment Night

Bad Blood #3

by Debra Doyle, James D. Macdonald (Editor)

In the sequel to Bad Blood and Hunter's Moon, Valerie Sherwood, an unwilling werewolf, is haunted by the Wendigo, an ancient force that calls to her from the mountains and thrives on her fear. Original.

Genres: Horror, Paranormal

171 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

aka Nicholas Adams (with James D. Macdonald), Martin Delrio, Robyn Tallis (with James D. Macdonald)

Debra Doyle has a doctorate in English literature. Together, she and James Macdonald have written numerous sf/f books. They live in Colebrook, New Hampshire.

Series:
* Mageworlds
* Circle of Magic
* Bad Blood

Series contributed to:
* Tom Swift IV
* Robert Silverberg's Time Tours
* Daniel M Pinkwater's Melvinge of the Megaverse
* Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict

Reviews

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounded up to 3 stars for GR and an overall rating for this trilogy.

It has been three years since Valerie Sherwood was bitten by Jay, whom she thought was a friend, but it turns out he was a werewolf. On that camping trip, lives were changed and then lost when Jay killed Valerie's friends Bill and Greg. Diana ended up killing Jay with a silver bullet to the head that blew his brains out and a group of friends had to survive with separate trauma.

Some spoilers ahead...

Diana went away to a private school on the opposite coast, but it turned out to be a sanitarium to deal with the PTSD. Freddie drifted away and Valerie had to find a new friend but soon that girl Elise became lost to a vampire, seeking out to control Valerie in her werewolf form through her.

It is now Valerie's senior year, and Diana is back at school to graduate while keeping up her grades with schooling thanks to having affluent parents. Freddie reconnected with Valerie in their lost cause to save Elise and they have been dating but with no love's first kiss.

Freddie knows that werewolves can be made through the exchange of saliva and blood, so Valerie is stuck with kissing the other French way...on both cheeks with those annoying "air kisses" and Valerie is content not to make anyone else a werewolf like herself.

Then weird dreams start happening again or...could they be visions? Warnings?

The sound of a piano playing but no piano at the Sherwood home, a voice asking for help through the tape player on the radio? The appearance of a condor-like creature with the stench of death and decay about its feathers and a skeletal head that even Diana has seen.

Freddie is fascinated and believes that the night of the attack at the camp, something was set free from the ground thanks to the fires lit to keep werewolf Jay at bay. The scorched earth has spit forth a creature that goes by many names, and it is not only coming after Valerie but her only friends left alive...and the dead ones are giving aid beyond the grave.

I'm glad that Diana came back to the story and even if the plot started almost to drift towards retconning the whole timeline of events, I'm glad it swerved in a different direction. Parts of that plot were becoming far too complicated and confusing, but it did lead to characters finding closure.

Judgement Night was far less bloody than Bad Blood yet more of a paranormal ghost story but not as thrilling as Hunters' Moon. I did like the ending yet at the same time, I wished there could have been another book to tame my curiosity but that's just me.

Wondering what I'm talking about?

Seeking out this series is the only way, but I don't think anyone would be too disappointed.

[Yon Cassius · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite childhood books, I've never actually read any of the others. Still, I was gripped by the characters, and the story did a pretty good job of catching a new reader up.