Blooding Night

by Tim Curran

Four girls lost in the big, bad woods. Four girls hunted by primeval monsters. Four girls trapped in a deadly, ancient ritual of sacrifice.

To stay alive until dawn will mean using every scrap of instinct and skill they possess. Civilization no longer exists for them. They must become just as bloodthirsty and predatory as the creatures that stalk them.

Only one can survive. The most cunning one.

Only she can be the bride of Blooding Night…

Genres: Horror, Werewolves

263 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2022

About the author

Tim Curran lives in Michigan and is the author of the novels Skin Medicine, Hive, Dead Sea, Resurrection, The Devil Next Door, and Biohazard, as well as the novella The Corpse King. His short stories have appeared in such magazines as City Slab, Flesh&Blood, Book of Dark Wisdom, and Inhuman, and anthologies such as Shivers IV, High Seas Cthulhu, and Vile Things.

For DarkFuse and its imprints, he has written the bestselling The Underdwelling, the Readers Choice-Nominated novella Fear Me, Puppet Graveyard as well as Long Black Coffin.

Find him on the web at: www.corpseking.com.

Reviews

[Peter Topside · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a cool concept. And executed very well. Honestly I can’t say much without spoiling major aspects of the story, so I’m going to stay a little more broad than usual. Our three female leads have unknowingly been thrust into a very savage, preternatural (Cheap plug!) decade-long cycle to crown a Blood Bride. There’s a strange following to the process and we follow our characters as they battle werewolves, crazed forest dwellers, and even each other. Amazing atmosphere created and, again, it was a blast of a premise. However, I suffered from major reader fatigue during the middle portion of the book. As each of the women interacted with the people living in cabins, had these strange sexual interactions (Most of which felt very out of place.), etc, it just felt like someone hit the repeat button nonstop. Now it all had purpose, but it could have been shortened and more unique per character, as opposed to extremely similar scenes for each woman. Like a good fifty pages could have easily been trimmed out of the book and made it a much more palatable experience. But, aside from that, this was a lot of fun and will appeal to horror nuts everywhere. It’s vicious, scary, and downright terrifying. Do you need to know any more?

[Brian G Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

CALL OF THE WILD! CALL OF THE HUNT! The Wild Hunt!
This book was something else. Intending to go camping, four women soon become the pawns of a very ancient ritual. From dark, foreboding forests, to nocturnal red-eyed horrors, and a sea of gore. Tim Curran does something special with this one. His depictions and take on werewolves were fantastic. The imagery and scenery in this book are on point and drags you right into the pages alongside the characters. You'll smell every odor from foul, rotting things, to the hot coppery scent of blood. There were some seriously creepy moments in this one and the ending blew out my mind.
Tim Curran continues to wear the crown, and I'm really looking forward to his War Horror tales collection coming soon.
5 horned moons!

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the opening stanza which had the four young women waking to find themselves isolated in a strange environment, bound, gagged, and scared out of their minds. The sense of horror and claustrophobia was heady and made for a great introduction into the bloody world so cleverly crafted by author Tim Curran.

Then came the escape and eventual fallback to survival horror troupes mixed with some bizzaro fiction akin to the story's by Carlton Mellick III and the wheels just didn't turn as smoothly as that great opening.

The over-the-top gore and sexplotation fit the tone of the narrative and added a nice cinematic element to the creature feature theme.

I think the repetitive nature of the bestial/human conflict wore me down as the story progressed, with each of the four characters experiencing similar perils and plights as they attempted to survive the night. Still well worth a read, especially if you like your horror raw and oozing blood.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Violence and sexploitation went so far in the end that made me feel sick, but It was just what I was expecting from a Tim Curran book, so not complaining at all.
A brutal and entertaining read, If you are in the right mood and extreme horror is your cup of tea.

[Dale Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, just wow! This is my first Tim Curran read and i absolutely loved it. I love a Werewolf yarn anyway but this was extra special- a different take on the Werewolf lore. And it worked a treat!

It starts off with 4 girls, each in a different predicament which they definitely don't want to be in, and progresses to their subsequent journey through the night. They are broken, both physically and mentally, meet people, and experience horrors beyond their wildest imaginations. What a brutal story it really is. Gruesome, heartbreaking, thrilling.

I really liked the fact that each chapter was split into each girls journey, and it bounced back and forth between them. I did get a bit lost, but that was mainly because of the time i was reading and how tired i was. Chapters were quite short too which i love!

For a story that's based in a forest, books can have a habit of becoming a bit repetitive, description wise, but this one didn't. Tim found the words, and the sentence structures, to keep things fresh as the story went on.

Really enjoyed this and wouldnt highly recommend to any horror fans.

[Chris Berko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tim Curran knocks werewolves out the park with this one. Sincerely, anything and everything this guy writes is fantastic. I looked at the cover and read the synopsis and was like okay maybe some been there done that but I forgot it was Tim Curran. This is werewolves as I’ve never read them and there are some very cool and original ideas he comes up with. Highly recommended this is a great story.

[Escapereality4now · Rating 5 out of 5]

rounded from 4.5 stars.

Only one can survive the night!

I listened to this on audiobook. I loved the narration. Rob Saladino did a great job at captivating me the entire time. I would, definitely, listen to more books by this narrator.

“Blooding Night,” by Tim Curran, is an epic werewolf story. Curran put a fresh spin on the overused trope by writing a survival story that opens with women being held captive. Wow! The claustrophobic feeling, in the beginning is intense from page on. The reader experiences the character's fear, panic, and confusion.

Curran tells the reader about each girl's journey of survival. The author gave each charcoal an inner monologue to express the desire to escape. Some of the characters journey’s became repetitive. They all seemed to overcome similar challenges. The author weaves the backstory into the narrative without feeling like an informational dump.

The story slowly and consistently escalated at a steady pace. As Blooding Night progresses, the story becomes visceral and violent. All the build-up comes to a satisfying ending.

“Blooding Night” is a unique, well-written werewolf story.

Trigger warning: female rape

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read a dozen or more books by Tim Curran this one was not one my favourites.
The story is quite straightforward as all other novels by him. In this case we've got a group of four women who were captured by some people that look like they are either savages or werewolves.

This story progress with each chapter going from one girl to the other as they try to escape. The author did bring out characteristics about them that make them different but unfortunately I couldn't connect as much as I hope with all jumping around.

These werewolves once every ten years they capture people and then choose one to be the bride of the pack leader while the others are eaten. The story has some connections with Red Riding Hood with the lumberjack & old women (grandmother?).

Overall a good story for Halloween although it has nothing to do with it. I've read better from him. That doesn't mean he is one of my top three horror writers with Richard Laymon & Bentley Little. 69/100

It's a nice tale but could be a lot more. Probably more backstory to connect with them and\or story of the pack and how they live on the day to day as we only know what they do every ten years.

[Paul Pope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great suspense! A new twist on the same-old cryptid story. There is no bone-shattering transformations here. I really enjoyed that fresh twist.

The author starts with a disclaimer about the extremities mentioned within the text. Honestly it’s barely R-Rated in my opinion. With the exception of just a few passages it’s mostly PG-13.

Great descriptors of gruesome encounters. A few were repeated several times, but that’s easy to forgive.

Four young women go camping in the remote woods. A handsome woodsman offers them refreshments, and upon awakening they discover they’ve been separated from each other, and detained for sinister shenanigans. One girl wakes up in a cadaver bag. Another is boxed up with old timber. The third one is chained within an old cistern when she awakens.

The remainder of the book is the perspective of each woman trying to escape, get help, and get out of the woods. A great big Can Recommend.

[Kaisersoze · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was, sadly, a bit of a chore to get through.

Tim Curran is one of the best horror writers for his prosaic descriptions of shit that most would consider nightmare fuel. His capacity to describe a scene in graphic and intricate detail is second to none.

The problem with some of his longer works is he writes different version of the same scene over and over, until, for me, the whole thing loses its intended effect.

Witness Blooding Night in which four friends awaken separately awaken, having been drugged, kidnapped, bound and gagged, and have to make their own individual way our through some kind of never-ending forest where monsters are hunting them. They each run into some randomly crazy supporting characters, see some disgusting shit, get scared out of their mind, physically hurt and then run away.

Rinse and repeat. Over and over.

It's not until the last 10% of the book in which final fates are finally revealed, but it's fair to say, by that point, I was just reading for the completion stat.

Which is not fair and I clearly need a break from this kind of wordy, gross-out horror.

2 Neverending Ordeals for Blooding Night.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oof. This was a nonstop gore gross out fest. I thought I was cool with that (the last book I read was about a serial killer who had a taste for human eyes) but it was SO nonstop that it got… boring? Lots of smelly glands and yellowed fat and heads being popped. It definitely lost it’s shock value about halfway through. There are some scenes that would have been truly haunting if they hadn’t been preceded with the same things over and over. I could not keep the main characters straight until the very end (eventually I was like okay this is the angry one, the dark past one, the anxious one, the addict…) and even then I couldn’t remember what events had happened to which person because they all experienced such similar things. How many times did someone come across a cabin or a place they thought would be a safe haven only to find out they are *GASP* also a part of blooding night??! 😱 I read this quickly but it definitely became a chore.

[Kate Victoria RescueandReading · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Blooding: To smear with blood; the act of anointing a novice with the blood of the first kill of the hunt.”

This was definitely one of the best werewolf books I’ve ever read!

Four women out camping wake up tied up in various settings. They soon realize they are part of a ritualistic hunt for a community of werewolves; Blooding Night.

It’s a gory, supernatural, creature feature and it’s a fantastic story. The reader follows the POVs of each woman as they try to evade the monsters and stay out of various psychological and physical traps. Only one can survive the night, the Bride; the ending for the survivor was not what I was expecting at all!

[Caitlyn Romney · Rating 1 out of 5]

I will no longer be taking book recs from reddit.

[Seri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm mildly obsessed with werewolf stories, but it's damn hard to find a good one - however wading through all of the unimaginative drivel is worth it when I stumble upon gems like this.

It's a unique spin on a werewolf story, evolving from gritty survival horror to somewhat of a dark fairy tale with some folk horror vibes. I was completely enraptured the entire time and managed to devour the whole thing in one night at the expense of being very tired the next morning.

Now, this book is extreme horror, something I'm not usually the biggest fan of if done cheaply, but the setting was so immersive that the horrible things felt fitting and ingrained in the narrative rather than purely for shock value, with some exceptions which I'll get to in a bit. Things escalated so slowly and consistently that it wasn't jarring but after I finished the book I ended up sitting there like "DAMN that was depraved what did I just read" and spent some time lying there mulling over the whole story.

One thing I really dislike on principle is gratuitous sexual violence against women, especially when written by a male author. In this case I understand the inclusion as it's so tied into the theme - feralness, returning to the wild, the cruelty of nature. But there were some moments where I think it just got excessive - I really didn't need to read the werewolf oral rape scene, especially right after another rape that happened mostly offscreen/through distorted reality which was disturbing enough .

My only other gripe was that some elements seemed repetitive throughout the girls' journeys, e.g. stumbling upon a shack/house, meeting a kind woman who looks after them, but then is revealed to be a werewolf and turns against them - this happened like 3 times? 4 if you count Mother Streega (she was obvious from the start but similar themes)? Idk I lost count but it got predictable

However, aside from a couple of gripes, the book was so damn compelling that I have to give it 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. So often I settle for reading mediocre books with werewolves in them out of desperation for content, but this is just a damn unique and well written book whether you like werewolves or not.

[Dani Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bloody epic werewolf story

A dimension beside ours that opens for one night every ten years, a forest under a dark enchantment. Four young women awake to find themselves in a hellish reality where the only way to survive is to embrace their inner beasts. Using werewolf mythology that embraces and revels in carnage and fear, Blooding Night is a rare visceral story that stays with you after the final page is turned. Vivid descriptions not for those easily offended or weak stomachs!

[Sahelanth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Effective swings between dread, mysticism, and gross-outs. I loved the cleverness and thought as the protagonists learn to evade and fight back. The beginning to middle is easily the best werewolf horror I’ve ever read. Later on, the book gets repetitive, and starts to lean on disgust and sexual violence pretty heavily.

[BraDana Hurry-Clanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

So Darn GOOD

Wow T.C. such an AWESOME READ. I devoured this book in a day. Characters, plot, and the pace is Top Notch writing. It has everything you would look for in Werewolf Horror. A Must Read...

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

:/

[Nicholas Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fang-tastic read! Tim Curran does it again!

This werewolf story was one for the ages. I still haven’t entirely figured out what happened, like I have so many unanswered questions! I’m left wanting more, but in a good way!

There was a lot to lobe about this book. You follow four girls that are kidnapped while camping and thrown into the wilderness where they must survive blooding night.

The build up to this book was there from the jump, and it didn’t let go until the final words were read.

I give this book 5/5 stars! Excellent take on the werewolf story! It wrapped up pretty nicely, but still I want to know more! Very good read!

[Thomas Hobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 female friends camping in the woods, kidnapped for an ancient ritual. Werewolves come out once a year on a hunt not necessarily to kill but to add on to their brood. A bitch to breed and to replace an elder bitch. This was a unique story of its kind wolves using telepathy to communicate and a felt of werewolf that you can wear and takeoff at will. Amazing werewolf story!

[C.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloody excellent werewolf novel. Interesting characters and plot. Highly recommended.

[Nick Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

As much a dark fairytale as it is horror with the coolest take on werewolves in years. Also, some hardcore beastialty.

[marika ! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is this what men think female friendships/girls nights are like?

[Kristoffer Bolton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A page turner for sure, like all his works. Curran can turn his utilitarian prose to just about any setting and craft a worthwhile read from it.

Sadly the quartering of the book made it feel somewhat repetitive. The girls all experienced similar trials and while learning about their different pasts was interesting enough, their arcs quickly blended into one another. Having the human vs animal struggle mirrored four times over killed some of the tension. Further the payoff at the end was a meagre one. One is raped and killed, one is just humiliated, one triumphs and the last one is raped for eternity.