Book Review: Midnight Mass

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Midnight Mass     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
F. Paul Wilson
Class/Genre:   Fiction   Horror
Tor, April 2004, $25.95, 336 pp.

There were vampires living in Eastern Europe that nobody knew about and when the Iron Curtain fell, a power vacuum developed. The vampires were quick to feed on the vacuous world leaders turning political, industry, and religious figures into vampires. Next they shut down electricity and telephone service leaving humans isolated and fearful. Finally they recruited humans to act as their watchers in the daylight hours, promising to turn them into vampires after ten years of loyal service.

They overran Western Europe, Asia and Africa and now have turned their attention to the eastern seaboard of the United States. They used the same tactics they did in the old world and it looked like they were winning until a resistance was started by Father Joe. He and the members of his parish join forces to throw the vampires out of the church making it a place of refuge from the creatures of the night. He, a commando nun and his lesbian niece form a plan that if it succeeds will give hope to the rest of humanity that vampires can be eradicated from the earth.

This is not in any sense a Repairman Jack novel but in tone and substance it will remind reader of THE KEEP. This is a true horror novel because the vampires are very evil with no redeeming equalities. They see human beings as a food supply for their blood hunger. F. Paul Wilson creates a new world order with vampires as the leaders, the human collaborators tantamount to Quislings with other humans on the bottom of the food chain. MIDNIGHT MASS is horror at its very best.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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