When the Night Bells Ring

by Jo Kaplan Narrated by Rachel Fulginiti, Nicol Zanzarella

Overview

Don't awaken what sleeps in the dark.

In a future ravaged by fire and drought, two climate refugees ride their motorcycles across the wasteland of the western US, and stumble upon an old silver mine. Descending into the cool darkness of the caved-in tunnels in desperate search of water, the two women find Lavinia Cain's diary, a settler in search of prosperity who brought her family to Nevada in the late 1860s.

But Lavinia and the settlers of the Western town discovered something monstrous that dwells in the depths of the mine, something that does not want greedy prospectors disturbing the earth. Whispers of curses and phantom figures haunt the diary, and now, over 150 years later, trapped and injured in the abandoned mine, the women discover they're not alone . . . with no easy way out.

The monsters are still here-and they're thirsty.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal - Audio

12/01/2022

Kaplan's (It Will Just Be Us) latest is made up of two narratives that seem thematically different but end up entwined by the end. The story opens with Mads and Waynoka, two women making their way across an America ravaged by climate change. Seeking respite from the unrelenting sun and desperate for water, they enter an abandoned mine, only to become trapped. Waynoka soon discovers the diary of Lavinia Kane, a woman from the 1800s who was looking for a better life for her family, but instead found something stalking her and her fellow townspeople—the same something that is stalking the two women deep within the earth. Blending a not-so-distant future climate message with a piece of feminist historical fiction doesn't seem like it should work, but it does by alternating between the two narratives until they finally collide at the end. As both narratives progress, the individual voices of narrators Rachel Fulginiti and Nicol Zanzarella keep both narratives distinct until the final brutal end. VERDICT Part Weird West horror and part claustrophobic descent into darkness, this book's double narratives will drag readers into its Stygian depths.—James Gardner

Library Journal

10/01/2022

Waynoka and Mads, "Dust Devils," are traversing a near-future climate-disaster landscape in Nevada, searching for shelter and water in a barren desert when they stumble upon a Silver Rush—era ghost town. They explore an abandoned mine for a possible source of freshwater, but when Mads is badly injured on the descent, the two women are forced to shelter in a natural cave, where they discover the diary of Lavinia, a resident of the town back in 1869. What follows is a harrowing story of survival, told in two time frames—Waynoka as she searches the tunnels in an attempt to find both water and escape, and Lavinia's diary entries, which unveil the monstrous truth hidden deep within the land itself. The constant unease of each story line is broken only for the brief second it takes to turn the page from one narration to the next, as the tension builds relentlessly until the novel's shockingly horrific conclusion. VERDICT Seamlessly blending Western, ancient evil, and climate horror tropes, Kaplan (It Will Just Be Us) has created an immersive, chilling, and compelling tale that fans of Christina Henry and Camilla Sten will devour.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940174826908
Publisher:	CamCat Publishing
Publication date:	10/11/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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