Synopsis:
Two congregations worship at the Holy Spirit Church. By day Catholics kneel at the altar of the tiny chapel in Kew Gardens, Queens. But at night the rafters echo with Satan’s music. Feared by the Vatican and as old as Christianity itself, a terrifying alternate religion has flourished in the darkness for two millennia, keeping alive the blood rituals of the Middle Ages while embracing the gods of high technology. Preparing the way for the evil product of thousands of years of genetic engineering—the birth of the Monstrum—the anti-man and the death of humanity.
Review:
Until I inadvertently stumbled across my battered second hand copy of “The Night Church,” (which may I add, was a bargain), Whitley Strieber was not an author I was familiar with. A cursory glance at Google told me all I needed to know. Perhaps best known for his take on the werewolf in “Wolfen,” or his auto-fiction alien novel “Communion,” it’s safe to say I went into this book expecting some bizarre shit, and my expectations were not just met, but surpassed. “The Night Church,” is as gloriously freaky and delightfully strange as one would expect a book about religious cults and an “anti-man,” race to be, and is a must-read for fans of old-school weirdness.
We follow Patricia Murray, who is brutally raped at the altar of the church she attends. Following such a violent, and ritualistic, act, Officer Mike Banion, NYC cop, and father of Patricia’s love interest Johnathan, is on the case. What he discovers is beyond comprehension. Within the Catholic Church lurk “The Night Church,” a secret Satan-worshipping organisation seeking to create an “anti-man,” species. Little do the rest of humanity know, that through years of selective breeding and centuries of conflict, the end of the world is nearly upon us. Unbeknownst to Patricia and Johnathan, they are star-crossed lovers in the worst of ways- their innocent love an apocalyptic catalyst, that will usher in the beginning of the end for mankind.
Strieber effectively creates an atmosphere where the sacred and profane intertwine, rich with the gothic and eerie- but that’s not to say that his writing is perfect… or even mediocre. The man can set a scene that is both haunting and immersive, that much is obvious from the prologue, but he certainly doesn’t finesse his way through the narrative. The clunky information dumps are about as subtle as a foghorn in a library, with the sexism being quite the opposite, glaringly obvious. At least this time around, Strieber relies wholly upon his intrepid and outlandish plot, which certainly pulls some weight, but it’s safe to say the book is not without its flaws.
The theme of fate is an integral one, with both Johnathan and Patricia acting puppets in this cosmic horror show. Their doom-bringing love affair has been in the works for centuries. orchestrated by “The Night Church.” This raises the question of whether they have any control over their destinies or are merely following a script written by the darkest playwright imaginable. As you can imagine, this depraved Romeo and Juliet set-up makes for some top tier dramatic irony, creating a deliciously morbid tension.
Strieber is playing a high-stakes game of philosophical poker with us, blending pseudo-science and religion in a manner as audacious as it is absurd. The Night Church’s mix of satanic rituals and scientific aspirations to create an “anti-man” species mocks the extremes of both religious dogma and fringe science. He gives us the worst of both worlds, a juxtaposition that exposes the thin line between faith and fanaticism and how the sacred can be twisted into the sacrilegious when taken to extremes. The result is a clever, darkly humorous commentary on humanity’s susceptibility to being led astray by the promises of ultimate knowledge or salvation.
Darkly humorous and utterly unique, “The Night Church,” is marred only by poor writing and poor commentary. Anything but boring, readers looking for a one of a kind take on the religious horror sub-genre, who are willing to wade their way through some rough patches to get to the weird, may want to turn their attention to this one.
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