The Night Strangers: Book summary and reviews of The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

The Night Strangers Summary

In a dusty corner of a basement in a rambling Victorian house in northern New Hampshire, a door has long been sealed shut with 39 six-inch-long carriage bolts.

The home's new owners are Chip and Emily Linton and their twin ten-year-old daughters. Together they hope to rebuild their lives there after Chip, an airline pilot, has to ditch his 70-seat regional jet in Lake Champlain due to double engine failure. The body count? Thirty-nine.

What follows is a riveting ghost story with all the hallmarks readers have come to expect from bestselling, award-winning novelist Chris Bohjalian: a palpable sense of place, meticulous research, an unerring sense of the demons that drive us, and characters we care about deeply. The difference this time? Some of those characters are dead.

The Night Strangers Reviews

"Starred Review. A page-turner of uncommon depth. Guilt, egotism, and fear all play parts in this genre-bending novel." - Booklist

"Starred Review. A genre-defying novel, both a compelling story of a family in trauma and a psychological thriller that is truly frightening... Fans of Alice Sebold and Margaret Atwood will find similar appeal here." - Library Journal

"Compelling... a practical 'magick' horror story with a not-entirely-satisfying resolution." - Kirkus Reviews

"A gripping paranormal thriller... Bohjalian is a master, and the slow-mounting dread makes this a frightful ride." - Publishers Weekly

"Shades of The Shining make for a haunting tale... A modern-day ghost story worth losing sleep over." - Family Circle

"Put a haunted man in a haunted house... and you have a Halloween hair-raiser. But it's more than that. Bohjalian, with a dozen well-received novels to his credit, understands trauma: how long it takes to recover from unimaginable pain, and how people who have never experienced it rarely understand." - Tim Clark, Yankee Magazine

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The Night Strangers Reader Reviews

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Rated of 5 by CEvans
Terrifying
I am a big fan of Chris Bohjalian. If you're from New England or if you've just visited, you are able to visualize many of the settings of his novels. This is his only horror offering, as far as I know, but on a plane with Stephen King's The Shining. Inspires fear and revulsion. I gave it a four only because I favor happy endings.

Rated of 5 by Malinda Newman
The Night Strangers
This book was riveting. At first glance I thought it might be a bit corny but I was completely incorrect. I found myself reading into far into the night and being as frightened as a young girl hearing a horrible ghost story. I loved it!

Chris Bohjalian Author Biography

Chris Bohjalian and his wife decided to leave New York City in 1986 for "pastoral" Vermont after a wild and terrifying 45-minute cab ride that ultimately dropped them at a crack house being stormed by police.

Fans of Mr. Bohjalian are probably very pleased that he did not take the advice given him in college by the writer-in-residence when he applied for a writing seminar. After reading the short story required for admittance, the writer/instructor "slid my short story across the expanse of the desk as if it were a piece of profoundly disagreeable road kill. 'I have three words for you, she said. Be a banker'."

Instead he had the courage to follow his dream and take his own advice which he now doles out to new writers wanting...

... Full Biography
Author Interview

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