Okay, so first things first: When the blurb says that this collection of stories “conclud[es] with the author's account of how an obscure horror film brought him closer to his lost father,” we're literally talking about the entire second half of the book. The first half is short stories, the second half is a meandering nonfiction piece about a horror film that probably 98% of the people who will read this book have never seen. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I suppose, unless what you're hoping for is an entire book of Connolly's short stories (which are always fantastic).

And the short stories in Night and Day are indeed fantastic. They're sometimes spooky and sometimes funny, and they're always entertaining. There are two stories that revolve around the Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository, which is a very special sort of library. There are also monsters and bears and ghosts, and as someone who often doesn't really “get” short stories, I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed all of them (except I guess I'm also not really surprised, because I am a John Connolly fangirl).

The monograph about the obscure horror film Horror Express, however? Meh. It's fine, although I only made it about halfway through Part 2 before I started skimming a little … or, okay, maybe a lot. There's talk about Connolly's father and trains and airplanes and the people responsible for creating the film, and it's all decently interesting. It's obvious that Horror Express means a lot to the author. However, I have to confess that I would have much rather had another nine short stories instead. Sorry, John. If it's any consolation, The Book of Lost Things is still one of my top three favorite novels of all time.

So, yeah. If I were asked to write a TL;DR for this review, it'd probably go something like “great stories, too much nonfiction.” The stories are really well-written, however, and if you've enjoyed Connolly's previous story collections, you'll likely enjoy this one too. Just don't expect an entire book of short fiction, because that's definitely not what you're getting here.

My overall rating: Four stars - five shiny stars for the first half and three for the lengthy (and somewhat less entertaining) conclusion.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is October 22, 2024.

The first half of the book is short stories, they are all different and very interesting. The second half of the book is the author’s thoughts and ideas about writing a movie. It goes very in depth into writing a movie, which is interesting if you are passionate about the topic, but for me it felt a bit too much. Overall I did enjoy this book.

I love short stories and finding a book of short stories written by an author you love is just magical. These did not disappoint and I did find myself having to stop reading some at night because they gave me such chills! Definitely recommend to anyone who loves this author. Also I need a whole tv series about the first story! Or at least a full novel. Thank you netgalley for the ARC!

Creepy, dark academia is the most apt description I can think of for this book. There is so much variety in the stories I think any reader can find one with which they connect love. I personally enjoyed “And All The Graves of All the Ghosts” and can’t stop thinking about it.

This was a beautifully done collection of supernatural tales, it was everything that I wanted from this collection. I enjoyed that there were different types of stories being told with the supernatural tales. I really enjoyed the way John Connolly wrote this and left me wanting more.