In Coffin Moon, we follow Julia and her uncle, Duane, as Julia settles into his home with his wife Heidi, and as Duane tries to figure what’s going on with these new sketchy faces showing up in the bar that his in-laws own. Coffin Moon introduces a new take on the vampire novel, one that is simultaneously tender, sweet, gory, gritty, and heart wrenching. To be honest, There aren’t many light moments to break up the gloom, but that’s just how life is sometimes. Coffin Moon is a very memorable tale that will stick with you for a long time. Definitely recommend.

Coffin Moon was a fun read with pretty good character building and a tight story. Duane Minor and his wife take in their niece, Julia, after misfortune leaves her without a caregiver. As Julia attempts to settle in to her new life, new, unfriendly faces begin to patronize the bar downstairs, run by her grandmother and her uncle Duane. It becomes clear that the ring leader, a man named John Varley, is a ferocious presence and perhaps undead? People are hurt, vengeance is declared and mayhem ensues. Coffin Moon is a family drama, and love story and a road trip wrapped up in a vampire novel. Good times. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review. This was overall an entertaining vampire horror/thriller. This takes place in the 70’s, post Vietnam War. The time is important as our main character Duane Minor is a veteran, working at his in-laws bar. He has some mistakes in his past, but is working to be a good husband and guardian to his wife’s niece Julia. His wife’s parents make some poor decisions that throw them all into a gritty violent vampire story. This is a story of revenge, family, trauma and grief. Not an easy read, but I did like Minor & Julia a lot. Our antagonist also has an interesting journey as well. A very different vampire tale, I don’t want to spoil anything, but the closest comps to this would be Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville and Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby. If you are a fan of those stories I would definitely recommend this one. 4.5⭐️

very interesting horror as a whole, covers its topics very well aand something that i would have rated five stars except for something I didn't notice at the start of it: the character's ages. Going into it, i somehow forgot and thought that Doane was around 45, Julia was about the same age, and her parents were in their early 70s. This made everything make sense. but Doane is in his mid-20s. fine, i get it, effects of the vietnam war. then why do Julia's parents act 70 when they're like.... 50? even the things that he remembers about them when he tries to remember them always come out seeming 70. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

5/5 stars! I’d never read any of Keith Rosson’s books before and I am now a HUGE fan.

The story was original and very interesting. I really enjoyed all of the characters and each of their backstories. Plus, the story being set in Portland, OR was really fun.

I’m a huge horror fan and this one checked all my boxes. The plot was great, the vampires were sinister and creepy (and actually felt terrifying — these bad boys were literally tearing humans apart), and there was enough mystery and suspense to keep me up reading long into the night!

This is definitely going to be one I recommend to other horror fans and lovers of classic, blood-thirsty vampires.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of Coffin Moon.

I think Keith Rosson just maybe isn't for me. While I did enjoy this book, I judt didn't CONNECT with it, if you know what I mean. It was ultimately not a bad experience but I truly think this author just isn't my favorite. if you like his other work, you'll like this though!

Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson is a fast-paced vampire horror novel that takes place in the late 1970's. After the brutal murder of his wife, Vietnam war veteran Duane and his 13-year-old niece Julia set out for revenge against the vampire John Varley.
This was a gory ride across the US, with Duane and Julia following the bodies left behind by Varley. Rosson's writing is gritty and realistic, with believable, flawed characters just trying to survive. As the story progresses, we also get flashbacks to the characters' lives; Varley when he was human & turned vampire, Duane during his tour of duty and life with Heidi, and Julia before she came to live with her aunt & uncle.
I really enjoyed this book; my only complaint is that the characters seemed much older than their stated ages. Duane, who is in his mid-twenties, and Julia, who is 13, both came across as significantly older in their conversations & actions.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of Coffin Moon in exchange for my honest opinion. I have enjoyed reading Keith Rosson's work in the past & look forward to more by this author in the future.

⭐⭐⭐.5
💀💀💀

A supernatural revenge road trip set in a nocturnal town in Portland, Coffin Moon is more than just a vampire story, it's a pretty gritty vampire story with a lot of heart.

I thoroughly enjoyed this cool 70's inspired vampire story. I appreciated the vampire lore mixed with the elements of grief and revenge. It's definitely got eerie vibes, but it's also action packed and filled with body horror elements. The dynamic of Duane and his adopted daughter Julia was a unique narrative to the story as we don't see this type of duo often in horror, but it worked, and I found it quite refreshing in the horror space. Both are broken people, and sometimes hurt people want to hurt people - que the vampire massacre! With this all being said, I did feel the pacing was a bit staggered in my opinion, like there's quite a bit of back n' forth with it that I found it to be distracting from the overall story. I also didn't connect with Duane and Julia as much as I was hoping to. There's some awesome character-building scenes in here, but I just never really latched onto either of them, and therefore the story lost some momentum for me. Overall though, this was a highly entertaining and fun read for any vampire horror fan, or fans retro horror movies.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, & Keith Rosson for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Keith Rosson is one of the best writers working today. Every time I think he can't get better he does. This is a smart, expertly written book that scared and devastated me. Can't wait to read his next one.

Keith Rosson keeps knocking it out of the park, man.

Fever House & The Devil By Name are two of my favorite books from the last couple years, and there’s no doubt that Coffin Moon is in the same league. I’m so impressed by his writing and creativity, all these stories have been so, so good.

This one is set in the 70’s and follows a bartender recently returned from Vietnam who has a run-in with a violent, mysterious drug dealer. The repercussions of this run-in start a cross-country chase for revenge.

I can’t say enough about how well written all of Rosson’s books are, and his character development is a particular strength. You’ll care deeply about all of these characters and be on the edge of your seat when things inevitably go sideways.

5 out of 5 ⭐️

This one comes out on 9/9/25, so you’ve got some time to check out Fever House & The Devil By Name to make sure you’re at the appropriate level of excitement for Coffin Moon.
Shout out to @randomhouse for the ARC.

I'm a big fan of all things vampire, but the usual vampire is hot, charming, and rich. This was different. More emotional. Definitely a great story throughout which kept me engaged. The ending left me with a lot of questions about what could possibly happen next, and I'm sure I'll be sitting on that for a while.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC of this title!!**

I ended up picking up a physical copy of this at Stokercon (eeeeep!) and will be reviewing a bit closer to publication. I am dropping 5 stars as a placeholder and will be back to update with posts and reviews!

Creepy vampire kids are my newest trope obsessions, I have decided.

Coffin Moon is one of the more tragic, depressing stories I've had the pleasure of reading. A Vietnam vet's life is destroyed after encountering the vampire, John Varley, triggering a vengeance-fueld cross-country road trip with his young niece. And oh boy is it brutal and intense.

Poor Duane, this guy wears bad luck like a layer of skin. His whole story is heartbreaking--the draft, the flashbacks of combat, coming back home to work at the bar while dealing with PTSD unmedicated...and of course, the aftermath of meeting John Varley. Julia doesn't fare any better, who faces her own share of trauma and trials at just thirteen years-old. The characters are thought out, tying together themes like surviving loss and grief with their development. There's even a moment where you start to pity the bad guy, despite knowing he's an irredeemable monster who doesn't deserve it.

This book is definitely going on my physical shelf. Thank you to Random House, NetGalley, and the author Keith Rosson for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Tried out a new to me author for horror and had a good time! This was gory and creepy, and entertaining! Not my go to type for horror but was pleasantly surprised!

It's 1975, and Duane Minor is a Vietnam veteran in Portland, Oregon, battling PTSD, alcoholism, and the strains of keeping his family together. When his thirteen-year-old niece Julia arrives following a tragedy, he hopes to build a semblance of normal life with his wife Heidi.

But everything shatters when Duane crosses paths with John Varley—a vampiric killer with a blood-soaked past who murders Heidi in cold blood. Consumed by guilt and grief, Duane and Julia form an uneasy alliance driven by vengeance. Their pursuit knows no bounds and leads them through the dark alleys of 1970s Portland, isolated highways of the Northwest, and the snow-filled plains of North Dakota where carnage and horror are displayed throughout.

The author does a good job of melding gritty and chilling horror with the bleak realities of post-war trauma and PTSD. Duane is used to war, and this vengence trip is like war. The cold, violent settings—from urban decay to remote plains—heighten the novel's tension and atmosphere, and also solidifies the bond between Duane and Julia as they work together to wipe out the evil menance.

I'm always up for a good vampire story but this just got too gross for me. There is brutal violence, dismembering, and trauma which really didn't add to the story for me. I was more interested in the bond between Duane and Julia, and thought the author could have focused more on that. There are long sections of the book just focused on revenge and suffering which became hard to take at times.

Can't exactly say this is a fresh take on the vampire genre- not even sure if that's possible- but it is an exciting, suspenseful, and humane take. Rosson's characters are vibrant, and each loss (there are many) hits the reader hard. At it's core, this is a revenge stiry, but one that takes care to look ar each side of the revenge and question it in a way few novels do.

This is the third of Rosson's books I've read. The improvement with each one is remarkable. The one gave good cause to turn me from a casual fan to an outright acolyte.

This was such a fantastic vampire story! I love when writers have a unique version of a vampire tale, especially when it unfolds perfectly! Horrific, beautiful, and heart breaking. This is a must read!

Establishing a balance between the gruesome & the pathetic seems an easy road to trapeze. One might feel it so obvious a juggle to teeter that there is no need for any discussion at all. Perhaps they are correct. Meeting a failed attempt within the pages of a book one knows cannot be written with them in mind, one longs to seek the pathway one such person felt overcome to take; a pathway that appeared difficult, challenging, between pedantic blood loss & vile terror.

I have sat with myself after reading this story because I felt that I had nothing to say. This is partially untrue because I have a lot to say, as evidenced by the length of these reviews. However, in the context of this story, the weight of the obvious, that is, the clarity with which I knew I was not the target reader, has left me feeling as though I might prefer to hold my tongue. Indeed, what is the point in writing forty pages about my disappointment if I might have spared myself by simply closing the book when the clock struck the hour?

Therefore, in an attempt to be clear before roaming the lane of wordiness, as is my habit, I wish to acknowledge the type of horror that is found within this book. Certainly, readers who appreciate the realism of terror as I do within books may find the mark has been missed within this plot. The author has sought to include a vampire, indestructible & villainous as no other, while colouring his being with silly emotions like hesitancy & a maniac’s inability to be in control. Each of the characters fits into this typecast; none are particularly unique enough to warrant a story being told about them & yet when one takes note of the details of their person, they become disjointed.

Why would the story follow a man who was in his mid-twenties with the personality & lifestyle of a man in his middle age? Was the decade of the 1970s so different than the current decade that his person might easily have been mistaken for someone in their forties or fifties? I pose this question because Duane, the main character, did not fit into his role & I began to grow tired of the truth, which is that he was too young to be so naïve & too old to be so hopeful; I note with purposeful phrasing.

Duane is presented as a tired person. I cannot fault him for feeling this way; his life has been a series of highs & lows, categorized by his life-altering experiences in the Vietnam War (1955-1975). I could understand how the hopefulness of his early years might have been dashed when drafted, being left to battle a society of people for reasons that were unclear even to the most learned among Americans. Indeed, the life & times of Duane’s character were a draw for the story. The setting within which he exists is evocative of more than just the casual haunts of men who experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & who roam in dreams to escape themselves.

Duane represents an era during which political stamina for action & misdirection were rampant; much of what is now romanticized today stems from the political direction & policies adopted during this era. The greatness of casual calls to war, so soon after a monstrous world war; the enemy who has been isolated due to their face & race; the patriarchal pressure to remain headstrong; the list goes on. This story advocates for a reflection by the reader on such realities & although I will not seek to include political discourse on the rights & wrongs of the United States Army & their political propensity for invading Vietnam to oust Communism, I do believe its relevance merits inclusion in this review.

Without the Vietnam War & the involvement of the United States, men like Duane would not have been faced with the nightmares they carried for the rest of their lives. It feels kinder to reflect on Duane’s circumstances by noting that he did not want to fight, nor did he wish to kill. Duane is introduced to the reader as a pacifist who has found love & whose life feels at ease in the flow of mortality. Perhaps this is why I felt put off by his age. I acknowledge that perhaps the author chose to make him so young to drive home the point that horrors are not age-restricted.

It is a personal opinion that sees me reflect on the age of all of the characters & the way this fell flat in the context. Surely, for readers who are seeking to consume a story about young adults whose lives have been carried away by circumstances outside of their control, this will be the ideal book. One notes that many, if not all, of the characters are young. Heidi’s parents are no more than fifty years old, which makes them old in the context of Duane & Heidi’s ages, but not in terms of life on Earth.

I remark on this as such a point of contention for me because it felt at odds with the events. Duane is saturated & soaked by his alcoholism; Julia is too young to be insightful & continues to make the wildest decisions; Heidi’s parents are crass & brokenly naïve to believe that becoming a drug mule will grant them financial freedom; I ask then why that is. Why are all these characters so well accustomed to the world & its complexities, & yet stifled by the youth of their age that they make such wildly juvenile choices?

The story follows the consequences of their choices. Julie becomes a vampire child, ignoring the fact that, should she live forever, she will be no more adept at life than she is right now. Duane does not put his foot down & refuse this course of action, choosing instead to pretend that getting drunk while Julia plots her escape might dissuade her from sneaking out in the night to become a vampire.

Back & forth, one wanders amongst these decisions & although one may be more tender-hearted than I am coming across in this review, enough to forgive the characters for their naivety, I cannot help but gawk at their stupidity.

This frustration is a tricky thing to develop while reading, for one must acknowledge that had anything been different, one would not be reading the story as it exists. The story that might have existed had Duane understood the craftiness & determination that Julia fostered to fight a vampire beast that she could not win against would have led to the author writing an entirely different novel. Therefore, I note the uselessness of feeling frustrated by characters who were shaped the way the author intended.

Praise should be given to the author for framing & shaping characters the way that he has, for indeed they appear as real individuals might in real life. Although a reader might not long for their companionship, their presence on the page felt entirely true to their beings & for that, the author has accomplished his feat of giving his story wings to fly.

Many of my qualms lie in the tone of the story & while paired with characters who were both too young & too old, as noted earlier, I found the shift to quirky horror decidedly odd. The main villain did not seem like much of a deviant at all.

John Varley, the very young twenty-five-year-old vampire, transformed in the summer of 1917 by an original vampiric creature, murders at random & enjoys galivanting in the beds of anyone who might have a penchant for the deranged. His reputation precedes him; his murderous follies speak for themselves, but when John is left to speak for himself, his foolish & trite personality left me with a crinkle in my brow.

What makes a vampire such a scary creature is its ability to live forever. The author has included traditional lore associated with vampires & brings forth a character who embodies the cruelty of psychopathy. I could not help but hope for more from John Varley. His teetering between understanding the brutality of his abilities & the loneliness of his circumstances, to trust someone whom he didn’t know from Adam, all felt very ill-conceived. Would a vampire need someone else when all the while he spent his life not needing anyone? What left John feeling certain that the casual murder of the elderly man in the restroom was significant enough to trust the hitchhiker?

So many instances raise questions & yet, I return to my main point, which is that the target reader for the quirky horror genre is not me. Ultimately, I appreciated the musings of the author as he crafted characters whose flaws did not lead them to despair. I appreciated the marooning of a magical realism that existed while mortal men flew overseas to evoke war on the snipers & unsuspecting. There are aspects that any reader may appreciate if they choose to do so.

However, when it comes down to it, skimming the majority of the middle of this book would not leave one any worse off than if they had read it. The changing perspectives gave me more ammunition to dislike the way each character was & their choices. For another reader, this approach will grant them the intimacy with each main player they long for.

Although I cannot say I had a fun time or a fulfilling time reading this book, I am glad to have done so, for it gave me a better appreciation of the structure of the genre. For readers who enjoy the twinge of cringe that marches alongside malevolence, this book will be their bread & butter, jam & jelly.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, & Keith Rosson for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

‘It’s the winter of 1975, and Portland, Oregon, is all sleet and neon. Duane Minor is back home after a tour in Vietnam, a bartender just trying to stay sober; save his marriage with his wife, Heidi; and connect with his thirteen-year-old niece, Julia, now that he’s responsible for raising her. Things aren’t easy, but Minor is scraping by.

Then a vampire walks into his bar and ruins his life.

When Minor crosses John Varley, a killer who sleeps during the day beneath loose drifts of earth and grows teeth in the light of the moon, Varley brutally retaliates by murdering Heidi, leaving Minor broken with guilt and Julia filled with rage. What’s left of their splintered family is united by only one desire: vengeance.

So begins a furious, frenzied pursuit across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. From grimy alleyways to desolate highways to snow-lashed plains, Minor and Julia are cast into the dark orbit of undead children, silver bullet casters, and the bevy of broken men transfixed by Varley’s ferocity. Everyone’s out for blood….’

I can’t yap enough on how great this read was. I’m not a huge vampire fan (in books), probably because I just haven’t found the right one (yet). Coffin Moon is described as gritty, unforgettable and emotionally devastating, and delivered all three. Duane and Julia will forever be two of my favourite characters; I haven’t felt this connected to a story in a long time. If/when you read this book, come chat!

Five stars.
A definite future reread.
Adding all of Keith Rosson’s books to my list.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC!