"A young man is haunted by a mythological specter bent on stealing everything he loves in this unsettling horror from the author of Indian Burial Ground and Sisters of the Lost Nation.

For fear of summoning evil spirits, Native superstition says you should never, ever whistle at night.

Henry Hotard was on the verge of fame, gaining a following and traction with his eerie ghost-hunting videos. Then his dreams came to a screeching halt. Now, he's learning to navigate a new life in a wheelchair, back on the reservation where he grew up, relying on his grandparents' care while he recovers.

And he's being haunted.

His girlfriend, Jade, insists he just needs time to adjust to his new reality as a quadriplegic, that it's his traumatized mind playing tricks on him, but Henry knows better. As the specter haunting him creeps closer each night, Henry battles to find a way to endure, to rid himself of the horror stalking him. Worried that this dread might plague him forever, he realizes the only way to exile his phantom is by confronting his troubled past and going back to the events that led to his injury.

It all started when he whistled at night...."

OK, I for one am no longer going to whistle at night.

Imgur link goes to Instagram graphic scheduled for Sept 17 (per blog tour)
Blog post goes live Sept 16 to be available for blog tour following day
Barnes & Noble and Amazon will be posted when book is available
Youtube Review will go up in Friday Reads August 11


**TL;DR**: A lot of promise but I felt a bit lost in the character and didn’t feel the scares.
**Source**: NetGalley - Thank you to the publisher!!

**Plot**: Henry was an amateur ghost hunter till a ghost caught up with him. Now his life is changed and he needs to deal.
**Characters**: This was both the strongest part of this and the weakness for me.
**Setting:** The atmosphere was here but the details when I try to build the setting in my mind are scarce.
**Horror:** There is some scares here I would call ‘spooky’ more than scary. I wasn’t jumping or reacting much throughout this.


**Thoughts:**

The Whistler is a bit of a sneaky story. The description seems to promise a creepy, haunting novel with a supernatural horror lurking at the end. That’s not entirely the truth of the matter though. Instead we see a man who, after a series of very bad decisions ends up experiencing a very bad accident and being thrust into a new life bound to a wheelchair. Henry’s ghost hunting days are seemingly over, and he has to learn to cope with his new life and also face the ghost of his actions and his past.

There is some supernatural aspects to this story, but the bulk of it is in Henry’s mind. Is it the guilt that’s chasing him in the night, is it truly a spirit? That is the story we end up grappling with. We spend almost all of the novel trapped with Henry and his struggles in his day to day, which are intense and in their own way captivating but they do not deliver on the creepy or spooky story we’re promised in the blurb. In the end we’re also left without clarity of what is the actual ‘horror’.

Sadly, because of this focus on Henry and his life that we’re following the book is slow. The scares are also less than impactful because we’re lulled into an honestly repetitive narrative with Henry. There are some spooky moments, some impactful ones, and I enjoyed the story for the most part but I don’t quite thing what I was expecting was delivered. Go in with the right expectations though and you could have a great time.

Henry, along with his girlfriend Jade and best friend Toad, is focused on achieving online fame through posting ghost hunting videos when a horrible night changes his life. While navigating his new circumstances in a wheelchair, he will need to face the choices he made and the sense of something following him. Told from alternating periods before and after Henry’s accident, this horror read includes well-developed characters and an impending sense of dread. It is captivating, with author Nick Medina incorporating First American folklore and social issues including the struggle Native Americans undergo in receiving adequate healthcare.

My third read from this author and I am so hooked.

There is such great storytelling here. I felt like I could see things playing out, feel the suspense tic up... We get a lot of bouncing back and forth in past and present and it really adds to that intensity. It is the characters for me, though! Henry makes a compelling protagonist, and the people around him all felt very tangible.

Henry is a quadriplegic, adjusting as best he can to his new life back on the reservation, while his grandparents help support him. He has all but pushed his girlfriend and his best friend away. They were on the verge of something big with their ghost hunting videos before Henry's life changed.

Now, something is following him. Dread lurks around every corner and Henry needs to do something for fear that he will never rid himself of this presence that grows closer and closer. He needs to go back to where it all started.

Through this back and forth storyline, we get to see the two versions of Henry. I thought this quadriplegic representation was done really well. He realistically grapples with the loss of his mobility and use of his limbs, and the way that ties into the story and the suspense was really interesting. Also, with the back and forth storyline, we get a really suspenseful timeline of events leading up to and after this inevitable moment when Henry's life changes. And it all ties into what has been haunting him. I don't want to get into spoiler territory...

This is a character driven story that is also really creepy and atmospheric. I enjoy the ghost hunting industry and really liked that aspect of the story. I find lore and urban legend so fascinating. You won't catch me whistling at night after this.

3.5 stars. After a devastating accident one night, Henry Hotard is adjusting to life in a wheelchair. Now living with his grandparents back on the reservation, he misses his old life– creating ghost hunting videos with his girlfriend, Jade, and best friend, Toad. But ever since that terrifying night, Henry has sensed that a dark presence has latched itself onto him. While his friends and family believe he’s simply dealing with trauma from the accident, the strange and unsettling occurrences continue to escalate around him. To free himself of this terrible evil, Henry must finally face the past he’s been trying to forget.

Incorporating Native American superstitions and folklore, this was such an interesting book! I especially loved the concept that whistling at night can summon evil spirits. Told in two different timelines, present-day and a few years earlier, the story follows Henry’s journey both before and after the life-altering event. Although this is a supernatural horror, it’s also a thoughtful exploration of serious mental health issues and the profound sense of helplessness that follows a traumatic injury.

The first chapter of this book was truly terrifying and hooked me right away! However, after that chilling start, the story settled into a much slower pace. I found myself wishing there had been more focus on the curse and the malevolent presence following Henry.

If you’re looking for a book filled with Native American mythology, eerie settings, and sinister supernatural forces, you may enjoy this one.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an electronic ARC of this book!

I didn’t expect this to be as scary as it was, and I was very impressed by that! It felt kind of haunting and eerie, and it’s one of those stories that might not necessarily stand out in the traditional way, but it will stick with me!

This book's prologue started out super eerie and just continued to increase the creepy factor from there on. I realized that this was part of Nick Medina's Indian Burial Ground, but you don't have to read it to enjoy this book because it is about different characters than Indian Burial Ground. The main character, Henry, was a ghost hunter, and the flashbacks to that time are awesome. I love ghost hunter tropes. It was interesting to read about the daily struggles of a quadriplegic. Much of this book has an overwhelming sense of darkness and depression. Another great novel by Medina!

Henry Hotard is trying to make it as a paranormal host of his own internet show. With the help of his girlfriend Jade and bestfriend Toad they are know as the Spirt Seekers, set out to uncover some of the spookest spots around Louisanna. The last place that they went to was to Jackie Cadow's house where she and her parents were found murdered fifty years ago after Jackie whistled at night. Now they are exploring the house which has been boarded up and untouched since the crime. As they enter into Jackie's bedroom and then open the closest door they hear the voice of a spirit which they assume is JAckie. Jade and Toad afraid run from the room while Henry is recording everything. Now over a year later Henry is paralyzed from the chest down, he is living with his grandparents back on the rez. He is isolating himself from both Jade and Toad and is keeping the biggest secret of his life when he starts to see shadows and hear the strange whistle. Now Henry thinks he is being haunted by the whistler and needs to make amends with his past in order to survive. This is the first novel that I read by Nick Medina and truely enjoyed it. My book club will be reading Sisters of the Lost Nation later this year and can't wait to introduce them to his novels. I would like to thank both NetGalley and Berkley for letting me read an advanced copy of this novel.

The Whistler is a chilling blend of prequel and sequel to Indian Burial Ground, but it stands firmly on its own. Creepy from the first page, it dives into haunted houses, ghost hunting, and the eerie consequences of whistling at night. Medina’s understated writing style hides shocking revelations in casual lines, making for an addictive, twist-filled read. Though the hopeful ending felt a bit jarring after so much darkness, it didn’t take away from the unsettling atmosphere or emotional depth. A haunting, twisty ride that lingers long after the final page.

3 stars

Henry Hotard is a young man who lives just off the Tamara Indian Reservation, and it was his original home: vHe now lives with his girlfriend, Jade. He, Jade and his best friend, Toad were getting some traction on Henry’s ghost hunting You Tube channel when a terrible incident occurred. Now Henry lives with his grandparents (the fabulous Pawpaw Mac and Mawmaw Tilly) caring for him. I just realized that there’s never information about what Henry does for money.

Anyway, Henry believes that he is being haunted and that it stems from an old tale and from an old superstition about whistling at night.

Apparently Medina writes quite a bit about Natuve American characters, but, actually, there’s not a lot of NA content here, other than the proximity of the reservation and my assumption that, at least, Henry, Pawpaw and Mawmaw are members of the tribe. The horror story is very scattered, but overall I liked the book.

Thank you so much Berkley for the e-arc! I just want to start off by saying this story had me hooked and I finished it in a few hours. I could not stop reading it. However, I will say that the structure of this story didn’t flow for me. It starts off with a story in the past and shows the danger of whistling at night. Then it jumps to a story about a boy with a hole in his belly that later has two faces. Then it jumps to another story in modern day. It jumps between a couple different stories and each chapter has a little cliffhanger. I know that the author did that to keep the story interesting, but at times it felt that I had missing information. I did enjoy that you don’t find out what had happened to the main character until the end though because that made it so mysterious. I really love the setting for the story and the reservation. The side characters were amazing to me especially Pawpaw and Mawmaw. The main character Henry is a quadriplegic and shows the daily struggles that he faces. His family and friends are very supportive of him and there’s a big theme of finding a way to do the things that bring you joy again after a major life change. There were some really scary moments to me and I don’t think I could have read this at night. The author did an amazing job incorporating indigenous stories and elements of suspense. The end of the story adds in more true crime that I actually wish had been added in from the beginning because it shines a light on native girls who go missing. I think that’s too big of a topic to add in at the end, but I did appreciate it was there. Overall I would definitely read more from this author and the bones of the story were good!!

First, I wanna give credit where credit is due: I really enjoyed this book. I love flawed characters with slow realistic redemption arcs, and self journeys, which we get in spades via Henry. I love legends and folktales, and what Medina has done here is presenting one while making it feel real. I was tense reading this, it didn't feel like some unimaginable monster was waiting: it was genuine anxiety due to how immersive and subtle Medina was with his writing.

Even more impressing, I didn't know this was a companion novel to another of his works. That, to me, is the mark of a fantastic writer: writing a fleshed out emotional story with three dimensional characters, that completely stands on its own without prior knowledge or in text expedition of other connected works.

I do wish that the horror had been more....horror, though. This felt much more like a slow burn, psychological thriller and mystery with elements of horror sprinkled in. And trust, when the horror is there, it's brilliant. That is partly on me for expecting it to be full blown horror, because I wouldn't want to lose any of the subtlety Medina brings.

Formatting wise, it was confusing for the first few chapters because it goes from a prologue, to a traditional legend, then current day, then two years ago, back to another legend, back to the present. I had to look back and forth a few times before I realized this was going to be told from Henry's POV in the past and present, alternating. As the legend progressed I realized it was more of a framing device. I feel like some of that could be due to the format itself since this is an unedited ARC, and will be much more clear once it's tangible in print.

For these little nitpicks I give it a 4, really more of a 4.5. The only other aspect that brought more points down is that I REALLY wanted more wrap up for the Jacqueline Cadow tragedy at the beginning. That prologue is pure horror, and I wish we could have spent more time with the environment there, possibly from her boyfriend Gabe's point of view. It's mentioned later that he continued to live on the reservation, but aside from his appearance in the prologue we don't see him again. There's great potential there and I would love to see what his world was like and what he experienced after the opening tragedy. That might be in another book somewhere and I just don't know it, but either way I WANT Gabe's story.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize I had read short stories by Nick Medina before, and I'm eager to visit more of his novels. Definitely read the acknowledgements at the end, the care and respect he put into this is beautiful and admirable.

Check this one out, I know it's one I'll be purchasing once in print.

Nick Medina’s The Whistler is a horror novel steeped in Indigenous folklore and intergenerational trauma.. It walks a line between supernatural and internal fears. Henry, once on the cusp of viral fame as a ghost-hunting content creator, returns to his childhood reservation after a life-altering accident leaves him quadriplegic. He has lost not just mobility, but also independence, direction, and identity. The catch, something else has followed him home, something that appears when the lights go out

As Henry navigates grief, guilt, and a growing sense of dread, Medina masterfully layers psychological tension with culture. The haunting doesn’t feel like a trope; it’s a manifestation of fear and pain.

What sets The Whistler apart is its refusal to over-explain. Medina respects the power of silence and lets cultural context speak through setting, dialogue, and ritual.

This is a horror that lingers due to its emotional depth.
Highly recommended for fans of Stephen Graham Jones, Cherie Dimaline, or The Only Good Indians.
#TheWhistler #NickMedina #BerkleyHorror #OwnVoices #NativeHorror #NocturnalTerror #WhistlingAtNight #LiteraryGothic #SlowBurnHorror

Nick Medina ties together indigenous lore and modern horror in a masterful knot. The Whistler is a genuinely frightening ghost story, a tale of overcoming, a lesson in morality, and a tribute to friendship all in one. There are unexpected turns on this path, and the spookiness walks beside the reader all the way.

Nick Medina weaves in important cultural themes - accessible healthcare, ableism and even brings in MMIW, and their impact to indigenous culture and wraps them in a supernatural and horror-inspired setting. I will say this up front, I thought the book was “ok”. I really enjoyed “Sisters of a Lost Nation” and was eagerly looking forward to this. The story sets out with high potential. The supernatural horror is strong and Medina builds tension wonderfully. You easily buy into the eerie world of indigenous folklore, evil spirits and ghost hunting. But, for me, the writing style made it miss the mark. As Medina artfully builds tension he undoes his work by structuring the book in a nonlinear narrative. He bounces back and forth from present to past with the start of each chapter, and as each chapter is left on a mini cliffhanger, the constant use of nonlinear narrative rips the reader from the flow of the story. While it worked well in “Sisters of a Lost Nation”, it unfortunately does “The Whistler” a disservice by pulling the reader out of the tension and out of the story’s immersion.

His minor characters stand out and are likable. Pawpaw and Mawmaw Tilly are particularly dear. However, even before the main protagonist suffers from the accident that drives so much of the plot and characters, I found him to be unlikable and I struggled for empathy. This was generated from an early scene where he pressures his girlfriend into sex- not taking no for an answer. Medina attempts to write it as “playful” but it absolutely does not hit that way. This element of the protagonist’s personality carries forward throughout the novel, and he does later acknowledge his “persistence” and its consequences. And while this may be intentional by Medina, it was just really hard for me to feel compassion toward the protagonist.

I want to sincerely thank NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing Group for the e-ARC of “The Whistler.”

4.5 stars

Love love LOVE!

Medina always comes through with a totally engrossing story, and I just love when authors play around in the same universe while still being able to keep the books as stand alone novels.
Mist read!

This book had me on the edge of my seat for the several days I enjoyed reading it. I took my time to savor the storyline and terrifying events. And the characters! They all felt so alive and fleshed out. I wish I could meet them. The story comes together in such a beautiful and profound way. The book exceeded my expectations and I already want to read it again. I definitely recommend reading this - you won’t regret it!
Thank you to NetGally for the ARC in exchange for my honest review..

Well written with fully fleshed characters, filled with legends and lore. When evil settles into a small rez and the surrounding areas, everyone feels it's touch. Love and loss echo throughout the book, and the reality of how difficult life can be is illustrated with no rose tinted glasses. Solid four stars.

My only complaint here is that it seems like reading the authors other book, Indian Burial Ground, while not required reading, would be a good start. Unfortunately, I read this first, so I'm a little disappointed that I didn't make it priority to read the other before.

I was so not expecting The Whistler to be both a prequel and a sequel to Medina's previous novel, Indian Burial Ground. You don't need to have read it in order to enjoy this one since the two storylines follow different main characters and focus on separate (but interrelated) mysteries, but they do heavily intersect at times. If you finished Indian Burial Ground wondering why Roddy Bishop ran in front of the Jeep that night, reading this novel will provide you with all of the answers.

Like its predecessor, The Whistler is rather depressing and dark, but also fantastically creepy. The prologue is terrifying, and it does't get much less scary from there … at least until the very end, anyway. The flashbacks to pre-Henry's accident were my favorite parts of the book, mainly because I'm a sucker for anything that involves reality TV-ish ghost hunting and haunted houses. Henry is determined to make it big as a paranormal investigator, but things take a dark turn when he investigates the abandoned Cadow house and makes the mistake of whistling at night.

Medina is undisputedly the master of dropping important bombshell tidbits into the story in the most understated and casual way possible. Like, “Stanislaus milked the cow that he considered to be his girlfriend, and then he went back inside to do the dishes” sort of casual. There were so many “Wait … what?!?” moments in this book and it delighted me every single time it happened. I never saw the big twist coming, and I can't help but to wonder how many little hints and clues I missed along the way because I wasn't paying close enough attention to the text.

Medina also does a fantastic job of portraying the everyday struggles of a quadriplegic and the initial feeling of helplessness that must accompany such a diagnosis. Henry's anger and depression are palpable, and you can't help but feel for him even though he's a bit of an unappreciative wanker for most of the book.

My one small complaint is that the ending feels so out of place compared to the rest of the novel. It's just so saccharine and hopeful, which is jarring when compared to the sadness that permeates the previous chapters. I know, I know, it's impossible to satisfy me – half the time I'm complaining about depressing endings and now I'm complaining about the happy ones. Sorry. It doesn't ruin the story or anything and it wasn't necessarily a bad ending, but it was definitely not the ending I was expecting.

There are a few loose ends in this story that were never adequately wrapped up, which I'm hoping means there might be another future novel set on the Takoda Indian Reservation? I still have nightmares about creepy people crawling backward to their doom from Indian Burial Ground and now a brand new fear of whistling at night, so I look forward whatever trauma Medina's next novel will bring me.

My overall rating: 4.15 stars, rounded down.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is September 16, 2025.

Atmospheric and culturally rich, The Whistler blends Native folklore with a modern missing persons mystery. Medina builds an eerie, slow-burning tension that pays off with a chilling sense of dread. While the pacing may feel uneven at times, the unique voice and emotional weight give the story depth. A strong debut for readers who enjoy horror rooted in legend and family bonds.