The Gathering by C. J. Tudor
It's not the cold that'll get ya...
The world in which The Gathering takes place is not so unlike our own. It is an America we recognize, where people hurry to divide themselves along all sorts of different lines.
What’s different about the America of The Gathering, however, is that there is a whole other level of complexity to the world: vampires are real.
There’s no immediately obvious real-world proxy for what the ostracized vampires of this novel represent. They’re presented as similar to indigenous peoples who live separate from “civilized” society in colonies (reservations?) and who are protected by federal laws… unless a colony is determined to be responsible for human deaths, in which case the government would likely order a cull of said colony. But there are other parallels to other “undesirables” disdained by the conservative side of contemporary society, most notably the LGBTQ+ community.
However, what’s interesting is that there are openly queer characters within The Gathering — and everyone is indifferent and uninterested in their sexual orientation. Because there’s people even more “unnatural” to be hated?
The Gathering takes place in an isolated Alaskan town where a teenage boy has been murdered. It’s obviously a case of death-by-vampire. There’s a colony that lives in the forest on the outskirts of town. They went away for a couple of decades, but they’ve recently returned. This recent death is reminiscent of another from years ago — the reason why the colony went away.
But surely the obvious conclusion can’t be correct, can it? The vampires are aware that if the murder is traced back to them, it’ll mean all of them will be legally exterminated.
Enter Detective Barbara Atkins, from an agency that is a surrogate for reality’s FBI. She is a medical doctor with a background in vampires and vampire deaths. Her job is to assist the local police and, if the obvious proves true, sign off on authorization for a cull.
Fortunately, Barbara has a conscience, and she is committed to fully investigating the murder to ensure whoever is truly responsible is brought to justice. Regardless of who that actually is.
Needless to say, her sense of morality isn’t entirely welcome amongst the townsfolk who must live on the frontlines of this particular American battle line — who hate and terrorize and fear the near-immortal “monsters” on their doorstep.
The Gathering is a solid book that builds intrigue and suspense as it weaves a cast of interesting and believable characters to populate this rugged town at the end of the world. Tudor does a great job too of world-building and painting a clear picture of the history and rules (both vampiric and manmade) of the world that the story operates within.
(One particularly nice touch is the idea that the people of this town leave their Christmas lights up and on year-round as a way to add some brightness to their otherwise bleak environment.)
More a mystery novel than outright horror, there is more than sufficient vicious gore to satisfy the milieu of vampire-related homicide. Added to this, there is also the constant threat of large-scale violence hanging over Barbara’s investigation: a potentially unjustified cull of an entire colony of innocent vampires, or the titular Gathering — an end game battle between humans and vampires.
Along the way, there are many other twists and secrets exposed as the reality of a world where bloodsucking vampires and scared and selfish humans are forced to live side-by-side is fully realized.
The Gathering is an accessible, engrossing, and enthralling page-turner.