Midnight Mass

By: F. Paul Wilson

Narrated by: Jamie Renell

Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

Vampires have always lived in Eastern Europe. But with the fall of the Soviet Union, they began to spread across the continent, then the world, turning whole populations into vampires - or human cattle. Having overrun India, the far East, and the great cities of North and South America, the forces of Night are now spreading into the countryside to consolidate their conquest.

In a town on the New Jersey shore, the vampires have just arrived, along with their human henchmen, the cowboys, who round up human cattle for the overlords in return for the promise of eternal life - later. For the vampires wish only a few of their own kind to rule, and feed. The rest of humanity are to be helpless herds, the source of the blood of life.

Falsely accused of abuse, Father Joe is drunk in a basement waiting for the end. His superior has betrayed the local Catholic congregation and become a vampire. Sister Carolyn has become a formidable killer of cowboys and vampires. Joe's niece, escaped from the conquest of New York, has made her way south to find him. Brought together by Rabbi Zev Wolpin, who is shaken by the vampires’ fear of the cross and holy water, they plan their resistance. Against all odds, they discover that there just might be a way for humanity to really fight back. But first they will have to kill the vampire king of New York.

©2004 F. Paul Wilson (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Yikes

I’m usually a huge F Paul Wilson fan, LOVE all his books... just not this one. Too much horrible content. (he goes into graphic detail of how a young boy is brutally tortured and murdered, this is what sets the tone for the book)
Bottom line, I wasn’t a fan and the book left me feeling disturbed and upset.

One of my absolute favorite books!

One of my absolute favorite books! I have read it dozens of times had to purchase several copies and I'm very excited to now have it and in audio format!

A classic vampire story in our modern world

Wilson never fails to impress. Wilson has taken classic vampire lore and intertwined it into a story of our modern world. This is another easy to read book for one to get lost in from Wilson.

Good Vampire Story

I read "The Keep" by F. Paul Wilson back in the '80s. It was a terrifying pseudo-vampire tale that compelled me to keep the lights on all night long.

While "Midnight Mass" is based on typical vampire lore, the three main characters are well-developed and likeable and the ending is a good one.

Christian super hero

You can smell the Christian libertarian all over this. He claims that he was inspired by Salems Lot inspired him, but the heart of the power of cross in Salem’s Lot is that it’s the power of belief that powers the cross wielded by the priest. Faith of ANY kind could defeat evil. The fact that Christian neighborhoods do better in this story just shows how loaded this story is. There are better books that involve Christian undertones. The story is ok other than that, a little corny but a fun concept. I was intrigued enough to finish, it could have used some nuance.

Best vampire novel I’ve read

There’s no teen angst. No failing to take the power of a crucifix into account. A lot of mature characters, some unrequited love, and some remarkably creepy vampires and their human aides. Absolutely my favorite vampire novel. I almost think this genre should only be written by Catholics, even if they’re lapsed.

Marked down on performance because of some mispronounced words. Really, readers, if you are not 100% sure how to pronounce a word, look it up.

Among Greatest Vampire Novels Ever

MIDNIGHT MASS is an excellent classic horror novel that I read several years ago and am thankful this classic is now available via audiobook. Hope an entire new generation of horror fans listen to this fantastic vampire tale.

Not the best

I was hoping for a horror book. But this book turned out to be just a 1980 s vampire book. Werid sexual stuff in the whole book very little actually horror. I'm finished the book just hoping it would get better.

SUCH A WELCOME SURPRISE

I purchased this book because, essentially, I'll buy anything with vampires in it. To say that I was surprised is an understatement. It is fantastic, better even, in my humble opinion, than Salem's Lot, which I read at least twice a year.

Incredible stuff.

Tiresome

The choice of protagonist was interesting, but sadly the book didn't grab my attention and grew tiresome quickly.

Not the same as the Netflix series but still great

Great narration, familiar story to begin.

Two priests and one church in a vampiric apocalyptic world. Very similar to the start of the Netflix series of the same name but a very different story.

Well narrated, well written on an 3asy to digest level.
A must for fans of Salem's Lot and I Am Legend.

a run of the mill vampire apocalypse

if you like Netflix's Vampires, the Guillermo del Toro books, or the passage by Justin Cronin... you will probably like this. fairly well performed too.

Well Read Pulp

Traditional vampires, classic pulp action, and a fine performance. What more could we want?

Fantastic

The best vampire novel in a very long time. I only with there was more to come.

Too much prejudice

I love a good horror story, but had to stop reading this one, the author obviously does not show any respect for other religions except Judaism and Christianity.
He lacks knowledge of them and ridicules them, I found it quite offensive, obviously it has not been written for any other faith.
That is why I deleted it off my audible list, never bothered to finish it, not a big loss.

a vampire tale done with a few twists

The vampire tales have been told and retold in many varying ways and this book / audiobook is another version of what the write sees of a modern take of many old vampire superstitions.

The book itself flows okay once you get used to the many and i do many perspectives the writer uses throughout its entirety. If you can tolerate this jumping about nature, then you get a decent story.

The narrator does a pretty fine job of adding some accents and then not so much on others. However the narrator puts effort into the characters and makes listening that bit easier.

overall if you like vampire stories then this is well worth a listen.

Ole fashioned vampires

Very good sticking to the Vampire basics in an effective manner with a superb narrator.

B-Movie Level Horror Fan Fiction

The foreword makes promises of a return to menacing vampires of old, rather than the modern romance vampire, going so far as to invoke Salem’s Lot as inspiration. Unfortunately, though, what’s actually delivered feels more like fan fiction of cheap B movie horror trash than anything approaching King’s vampire masterpiece. Characters are one dimensional and woefully under developed. The story & events all feel schizophrenic - events are spun up & discarded or resolved before you can begin to really care about them only to be trotted out to be recycled a chapter later. I’m genuinely shocked this is from an established author, rather than a first timer out of high school.

To add something at least vaguely positive, the narrator did a fine job with what little he had to work with.