The Night Diver

After reading ‘Bone White’, I was immediately hooked onto Ronald Malfi’s work. Turns out that he has a whole lot of other interesting titles to choose from, which made it hard to choose. But then I came across the cover for this one, which reminded me of Alan Wake. I was just recently coming off the beautiful and horrifying journey of Alan Wake 2, and honestly I was clamoring for more. I figured I’ll take this for a spin, even if the similarity was mostly in just the cover. I am glad to have done it.

The first thing that popped out to me in this book was the narrative voice. The story follows Aaron Decker, a book translator that lost his wife to a shooting incident. During his throes of grief, he finds a mysterious receipt for a motel room, and he begins on a journey that twists and turns through the darkest corners of his wife’s mysterious past. For a lot of the book, the writing is technically in second person, as he is framing it as a story to his wife, or a memory of her. For a moment, it was slightly jarring, since I had it drilled into me that writing in Second Person is a cardinal sin of the nth degree. But this narrative voice was absolutely mystifying, exhibiting a sort of Edgar Allan Poe quality that I enjoyed. This emotional grounding in lost love and the ensuing haunting makes for a profoundly raw and powerful base to this story. His thoughts and emotions are painfully realized through the writing in this book, and it was always interesting to see it delivered in this unique and artistic writing style.

Alongside the beauty of the writing, there is the deep darkness suffused through it all. Ronald Malfi does a masterful job in keeping creating a dark, tense atmosphere that keeps always keeps you guessing at every turn. There are many scares in here, both from the supernatural and the physical world that Ronald Malfi weaves together in his picturesque writing. No matter where the scare is coming from, it leaves a lasting image, a deep impact that stays well after closing the pages. Just the environmental descriptions in certain scenes were enough to transport me into this dark and oppressive setting, chilling me to the bone. The novel truly is a masterwork of mystery, drama, and horror that I recommend to anyone who is a fan of the genre. I believe the journey is absolutely worth it. Now that I have finished it, I can only invite you. So what are you waiting for? Come with me.

My final rating is: 4/5 stars