The Official Novelization of The Terrifying Film
In the sleepy and secluded town of Barrow, Alaska — the northernmost settlement in North America — its citizens are preparing for the annual coming of the Dark, when the sun will set for more than thirty consecutive days and nights.But this year, the Dark will bring something else.
From across the frozen wasteland, a horrifying evil descends upon Barrow, mercilessly besieging its residents with unrelenting terror and swift death. And as the darkness continues and the thirty days of night seemingly have no end in sight, Barrow’s only remaining hope lies with Sheriff Eben Oleson and Deputy Stella Oleson, a husband and wife who are torn between saving the town they love and their own survival…
Dark bleetings everyone! Dark bleetings, indeed! Man, I love Tim Lebbon’s books. I think his writing is tremendous and his characters always feel so real to me, not to mention his concepts and plots. But I had to wonder…. would I enjoy a novelisation of a film (that I love), that was based on a comic (that I like)? Before this, I’d never bothered with a movie novelisation before because I thought, what’s the point?
Very quickly, I want to draw a distinction – there are novelisations and then there are movie tie-ins. Novelisations are novel versions of a film that are typically a scene for scene replication in literary form. Tie-ins can be new stories set in the world of the IP (Star Wars has many original novels for example – including one written by Tim Lebbon, in case you’re interested!). 30 Days of Night is a novelisation.
I’ve seen the film an obsessive amount of times and my brother and I know it so well that certain quotes from it just slip into everyday conversation (especially when someone refuses to give us what we want to eat… what we want to drank). I wondered how much I could possibly enjoy a book that I would already know every line of dialogue of, but I was curious because Tim Lebbon wrote it, so I ventured in.
It’s f***ing amazing, you guys.
Even though I knew full well that it was vampires on the horizon, Lebbon’s description of their impending invasion had me on the edge of my seat. He paints the picture so vividly that half of the time I was envisioning the movie scenes, and the other half, what was already firmly lodged in my head was replaced by new images painted by the book. So visceral are his descriptions that I felt a chill reading it, like I was in the snow with those guys. And let me tell you, the way he builds up the vampires…. I was actually scared.
I was delighted to find a couple of little additions that weren’t in the film. There’s a scene with a polar bear that made me extra freaked out by the toothy villains of this tale, such was the evidence of their power and cruelty. On top of that, there was something about reading the final act of this story that hit me differently to watching it – I was full of emotion towards the end.
This is one of the rare books that made me feel depressed when I finished it because the story was all gone. I turned the last page with a sad expression and then sloped off to my office, where I keep all my beloved books, to shelve it. Desperate to read more, thanks to my ultimate enjoyment of 30 Days of Night, I scanned my TBR bookcase in search of something else. But alas, nothing was appealing. I had the sinking feeling that nothing would measure up to what I’d just read, and so, in childish petulance, I watched Gilmore Girls instead. And because I was in a mood, I decided I hate Sookie, but that’s a whole other issue.
Whether or not you’ve seen the film or read the comics, I can’t recommend 30 Days of Night strongly enough if you’re a fan of scary vampire novels. I had THE BEST time with it.
If you’d like to check out the author or get your own copy, the links you need are below (please keep in mind that this novel is actually a bit hard to find these days but at the time of posting, this sales links is valid):
Happy Goat Horror 
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