When the Night Bells Ring

October 1, 2022

Waynoka and Mads, "Dust Devils," are traversing a near-future climate-disaster landscape in Nevada, searching for shelter and water in a barren desert when they stumble upon a Silver Rush--era ghost town. They explore an abandoned mine for a possible source of freshwater, but when Mads is badly injured on the descent, the two women are forced to shelter in a natural cave, where they discover the diary of Lavinia, a resident of the town back in 1869. What follows is a harrowing story of survival, told in two time frames--Waynoka as she searches the tunnels in an attempt to find both water and escape, and Lavinia's diary entries, which unveil the monstrous truth hidden deep within the land itself. The constant unease of each story line is broken only for the brief second it takes to turn the page from one narration to the next, as the tension builds relentlessly until the novel's shockingly horrific conclusion. VERDICT Seamlessly blending Western, ancient evil, and climate horror tropes, Kaplan (It Will Just Be Us) has created an immersive, chilling, and compelling tale that fans of Christina Henry and Camilla Sten will devour.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2022

Kaplan's (It Will Just Be Us) latest is made up of two narratives that seem thematically different but end up entwined by the end. The story opens with Mads and Waynoka, two women making their way across an America ravaged by climate change. Seeking respite from the unrelenting sun and desperate for water, they enter an abandoned mine, only to become trapped. Waynoka soon discovers the diary of Lavinia Kane, a woman from the 1800s who was looking for a better life for her family, but instead found something stalking her and her fellow townspeople--the same something that is stalking the two women deep within the earth. Blending a not-so-distant future climate message with a piece of feminist historical fiction doesn't seem like it should work, but it does by alternating between the two narratives until they finally collide at the end. As both narratives progress, the individual voices of narrators Rachel Fulginiti and Nicol Zanzarella keep both narratives distinct until the final brutal end. VERDICT Part Weird West horror and part claustrophobic descent into darkness, this book's double narratives will drag readers into its Stygian depths.--James Gardner

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2022
Climate refugees Mads and Waynoka are trying to make it across the desert to the eastern U.S., where they can escape disastrous drought and heat. Left horribly dehydrated in a ghost town, they decide to explore a mine in hopes of finding water flooded in its caves. To their horror, a ladder breaks from under them, leaving them stranded in a pitch-dark cave system prone to collapse, where they and their flashlights discover a diary, written by a woman named Lavinia Cain in the 1860s. In Lavinia's entries, she describes a town haunted by a monstrous threat--something that was released from the same dark, damp caves that Mads and Waynoka are trapped in now. Kaplan's novel has some strange detail choices that require the reader to suspend belief. However, When the Night Bells Ring is delightfully creepy, and its suspenseful pacing, well-written diary entries, and compelling characters make up for any narrative missteps. The Strange Lady out in the desert--who all the children know--the claustrophobia of the tunnels, and the book's questions about human greed and violence will leave readers unsettled in all the best ways.

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