Book Review: The Night Wanderer

Book: The Night Wanderer by Drew Hayden Taylor with illustration by Mike Wyatt

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

I like this. Even though it wasn't scary it did have it's suspenseful moments. I thought this was really interesting. It was about a North American Indian vampire, Pierre L'Errant who is over 300 years old. He decides to return home to his former land which is now called Canada after all his time in Europe and rents a room from a family on a reservation. The family Pierre is staying with, a grandmother, a father and his teenage daughter are dealing with a lot of issues such as the family is trying to cope with the after effects of the mother leaving the family for another man and moving to Edmonton. The daughter Tiffany is trying to deal with both her romance issues with her jerky boyfriend Tony and trying to deal with her overbearing father. Communication seems to be one of the biggest problems between the father and daughter. Neither seems to know how to communicate with each other which leads them resorting to yelling at each other to get heard. 

Despite this story being about a vampire's journey home, it dealt with family dynamics, teenage angst and coming to terms with life (or death in the vampire's case).

This was a nice, quick read that I found be really enjoyable. I also found the backstories, the Indian myths and the artwork (which was in black and white with touches of red as the only color to the story) to add to that perfect blend of creepiness.

The only thing I had a problem with (which wasn't a real problem) is that I wish the story had been longer. I wanted to know what was going to happen with the family but I figure their lives will get better after what happened at the end. This was good I just wish there was more of it. Since this was adapted from a novel, maybe I'll check that out to see if there's even more to the story.