Book Review: “Never Whistle at Night” Edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
Håfa adai and welcome to spooky season, my favorite month of the year! Throughout October 2024, I will publish reviews for works of horror, suspense, and the supernatural. Each book review will be followed by a brief history of Halloween. My first spooky pick for the month is Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.
Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Horror bookshelf.
Spoiler-Free Summary
Many Indigenous people around the world are taught not to whistle at night. For if you do, you will attract spirits that can follow you, make you sick, negatively influence you, or cause other harm to you and those around you. Indigenous children are introduced to horror, suspense, and the supernatural through these traditional stories. Never Whisper at Night features over two dozen truly horrifying tales—ranging in theme from the supernatural to the criminal—using traditional methods of horror storytelling to portray various experiences of modern-day Native North Americans. Following a foreword by Stephen Graham Jones (read by Sheldon Elter), these include:
Kushtuka, by Mathilda Zeller (read by Maika Harper)
White Hills, by Rebecca Roanhorse (read by Tara Sky)
Navajos Don’t Wear Elk Teeth, by Conley Lyons (read by Sheldon Elter)
Wingless, by Marcie R. Rendon (read by Shane Ghostkeeper)
Quantum, by Nick Medina (read by Joelle Peters)
Hunger, by Phoenix Boudreau (read by Lisa Cromarty)
Tick Talk, by Cherie Dimaline (read by Darrell Dennis)
The Ones Who Killed Us, by Brandon Hobson (read by Shane Ghostkeeper)
Snakes are Born in the Dark, by D. H. Trujillo (read by Erin Tripp)
Before I Go, by Norris Black (read by Elle-Maija Tailfeathers)
Behind Colin’s Eyes, by Shane Hawk (read by Shane Ghostkeeper)
Heart-Shaped Clock, by Kelli Jo Ford (read by Sheldon Elter)
Scariest. Story. Ever., by Richard Van Camp (read by Shane Ghostkeeper)
Human Eaters, by Royce K. Young Wolf (read by Elle-Maija Taillfeathers)
The Longest Street in the World, by Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (read by Kaniehtiio Horn)
Dead Owls, by Mona Susan Power (read by Elle-Maija Tailfeathers)
The Prepper, by Morgan Talty (read by Sheldon Elter)
Uncle Robert Rides the Lightning, by Kate Hart (read by Elle-Maija Tailfeathers)
Sundays, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (read by Shane Ghostkeeper)
Eulogy for a Brother, Resurrected, by Carson Faust (read by Maika Harper)
Night Moves, by Andrea L. Rogers (read by Shane Ghostkeeper)
Capgras, by Tommy Orange (read by Sheldon Elter)
The Scientist’s Horror Story, by Darcie Little Badger (read by Maika Harper)
Collections, by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala (read by Tara Sky)
Limbs, by Waubgeshig Rice (read by Kaniehtiio Horn)
Important Trigger Warning for Never Whistle at Night
The stories within Never Whistle at Night contain many scenes depicting physical violence, sexual violence, child abuse, and gore. These themes are essential to the stories shared. If these are themes that cause you distress or discomfort in any way, then please make sure to take necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after reading this book.
My Thoughts on Never Whistle at Night: 5 stars!
Never Whistle at Night immediately caught my attention with its title and beautiful cover art. It genuinely amazes me how many Indigenous cultures throughout the world teach that the act of whistling at night is a bad thing that you should never do. I am Chamoru, an Indigenous person of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific, and it was deeply ingrained in me by the adults and manåmko’ (elders) in my family that whistling at night will almost always attract malevolent spirits. I now live in the North American Southwest. Members of the many Indigenous communities around me hold this same belief. As an Indigenous person who has a love of horror, I took one look at this book, read its full title, and immediately thought “this is going to be terrifying, I must read it.”
Instead of giving short opinions of all 25, I want to go into detail about my top three picks from this anthology. These top three are listed in the order they appear in the book.
Snakes are Born in the Dark, by D. H. Trujillo (read by Erin Tripp)
It is a hot July day, not an ideal time for a hike in the Four Corners. But Peter and his uncle are visiting his cousin Maddie for her graduation, and going to see the beautiful petroglyphs etched into red sandstone was not something to be missed. Things quickly take a terrible turn when Maddie and her boyfriend Adam (who is White) start touching the petroglyphs. Peter tells them to stop, explaining why it’s harmful to the petroglyphs to touch them as well as overall disrespectful. Maddie admits she did not know and apologizes to her cousin. Adam, on the other hand, becomes outright aggressive.
Instead of acknowledging Peter’s explanation and following Maddie’s example (admit you didn’t know, apologize, don’t repeat it), Adam escalates the disrespect from touching the petroglyphs with his fingers to scratching them with his car keys while throwing racial slurs at Peter. A physical fight escalates between the two and the car keys are lost in the process. With five miles between them and the car, and the sun starting to set, they have no choice but to start walking. Adam continues to throwing racial slurs at Peter as they go. Neither Peter nor Maddie understand what Maddie ever saw in Adam. Adam clearly thinks he has done nothing wrong and is entitled to belittle both Peter and Maddie. But someone or something else has been watching. And, unlike Peter, that entity will not tolerate anymore disrespect from Adam.
After processing the gore that ensues in Snakes are Born in the Dark, this story made me chuckle. As a Chamoru, I was raised to always be respectful of the taotaomo’na (the “before people,” or ancient Chamoru spirits). Throughout the Mariana Islands, Chamoru are taught to show respect to the taotaomo’na before entering the jungle, making too much noise after a certain time, using the bathroom outside, picking wild plants, etc. There will be consequences if you disrespect the taotaomo’na. In Snakes are Born in the Dark, the consequences that Adam (and Maddie to a lesser degree) faces for disrespecting the ancestral spirits are swift and excruciating. This story delivers a visceral visual horror to a belief shared among many Indigenous peoples.
Sundays, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (read by Shane Ghostkeeper)
Sundays opens with and centers the violent sexual abuse (molestation and rape) of a child by a Catholic priest. Thomas Bear Nose, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, was only 9 years-old when he was raped on a weekly basis by “Father R” at The Holy Reward Boarding School in South Dakota. Father R eventually became bored with Thomas and shifted his abuse to Johnny Two Bulls, a third-grade boy. Fifty years later, only six months after losing his wife Connie to cancer, the horrific trauma of that time resurfaces for Thomas in the form of nightmares and visual hallucinations.
Thomas tries to move on when he receives news that Johnny Two Bulls has died from suicide. But is it truly suicide if Johnny was driven to it by the pain caused by Father R’s actions? Or it is another form of murder? Thomas meets with his longtime friend Harold, a Tribal police officer, and opens up about Father R’s actions for the first time. He learns that a recent court case against abuses perpetrated by teachers at The Holy Reward Boarding School was thrown out of court due to too much time having passed. Thomas asks Harold for help finding Father R. At first, Harold tells Thomas to let the past go but then later sends Thomas information of Father R’s location. With this information, Thomas goes to confront Father R.
Sundays is a tragedy that displays how the horrors of childhood trauma do not go away. The lack of accountability for appalling abuses committed by Catholic priests is truly horrifying. Like Thomas, many victims choose not to come forward because they do not want to relive their trauma. Those who do decide to come forward are slapped in the face with the unfairness of statutes of limitations; meaning that victims of sexual abuse typically only have a few years to report these crimes in order for the perpetrators to be prosecuted. I am certain that many survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests have fantasized about confronting their abusers the way that Thomas confronts Father R. I am a former/“recovering” Catholic, and I appreciate this story being included in Never Whistle at Night.
Collections, by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala (read by Tara Sky)
Hunting is a way of life and means of survival within Anishinaabe tradition. For Megis, a young Anishinaabe woman pursuing a graduate degree in creative writing, the sight of glassy eyes from mounted heads peering down at her is no oddity. So it shouldn’t be so alarming when Megis enters the suburban home of her Professor Smith to attend a party celebrating the end of another semester. Right? But the soulless eyes staring back at Megis from Professor Smith’s walls are not those of wild animals, but of former graduate students. Megis counts 23 as the professor proudly gives Megis a tour of her “collection,” a macabre graveyard of human diversity. Professor Smith has a sample of nearly every race and religion, except one. And Megis is too terrified to ask who Professor Smith needs to complete her collection.
Collections stood out to me for its all-too-relatable experience of being an Indigenous student in a predominantly White graduate program. My experience as a graduate student included professors publicly praising me while also privately admonishing me for the same thing—my “Indigenous perspective”—as well as an attempt by a self-proclaimed ally White professor who essentially tried to collect me as a show of her saving/advocating for Indigenous students. Just like with Megis’ experience, most of my colleagues were not racists or bad people. But nearly every encounter had to overcome the initial hurdle of exoticism and infantilization.
My overall rating for Never Whistle at Night is 5 out of 5 stars! In my opinion, the stories featured in this anthology are intense horror. I had to take breaks between some stories. Many of them brought me to tears. The talented readers of every story did fantastic jobs of translating the evocative narratives into terrifying imagery. To say that I “enjoyed” Never Whistle at Night seems like a misrepresentation of what I felt while going from story to story. Instead, it is more accurate to say that I deeply appreciated every chapter in this anthology; choosing only three stories to go into detail about was a difficult task. As is clear by this point, I first experienced Never Whistle at Night in its audiobook form. But I will be buying a physical copy to have on my bookshelf as well as copies to send out as gifts to my fellow lovers of horror.
Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
A Brief History of Halloween
October is my absolute favorite month of the year for one reason: Halloween! From ancient traditions of honoring the dead to modern-day celebrations of all things horror, Halloween is a time to appreciate mortality, the supernatural, and the macabre. Let’s take a look at the origins of this holiday.
A Quick Definition of Terms
Many use the terms “Celtic” and “Gaelic” interchangeably, but Celtic and Gaelic are not one and the same. The Celtic people (or Celts) include Indo-European communities spanning from western Europe to Anatolia (located in modern-day Turkey). The pronunciation of the word Celtic matters. If you say Celtic with a “k” sound at the beginning (“kell-tick”), you are referring to the groups of Indo-European peoples. If you say Celtics with an “s” sound at the beginning (“sell-ticks”), you are referring to the professional basketball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. The specific Celtic community discussed in this post are the Gaels. The Gaels are an ethnolinguistic group of Celtic people in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man who speak the Gaelic languages. In short, the Celts are a people and Gaelic is a language spoken by some Celtic peoples.
Samhain, the Celtic New Year & Harvest Festival
Samhain (pronounced “saw-win”) is an annual celebration held by the Celtic peoples of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man to signal the end of the harvest season and the first day of winter. Similar celebrations are held by many other Celtic peoples in Wales and western mainland Europe. Samhain is referenced in the earliest recorded pieces of Irish literature, dating to the 8th Century, and is identified as one of the most important events in Irish mythology. A version of the tale of Tochmarc Emire (“The Wooing of Emer”) written in the 10th Century identifies Samhain as the first of four festivals to mark the seasons of the year. Celtic peoples who celebrated Samhain would make bonfires, gives sacrifices, and practice divination using apples and nuts to predict the events of the upcoming year.
For the Celts, Samhain was a time when the boundaries between the world of the living and the Otherworld (where spirits and the dead remained) became blurred. This liminal time allowed aos sí (spirits and fairies, pronounced “eess shee”) to cross into the world of the living and move among us. Once crossed over, aos sí would wonder the world of the living, with the spirits of deceased people visiting their living family in search of hospitality. Celtic people would leave food and drink outside their doors as offerings to the wandering aos sí in exchange for good luck and greater chances of surviving the upcoming winter. Not leaving offerings for aos sí could incur their spite and cause bad luck for people and livestock alike.
Allhallowtide, the Christian Season of the Dead
By the 19th Century and early 20th Century, European scholars of anthropology recognized the connection between the Celtic and Christian roots of Halloween. These scholars noted that many cultures in Europe and Southeast Asia combined celebrations for the dead with what those cultures recognized to be the New Year. But there was an undeniably direct line between the Celtic tradition of Samhain and the Christian season of Allhallowtide, both celebrated at the same time of the year to honor the dead.
Christian monks stationed in England in the early 8th Century observed the Celtic tradition that honored the dead and celebrated the New Year at the end of every October. And celebrations that resembled Samhain were observed by Christians as far south as France. By the 9th Century, Pope Gregory IV urged Catholic leaders in western Europe to establish All Saints’ Day on 1 November and All Souls’ Day on 2 November in an apparent (albeit still contested) attempt to erase Samhain and all similar Celtic traditions in the region. The Christian triduum known as Allhallowtide is what came out of these alleged eradication efforts with All Hallows’ Eve (or Halloween) celebrated on 31 October, All Hallows’ Day (or All Saints’ Day) celebrated on 1 November, and All Souls’ Day celebrated on 2 November.
But the deeply rooted Celtic tradition of Samhain would not easily be removed. Up to the 19th Century in Ireland and the Isle of Man, many Gaelic-speaking communities still recognized Samhain as the time to honor the dead and bring in the New Year. Today, many Celtic communities as well as practicing Wiccans continue to keep the tradition of Samhain alive and well. The Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is also celebrated during 1-2 November, possibly taking influence from Allhallowtide.
Halloween in American Popular Culture
The tradition of celebrating Halloween became widespread in the United States by the 19th Century with the mass immigration of Irish and Scottish populations to the country. By the early 20th Century, Halloween became adopted by Americans of all races and religions and has since spread to countries and communities around the world. Today, Halloween is widely recognized as “spooky season.” It is the time of year when film and literary genres of horror, suspense, and the supernatural are put on full display and enjoyed by their devoted fans around the world.
The traditional Celtic practices of Samhain do not look very different today than they did over a thousand years ago. The Samhain practice of leaving food and drink outside your door for wandering spirits turned into leaving candy for wandering trick-or-treaters. The divination practice of using apples and nuts to predict what the upcoming year had in store turned into bobbing for apples. Irish Catholic folktales like that of Jack-o’-lantern and Stingy Jack became tied to the celebration of Halloween and are signaled by carving faces into hallowed out pumpkins to ward off spirits. And the 16th-century practice of dressing in disguise to either impersonate a wandering spirit or cause mischief if you were unwelcomed turned into wearing costumes and trick-or-treating.
Closing Thoughts
An annual Celtic tradition known as Samhain honoring the dead and celebrating the New Year was practiced by Gaelic-speaking people in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man from the end of October to the beginning of November. For centuries, the Roman Catholic church allegedly attempted to eradicate this celebration before eventually Christianizing it. The Christianization of this Celtic tradition laid the social foundation for what would become Halloween. Today, Halloween is widely recognized and celebrated by people of all races and religions around the world.
Rating Cheat Sheet
4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.
Post Date: 7 October 2024
Published: 19 September 2023
Publisher: Vintage
Audiobook Publisher: Random House Audio
