Day or Dusk, Dawn or Dead of Eve: The Night House Sticks With You All Day

26 Feb

The Night House scared me in my bones and through my veins.

Film poster showing a woman standing alone at the end of a wooden dock at a lake in the dead of night. There is a shoreline in the background with a distant house beneath a red moon through heavy clouds. The text reads “The Night House.”

The director plays with angles and shapes to distort your vision while the writers weave the slightest and most intriguing details into the character’s background and behavior to keep you guessing. The scares are well-timed and effective. Each serve a purpose. Every twinge of dread or outright jump in your seat is vindicated. From the bumps to the spooks to the visual distortion and to the realism of the suspension of belief, the fear and unease of this movie lives in human flaws, moral debate, and in the spinning wheel of grief.

The Night House (2020; R) blends psychological horror, suspense, and mystery. You can reserve the DVD here in the BCCLS system or find a copy at the Hoboken Public Library.

Beth is reeling from the death of her husband and, in that grief, has decided to stay in the lakehouse they built together. She puts up a strong front and continues with her day-to-day life, but she can’t hide from the night and the tricks on her mind in her dreams. Soon, she cannot tell what a dream is and what is real. Or are they the same? Either way, a ghostly presence is luring her in. So, she begins digging for answers and going into her husband’s affairs. There lies a trail of dark and disturbing urges. ​

The film is about the seductive battle between not wanting to let go without all the answers, vs. the monsters in our mind that feed on us as we walk through that rotted, dark tunnel. On its simplest level, too, it’s the classic sparring between what lies in this world and what exists beyond it, and at what stages in our lives is it possible for them to blend. ​

Watch under the caution of your lamps and with blankets by your side. Don’t think about the souls that once walked through your room now, perhaps hiding under the couch as you reach for your drink. You might find yourself noticing, too, how angles in your home, at just the right tilt, silhouette the human form. Ghosts and spirits prey on our lazy, presumptuous vision and blind expectation that everything will be as it is when we turn around.

My heart is still pumping tight to the chest, and my throat clenches when I consider the story’s morality. It could happen to any of us, and I, for one, will take extra notice the next time I’m at a secluded cabin of every boat rock, every vacant house, every angle shift, every depth beyond dark windows, and every light across the lake.

Reserve your copy in the BCCLS system here to pick up at the Hoboken Public Library.

Comment below your thoughts once you’ve had a watch.

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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

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Dystopian Heartbreakers: Never Let Me Go and The Space Between Worlds

24 Feb

Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go is the heartbreaking tale of a boarding school of children. Although in some ways their lives seem idyllic and free from worries, their future remains unclear to them with only hints dropped here and there about what awaits them once they reach adulthood. This was our Hoboken Public Library Science Fiction and Fantasy September 2025 read, but this is a work of literary fiction that transcends beyond the usual Science Fiction fandom. We had previously read as a group Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun; both works deal with the complex issue of what makes us human and what is the human soul. I found Never Let Me Go to be a haunting story that though sometimes was a tough emotional read, I feel was worthwhile.

The Space Between Worlds
by Micaiah Johnson
The Space Between Worlds is a more typical Science Fiction Dystopia set in a domed city inhabited by the elite while the poor are forced to live outside in a bleak dessert wasteland. Cross dimensional travel is possible, but only to worlds without a direct equivalent to oneself, due to death or never being born. Because Cara originally came from the wastelands and her alternate selves often died young, she has many of the worlds open to her and thus a chance at moving up into domed society. There are several clever plot twists. This was our July 2025 read for the book group. Never Let Me Go and The Space Between Worlds both give insight to futures where our scientific abilities reach beyond our moral compass, an important lesson for our modern age.

Join the Science Fiction-Fantasy Book Discussion Group for more great speculative fiction reads. Our next March discussion will be another fascinating dystopian story, The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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