The Night Eaters
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Well it’s official, I do enjoy horror. She Eats the Night is the first in what I believe will be a trilogy and wow! If you enjoy the Monstress series you’ll love this, and if you want to like Monstress but can’t quite get into the complexity you’ll also love this. Focusing on Chinese American twins in their early 20s who are trying to figure out how to make their mark on the world, we get to watch as they get parented by a cranky mom and laid back dad. Oh, and there may or may not be a demon eating people in the abandoned house across the street.
Marjorie M. Liu absolutely nailed the family relationships, mixing humor and snark as all the best families do. They all clearly love each other, but between the kids trying to prove that they’re functional adults and Milly’s personality being a little too similar to her mother’s for comfort, there’s plenty of bickering to go around. Balancing
the comfortably familiar family dynamics are semi consistent hints of Something Wrong. Liu lets the tension build slowly, keeping it ambiguous if the Wrongness lives in the house across the street or in Billy and Milly’s mother.
I can’t say much more than that without risking spoilers, so instead let’s take a moment to appreciate the art! Sana Takeda’s style is stunning, and she shifts seamlessly between heartwarming family moments and terrifying scenes of violence. I’m already so deeply invested in all of these characters, and I can’t wait to learn more about both their future and their past when Volume 2 comes out next year.
I paired The Night Eaters with a Pomegranate Margarita in honor of how thin the line is between life and death is in the novel. It was absolutely delicious! Obviously a seasonal drink, but a great way to winterize a cocktail I usually strongly associate with summer.
Pomegranate Margarita
Ingredients
1 ½ ounces (3 tablespoons) 100% pomegranate juice (purchased or fresh squeezed)*
1 ½ ounces (3 tablespoons) tequila blanco or reposado**
1 ounce (2 tablespoons) Cointreau
½ ounce (1 tablespoon) lime
½ ounce (1 tablespoon) simple syrup or maple syrup
Kosher salt or Himalayan pink salt, for the rim (optional)
Ice, for serving
For the garnish: pomegranate seeds, orange wedge or lime wedge
Cut a notch in a lime wedge, then run the lime around the rim of a glass. Dip the edge of the rim into a plate of salt (or for a festive look, use Margarita Salt). Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and fill it with ice. Shake until cold. Strain the margarita into the glass with the salted rim. Fill the glass with ice, garnish with pomegranate seeds and an orange wedge or lime wedge.
