Get this horror novel off of the tip of my tongue!

Cafe Society
1

Hi all,

Google has failed me. Maybe someone else has a better memory (or is a greater master of Google-fu).

The book is new within the last decade, possibly 5 years. The premise is that a pack of monsters descends on a town in the dark of night, and eats some people. The monsters start taking over the town by literally wearing their victims’ skin. Our protagonist is spared because he is awake at the very late hour that the creatures arrive.

I remember the narrator discussing, I think at the very beginning of the book, how the idea of midnight being “the Witching Hour” predates the electric light, and midnight isn’t all that late for people anymore. He says 3 am (4 am?) is the new Witching Hour, too late for most night owls, too early for getting up for work. This is when the creatures attack.

He does find some other survivors and they band together to try to fight back… but I’m fuzzy on most of the plot besides that.

I remember it being a fun read at night with the lights off (read it on my Palm Pilot at the time). Just sort of a silly monster movie style thing, like some of King’s short stories. I wouldn’t mind giving it another read.

“Tip of My Tongue” over on reddit was no help, but I’ll head off a few of the suggestions they had. It definitely was not The Puppet Masters or any of the more well known books in the body snatcher genre. It definitely was not King’s short story The Ten O’clock People.

Thanks in advance!

2

Perhaps the Midnighters Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld?

3

Hmmm..This isn’t it. The protagonist is a single male who lives alone in an apartment. This does look interesting though, would you recommend it?

4

Westerfeld puts out some pretty creative YA fiction. I haven’t read this trilogy but my two older kids did and both would definitely recommend. I did like Leviathan though, especially because it kick started conversations about WWI with the 14 y.o.