The Night Eternal
I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat. Don't watch supernatural horror. Can't do it. LOVE to read it though. A few years ago, I read The Strain by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro, and its two follow-ups, The Fall and The Night Eternal. For those who don't know, or who didn't watch the FX series of the same name (like me! I was too afraid to watch it!), the premise is basically...
SPOILERS
...an ancient vampire comes to the U.S. from Europe after being invited to the country and funded by a wealthy magnate who seeks immortality. The vampire effectively enslaves the country, converting his most loyal human subjects into Renfield-like servants or other vampires under his control. They eventually succeed at establishing a number of concentration camps for humans where they can effectively “farm” them for blood. Opposed to them are a small team composed of an international virus hunter, a Holocaust survivor, and an exterminator among others.
END SPOILERS
The symbolism of these books is not subtle, but the thing that sticks with me the most from this book series is the sheer oppressive feeling of the vampire rule over humanity. These literal blood-drinking creatures with their fascist authoritarian goals makes the human-led resistance feel doomed. The fall of humanity felt inevitable from very early on in the series.
Which brings us to now. It feels pretty dark right now. Like a “Night Eternal”. Like the vampires have won. They're dismantling our systems, destroying our way of life, converting those who follow their ideology into baby vampires that lash out at anyone who disagrees with them, destroying those who won't capitulate and leaving the rest to fall into line.
It's pretty dark out there right now. I'm trying to stay optimistic that we'll find a way to end the night at some point.