Review: Night Soldiers

Night Soldiers by Paul Michael Kane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

   Under the bed is where the 

darkness lives.

   Now, adults think darkness is 

simply the absence of light. That is a 

charming theory.

   Unfortunately, it is completely 

wrong.

   Darkness is a place.

I recently read Night Soldiers by Paul Michael Kane. It's a short story, in chapbook form, about the battle that occurs every night as children drift off to sleep and the night soldiers awaken to keep the monsters under the bed at bay. I LOVED IT, and can't wait to share this story with my grandchildren. 

Stan is a stuffed sloth who wakes each night as his boy, Parker, falls asleep. His goal: protect Parker from the monsters that emerge from the darkness under the bed. I won't spoil anything here, but will just say that poor Stan has his work cut out for him as wave after wave of different types of monsters try to get past his defenses and reach the sleeping Parker.

The design of this book is fantastic! It has a very cool cover, pairing a "Starry Night" blanket with a stuffed sloth under the bed, ready for battle against the approach of shadowy tendrils. And the two-column layout practically pulled my eyes down the page! 

I also loved the imagery - describing fear as a living thing that "grows best when it has time" and the sound one monster makes as something that "creeps into dreams." 

I also enjoyed the few nods to Stephen King's IT story.

Night Soldiers can be purchased directly from Paul Michael Kane's online store here: Night Soldiers purchase link