Endless is the Night

Endless is the Night is Shawn Brooks's debut novel and the first entry in his Black Sun series of Japanese folk horror. Inspired by a real-life murder and the urban legend that grew around it, the story follows three friends, Cody Baker, Rick Davis and Mia Silvano, on a hiking trip through Japan's Kii mountains meant as a fresh start after personal loss.

One wrong turn strands the group in an inescapable mountain valley, where they eventually find the isolated village of Inunaki. The villagers smile, the crops grow high, and a High Priestess welcomes them as honored guests — but the village's true intentions, rooted in ancient gods, sacrifice and blood-soaked ritual, soon surface. The friends must survive the night while confronting monsters that lurk both in the woods and inside themselves.

Brooks, who lives near Kyoto, Japan, has been compared to Adam Nevill's The Ritual for its atmosphere of folkloric dread and its action-heavy, bloody back half.