They Own The Night by Amy McCaw

They Own The Night is a young adult novel set in the 1980s about two siblings whose serial killer father was the main drama in their lives until they discover that vampires are real. Mia and Johnny’s dad is in prison, having been revealed to be a serial killer, and they are both now at university near Edinburgh, trying to make their own way. Mia loves horror and has a true crime radio show, whereas Johnny is a budding music journalist with an invite to interview a reclusive rock star. As Mia uncovers secrets close to home and Johnny finds himself falling for the bad boy musician, they both discover that horror might be more relevant than they expected.

This is a Dracula retelling that has a good balance between being a retelling and actually having its own plot and character arcs. Having read the first book in McCaw’s Mina and the Undead series previously, I was interested to see what this one would be like. The narrative is told through Mia being interviewed in the ‘present’ by a police detective as well as snippets from ‘then’ from the perspectives of both siblings. There’s also bits of Mia’s radio show mixed in, and this combination has a flavour of the format of Dracula without being too epistolary in nature (it is more similar to Interview with the Vampire really in terms of format). 

Having both siblings’ perspectives and stories makes the book feel a lot more complex and vivid, especially as Johnny’s story is more ill-advised queer romance and Mia’s is more group of friends become monster hunters. Sometimes plot points feel a bit forced to make the Dracula retelling and multiple narrative arcs work (the radio show, for example, is plot-relevant, but feels like it could’ve been a bit more). The 80s setting is fun, though it does rely a bit on modern teenagers liking The Lost Boys (saying that, but as a 2000s teenager I would’ve loved this book, which feels like a great follow on from 2000s children’s vampire series like The Saga of Darren Shan).

As an adult who likes trashy vampire media and who particularly loved trashy vampire media as a teenager, from my perspective They Own The Night is a fun way of retelling Dracula. I like that it plays on the tension between Jonathan and Dracula in other versions of the story and doesn’t feel the need to stick too close to the original narrative whilst still having a lot of the same plot beats.