This is a post apocalyptic novel yet what is in the foreground is the emotional interactions between father and daughter. Normally, not exactly up my alley but the story and its characters just take you for an unforgettable ride. The main character, the father, maybe beset with many faults, but those faults are the ones that hit close to home. And whatever I would have done differently from him, at the end his final determination makes him larger than life. ( )

3.5 Liked quite a bit, but fell short of a 4-star.

The Night Parade sort of falls into the paint-by-numbers horror book category, which is fine if that's what you are looking for. It's an apocalyptic scenario with a super-powered little girl who is loving/caring/compassionate and surrounded by grown-ups who love her and want to protect her at all costs. There are so many books like this from King, McCammon, Carey, Cronin, etc. Not that Malfi hasn't written an entertaining entry in this sub-sub-genre, but it's still a well-worn path.

Malfi is great at writing compelling characters. Most are complex, and it's easy to care about them.

The set pieces are paranoid and disturbing. He brings apocalyptic nightmares into a colorful moving images that exploding in your brain. Other than spiders, I'm not a fan of insects. (Yes, I like spiders and appreciate them.)

And yet – I enjoyed Night Parade enough to read it to the end. :) ( )

I really enjoyed the book, liked the storyline and characters and would have given it more than 4 stars but it ended so abruptly. Should have been tied up better. ( )

The Night Parade is an excellent addition to the apocalyptic genre'. Written a few years before Covid, Ronald Malfi takes readers on a journey across a deteriorating USA. David Arlen struggles to save himself and his daughter, Eleanor, as they attempt to flee both the disease known as Wanderer's Folly and government agents who attempt to track them down because they believe Eleanor may hold the key to the cure.
As they travel the country to what they believe is a safe haven with David's stepbrother, Tim, they experience a number of harrowing moments that Malfi handles so well.
Readers will have their heartstrings tugged throughout the book as they follow along with a father's desperate effort to keep his daughter safe.
4 solid stars. ( )

The next time I hear an ice cream truck any running I do may be away from it and not towards it..
This was my first time reading anything by Ronald Malfi. I wasn't quite sure from the description whether The Night Parade would be a thriller, or a horror novel. It was both, and it was more. When the story begins, something horrible has already happened. We don't know the details yet, we know only that David is on the run, and trying to keep his daughter safe. Slowly, as they continue their journey to where David hopes to find a safe place to hide, we are told through flashbacks of the terrifying events that left him a widower. Grief stricken but with no time to mourn his loss David sets out to protect his daughter at all costs. Ronald Malfi's writing is crisp and clean, and crackles off the page and into your brain.

I received an advance copy for review, ( )