Rating: 
Summary: Powerful supernatural mystery
Review: A deeply affecting novel that takes the college life and spins it on its ear. Here is the story of a man who returns to campus after the winter break to find that a murder has been committed in his dorm room. He grows more and more obsessed with not only finding the killer, but discovering the true identity of the victim.Slowly our protagonist, Caleb Prentiss, comes to fear that he's haunted not only by the dead girl, but also by his own sister--a former nun who committed suicide in his arms. Ever since that time, Cal has suffered from stigmata whenever someone close to him dies. Despite the backstory, the book itself takes place in a 24 hour period. Cal learns more in this day than in his four years of higher education. He discovers secrets about his university, his teachers, his best friends, and even himself. A gripping, thrilling, suspenseful read, I urge you all to sign up for this night class immediately!
Rating:
Summary: A chilling masterpiece
Review: A very atmosphere-laden mystery with supernatural elements. Terrifying stuff here, and it caught me in its web early on. Piccirilli has quickly become a favorite author of mine and this is my new fave novel. Grab a copy now.
Rating: 
Summary: Picirilli is truly an original
Review: Although I enjoyed "The Deceased" more than this book, I had a great time reading this Bram Stoker winner for 2002. Wonderful writing, atmosphere, and an engaging mystery makes this novel stand way above the competition. Picirilli is an acquired taste, but if you put in the time, it's well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: Awesome! Tom Piccirilli has quickly become one of my favorite writers. Reading his books is like eating potato chips...as soon as you start you've got to have them all! I started with Hexes and was absolutely floored. A Lower Deep was even better, and now I think The Night Class might be my favorite. This is horror and mystery as it was meant to be. It's unsettling, scary, weird but really gets under your skin. Like a scalpel! Spooky! Awesome!
Rating:
Summary: Higher education
Review: Cal Prentiss hasn't had an easy life; his sister killed herself in front of him when he was five, and his palms gush blood whenever someone close to him dies. Now he returns to university for his final semester to find that a girl has been killed in his dorm room over winter break. Not only has the incident been kept out of the media, but no one at the school seems to know anything about it. Or at least, they're not talking. Cal takes on the mystery of the murdered girl as his pet project, but completing it may cost him more than he bargained for. He's bleeding again. This is an excellent, atmospheric mystery with full characters and a genuine feel for setting. There's something inherently creepy about a college campus in winter, and the author takes full advantage of that. With this second novel (mine, not the author's -- I'd previously read THE DECEASED), Tom Piccirilli has risen to the top of my list of horror authors to watch out for.
Rating:
Summary: Weird, unsettling, disturbing
Review: Cal Prentiss is an intelligent, hypersensitive college student in fear for his sanity as his life around him begins to crumble. His ambitious girlfriend seems ready to leave him behind as graduation approaches, and his other friends suffer from the same lack of resolve. After the winter recess he leans that someone has apparently been murdered in his room while he's been away and suddenly he has a sense of purpose in his life: to find the killer. As Cal comes closer and closer to finding out the gruesome truth about the victim and the events leading to her death, he also learns terrifying truths about himself and those he loves. Piccirilli is an incredibly subtle and atmospheric writer who holds back from making any easy choices through the course of the novel. There is crime, blood, madness, sex, and ghostly imagery that pervades the tale, but the real horrors lay in Cal's mind as he unravels bit by bit over one long, horrible night. Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Who's your teacher? (mellion108 from Michigan)
Review: Cal Prentiss seems to float through his life. He's an intelligent, sensitive young man who suffers from a lack of ambition. He loves his girlfriend, but the relationship really isn't going anywhere. He doesn't mind getting an education, but he finds himself stuck in pointless classes like Professor Yokver's philosophy course. Then he returns to his dorm room after winter break to find that something terrible occurred there while he was gone. The new paint on the walls and the new mattress on the bed can't cover up the fact that someone was murdered. Cal then becomes obsessed with finding out more about the dead young woman. His relationships suffer, and his grades fall as he finds himself thinking day and night about the woman and the person responsible for taking her life. Could this be related to the stigmata that Cal has suffered at various times in his life? Incredibly, on the day he storms out of Professors Yok's class, Cal swirls closer and closer to finding out the gruesome truth about this murder as well as about the people closest to him.
Piccirilli writes with a subtlety that is quite refreshing in the world of in-your-face horror. There are blood, violence and sex in this story, but the imagery is more focused on the reaction of Cal as well as his innermost thoughts rather than shock value. This novel has a surreal, dreamlike quality; all the events are seen through Cal's eyes as interpreted by him, and Cal seems to be losing his grip on reality most of the time. One of my favorite passages is: "Foolishly he listened to the squeaks he made as he dragged his wet fists along the shining metal handrails, leaving behind red trails."
I really liked this story and have no regrets about buying it. This ends up being more of a crime suspense thriller rather than out and out horror, but it is nonetheless very much worth the time to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: mixup?
Review: Did all the 5 star raters read a different book? The ending barely related anything to the rest of the story. There were several other scenes that I truly wonder what the point was, they have no bearing on the rest of the novel. It seems like it was originally three times as long and got edited way too much.
Maybe the definition of horror is different than I see it. This book was strange and confusing, but far from scarry
Rating:
Summary: Eerie, chilling gem
Review: Each time out of the gate Tom Piccirilli turns his talents in a new direction, but he always remains one of the most admirable and innovative authors to be found on the shelves. All of his work creates a unique stew of cross-genre material and intredients. In The Night Class you'll find ghosts, madness, murder, psychic abilities, lost souls, and a great scene with hydrocephalic children pitching to and fro on their backwoods porch. Piccirilli constantly raises the bar on the horror genre and here comes up with another winner (literally...it won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel of the year).
Rating:
Summary: A macabre mixture of horror and mystery
Review: Few writers are as talented as Tom Piccirilli when creating an all-consuming atmosphere of dread. Even the most innocent details can have touches of evil. Here he turns campus life on its head and topples it over, giving us one night in the life of a student who finds that nothing in his academic world has been what it seems. Cal Prentiss returns from the winter break to find that a girl has been murdered in his dorm room. Half-heartedly, he decides to write about his fantasies of her as his senior thesis. Is her ghost, and the spirit of his dead sister, actually haunting Cal or is he simply coming apart as he prepares to enter "the real world"? Another bit of weirdness is tossed in: Cal suffers from stigmata whenever someone on campus dies. And from that single plot element Piccirilli takes us on a frenzied investigation into the heart of university malevolence and student activities of the most bizarre kind. This edition is also signed by the author and artist, which makes it that much more worthwhile.
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