Darkness Rising
Brian Moreland
Samhain Publishing
September 1, 2015
Reviewed by Tim Potter
The latest release from the prolific and talented horror author Brian Moreland, Darkness Rising is a compelling novella. It deals with complex themes like the power of the written word, expressions of darkness in art and trying to break away from one’s own past. The story has an incredibly high body count that is balanced out by poetry and a tender love story.
After a brutal opening scene, in which three animal mask-clad killers dispatch two people on the shores of a deserted lake, the author introduces the book’s hero Marty Weaver. A janitor at St. Germaine College in the Pacific Northwest, Marty tries to juggle work, a girl he’s crazy about, his poetry and a horrific past while longing for love and the chance to attend St. Germaine himself. The romance between Marty and Jennifer, a student he helps with Shakespeare and poetry homework, is well realized and full of youthful longing.
Using poetry as his emotional outlet, Marty regularly visits a local lake at night and reads his work to the water. After an eventful meeting with Jennifer, Marty heads out to the lake, where he is overheard reading by a trio of sadistic killers. The violence begins not against Marty’s person, but against his most prized possession: his journal. It was a gift given to him by his long ago murdered mother and the rage and sorrow he feels at its destruction is palpable. Marty’s pain becomes the reader’s pain as he embarks on a mission of vengeance.
Marty becomes a young man held together by his poetry and the love and other emotion therein. Maybe even literally. What follows is a tale of revenge, redemption, love and facing the demons of the past. Is what Marty experiences something fantastic and supernatural, as it would seem, or is it something more real and more terrifying? Could Marty be following in the footsteps of his father, a man whose depravity went beyond the pale?
Darkness Rising is not just an entertaining exercise in extreme horror. It’s a great character study and, if the reader is interested in finding it, a meditation on the nature and power of art. Either way it is a great read that’s well worth the price of admission.
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This sounds like my kind of book. I cant wait to get my hands on it and start reading.