Customer Reviews

The Dark Room

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Julia Cameron wants this book to be made into a screenplay so bad!! I can even see Bruce Willis in the leading role. Actually, it reads more like a screenplay that's been turned into a book.

This novel has every Hollywood-detective cliche: Irish cop in Chicago with marital problems; beautiful and sexy doctor who's also a suspect (and whom cop can't keep his mind off of); a suspicious partner who the cop hates; a sordid sex/Satanic cult that is linked to the cop and everyone he knows. And when the cult goes after the cops son (like you knew they would), things get really personal!

Another thing that bothered me: everyone, I mean everyone, knows everyone in this story and everything about them. From the doctor on the top of the social ladder to the scum at the bottom, they all know each other intimately. In a city the size of Chicago I find that hard to believe!

I bought this book because Cameron's The Artist's Way changed my life majorly for the better--but I hope she sticks with non-fiction. I'm so disappointed--the effort in this one seems obvious. The word choice is repetitious--and half way through I found I didn't really care who the villain was. Maybe a super editor could have tightened it up a lot -- but that didn't happen.

I don't know the author's nonfiction, but this book is laughable, in places reading more like a parody of New Age attitudes than a thriller.

First, the cliches just pile up. Tough-but-sensitive hero, tough-and-traumatized blonde "suspect", molested little son, the absurd "lookalike" plot device, the trendy cult/kiddie porn stuff. Then everybody is mysteriously connected with everything and everybody else - very small town, Chicago. The hero sleepwalks through this scenario, agonizing, studying his own inner life, depending on visions, hunches and mumbo-jumbo and usually doing nothing - this would be a much shorter book if he just did his job. The author's idea of police work is as hilarious as her "masculine" writing. And there is something quite unpleasant about those long, frequent, detailed, oh-so outraged descriptions of porn and kinkyness.

I am a great fan of mystery novels and I'm always eager to read a first novel and (hopefully) discover someone I'll read again. Unfortunately, I found this book essentially unreadable. The language is stilted and the opening pages were so unconvincing that I threw the book away after trying about 25 pages. I can't believe that other Amazon reviewers really found it interesting.

Julia Cameron, best selling author of "The Artist's Way" and "The Vein of Gold" has written a killer first novel entitled "The Dark Room," a cop-thriller that's guaranteed to shriek from your desk at three a.m. screaming "read me, read me!" And guess what? You won't go back to sleep. You'll simply have to crack it open to see what Chicago homicide detective Elliot Mayo does next as he follows a serial killer's trail that drags him through the labyrinthian underbelly of child pornography, Satanism and murderously unimaginable sex crimes. Cameron lights the first stick of dynamite with the murder of Jack Nesbitt. Before his death, Nesbitt was known in upscale circles as a great photographer and a real artist. On the street he was known as "The Hose" because everybody knew he had a long reach and could turn you onto anything and everything: orgies,three ways, sex shows, bondage, snuff films and more. As Detective Mayo wades through this sewer, his twenty year plus cool-cop exterior begins to dissolve as he faces his unresolved past, confronts the ramifications of his own son Zachary's brutal sexual assault and deals with a steamy attraction to his prime suspect, the gorgeous Doctor Violet Winters, a pediatrician by day and a nasty mouth, leather tight cowgirl by night. Cameron, true to her belief that good wins in the end, makes sure that Mayo's dilemma does not crucify him. Faced with these revolting crimes and with the help of Father Bremner, Mayo draws on a spiritual faith he'd long ago discarded in favor of his pistol, his bullet proof vest, his brains and his badge. Cameron shows us that even in the darkest room in the darkest cellar redemption does not take a day off. Mayo's growing faith gives him the strength to push on and in the end to shine the light in the startled eyes of the killer who stays buried almost until the end. Cameron's page turning thriller will indeed keep you up at night and furthermore, it will leave you with no doubt that sex addiction, perversion and pornography are insidious dark diseases that can only be combated if we face them and know they're there. Hats off to Cameron!

Julia Cameron has bitten off a lot in her first novel. It is very much a first try--most notably where she trusts neither herself nor her readers enough and over-indulges didactic explanation, particularly in regard to Jung's concept of the shadow. Had she trusted herself enough to demonstrate it through her character's understanding or us to know about it already there would have been fewer slow-down patches. Her earnestness regarding her subject matter--the reality of horrific child abuse and the fortunate resiliency of the human person (at least some of the time)--kept me at some distance--AND I basically couldn't put the book down, with the result that I'm still in my nightgown as I prepare to get ready for bed.

Quite an interesting read, with much to recommend it. I will definitely read her next novel.

I read this book because of The Artists Way but was very surprised where it led me. I found it hard to put down. This book made me realize my husband's unhealthy fixation with pornography. Through the story and the characters, I came face to face with validation that my husband had major problems he was not facing. And so did I by staying in this marriage. Soon after, I began divorce proceedings. This book gave me clarity to realize my instincts were right about my initial feelingsabout his fixation with porn. It gave me the courage to reclaim my life. And I just thought it was a simple detective story!

OK, I warily approached reading The Dark Room when I got it for Christmas. It was a big, crime story that was well, dark. I trudged through the first chapter...then I COULD NOT PUT THE BOOK DOWN. It is riveting, with no slow spots. I can't remember the last time I read a book that I could not wait to get home to, that I would sneak to read on my lunch hour, that woke me up an hour before work, summoning me to read. Hell, even Morning Pages couldn't do that! I want to send this book to everyone who wants to rediscover the thrill of reading fiction again. I sure did. READ THIS BOOK!

This is the first book that has kept me up all night in ten years... first, because I couldn't stop reading it, and later, because it gave me nightmares. The Dark Room is fabulous... it reminded a non-reader why reading is so fun and I'm eagerly awaiting more novels from Julia. Maybe you recognize Julia Cameron as the author of The Artist's Way... The Dark Room, a different genre, is another inspired work of art from an incredibly diverse and multitalented artist. For everyone who loved The Artist's Way, go and see what Julia is making now!!! Her example as a daring and prolific artist is as inspiring as her books are. For all of the crime novel fans in the world, read it, it's intelligent, scary, suspenseful and riveting. I loved it, go get it!

Julia Cameron surprized me with a powerful and dynamic story about child abuse. God forbid such truths exist! I learned from the book, was constantly intrigued and was amazed as the multiple levels of the story unfolded.