Customer Reviews

Dark Woods

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I often like to remember each week of my life by the book I was reading, it's a small habit I have that brings a smile to my face and helps the gray cells from shrinking. This week was truly good in the wild world between pages of a book that almost made me smell the earth, hear leaves flapping in the wind and the concentration and precision that made the main hero such an incredible character pushed through my veins and made me hold my breath on more than one occasion.

Dark Woods is an exquisite surprise, the world of hunting never interested me, a person who would never wear fur and who detest any type of animal abuse but I found myself lost and mesmerized by Mr. Kumar's polished language. The book was not only a real pleasure to read because it was so smooth, intense and woven with light and sound that leaped of the pages but it contained just a small handful of characters who stood out and who were truly memorable. Frank Vaughn is a Deputy Sheriff and a hunter who seems to have spotted a trail that left a dead body and a ripped apart animal that point to non other than a Sasquatch, that's Big Foot for those not familiar with furry monsters. He often goes hunting which is well depicted with great respect to the animals and with clear intentions of not wasting anything away. While on his hunting trip his friend Boone gets wounded and ends up in the hospital while Geek, I swear not everyone had funny names, helps Vaughn take their friend to safety but refuses to go back and make sure the animal is not staggering wounded and in pain in the dark woods. The also find a body of a local poacher who suffered a terrible death by the same dark creature that they caught a glimpse of. Pretty soon the word gets out and Vaughn is joined by a science professor Art Lansing and a few other characters, some with genuine intensions and some not so spotless. Some people in the group seemed to have an idea about how expandable the over populated human society is and would stop at nothing in the pursuit of the beast.

Mr. Kumar does an excellent job of writing about the Skookum County, Washinton's rugged mountainous terrain and the dark, the cold and lonely hunt that Vaughn and the others perused. The tale is truly addictive, I felt every breath held, every calculated step, the babbling of the cold brook, the serene air and grace of nature and the tiny powers of the human against its wrath. Everything was very tantalizing until the crew noticed something, the hunting slowly turned tables and they were no longer hunting, they were becoming the hunted and the terror was more than real, it was hair rising and quite fabulous to read about. For those who have been in the woods alone like a needle in haystack this book can reenact some of that eerie yet calm feeling. It was a really great experience since woods are nothing foreign to me and it reminded me of the tranquil days I spent, not chased by a colossal creature thank god but in the presence of nature.

This tale is about something that is greater than we can comprehend and perhaps it is real, running in the wild out there somewhere. Perhaps it's the world's smartest creature because it has never been caught and experimented on in the lab, free to me be king of its own dense domain of silent servants that the trees so willingly became. So read Dark Woods and find out for yourself what elegant and thoughtful writing is about, and this book will surprise on many levels that are beyond a creature story but a tale that deals with environmental issues and how politics can corrupt pretty much everything to appear the way the heavy movers want us to see, whether its an UFO, Yeti or the Aliens.

- Kasia S.

I came to the book expecting more of a horror novel, based on the cover art and the jacket blurbs/description. What I got instead was a book that takes the bigfoot/sasquatch legend seriously, assuming that such creatures must exist, given all the evidence which has accumulated over time, as well as an ongoing argument about the effect of the Endangered Species Act, should it ever be proven that such a creature does in fact exist. There are powerful forces out there whose interests would not be served by such proof. Even though the focus isn't so much on the horror, this is still a fast-moving and scary book, which is very atmospheric, with great descriptions of the settings and locales. Although the book does at times threaten to become more of a lecture (hunting is good, the government is bad), it is still a very entertaining and thought-provoking novel, and a real page-turner, too.

I read this book within two days, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a novel about a hunt for a Sasquatch in fictional Skookum County, Washington (which is based on Skamania County, Washington). A hunting party apparently finds a dead deer and a dead body, one member shoots a Sasquatch, which gets angry and attacks one of the party members. Deputy Sheriff Frank Vaughn is the man who shot the Sasquatch, and the team rushes the wounded man to the hospital. Vaugh returns to the area along with an employee of Carolina Pacific, Chris Mackey, to try to humanely put the Sasquatch out of its misery. Along the way, they meet a University professor, Arthur Lansing (who is modeled after the late Grover Krantz) and a member of the national Fish and Wildlife Commission, Alison Lombard, who is sent by her aunt, Brenda Underwood, a bigwig in the Fish and Wildlife Commission, to "keep an eye on things." As the party tracks down the Sasquatch, finding more footprints and hearing eerie howls, it becomes clear that they are the hunted rather than the hunters. I won't spoil the book for you, but it comes to an exciting and satisfying conclusion. A very highly-recommended book even for those who are not into Sasquatch.

I knew nothing about hunting, the outdoors or environmental issues beyond the soundbites, and any sasquatch knowledge is from 20 year old bad tv. This book was a great read, very entertaining and intelligent. Kumar weaves a old fashioned suspense storyline with thought-provoking points of view on the environment and even political gamesmanship. He avoids any gratuitous gore and instead tells an entertaining story that keeps you guessing. Nicely done!

This is a tale that goes well beyond the immediate subject matter. Kumar uses a bi-pedal ape as the vehicle to express an interesting view on hunting, the Endangered Species Act, and the economic and social ramifications of the political "gaming" of these federal laws on both sides of the table. He easily could have used a Manatee or Snail Darter, less compelling but also good examples of how regulations play out in the real world. All in all this book works at many levels. It makes you think about these environmental regulations in a new way, absent finger pointing. Kumar just gives the facts from both sides, wrapped up in an entertaining story that is a real page turner. Not the usual kind of book that I read, but I'm glad that it was recommended to me. A top notch story for a first effort. When can we get more from him?

An interesting thriller-adventure revolved around Bigfoot, this made for a fast and fun summer read. The plot's main framework - a deputy felt obliged to finish his kill - felt rather thinly constructed, and the government-corporation-conspiracy angle never seemed plausible. The characters acted woodenly, and overall seemed devoid of any common sense and rationality. A thriller may not be the best place to find dynamic, well-rounded characters, but usually even genre fiction is peopled with more than stock characters and display at least glimpses of actual humanity. Honestly, the best and most believable P.O.V of the book was Bigfoot's.
And that foundation was the highpoint of the book - without the interspersion of "real" accounts and research, this book would have fallen completely flat. But those stories that were included were fascinating and thought-provoking. The book would have been better served to perhaps fictionalize one of those historical accounts and not try to incorporate a paranoid, political agenda. Overall, an interesting premise, but its poor execution overshadowed its high points.

What an excellent first novel! It has all the ingredients to get its readers hooked. And contrary to what a previous reviewer wrote, it does use the Jaws formula but does expand upon it. If you read Jaws you have politics, a creature threatening the economy and a rocky relationship between the main character and their spouse. Kumar has all three here but bumps it up several notches.

I recommend it to anyone who likes intrigue and suspense. By the way, one of the last few books I have read was Capote's In Cold Blood. I enjoyed this book more then Capote's "Masterpiece".

Please Mr. Kumar, write more!

The motion picture rights to this book won't last long, if they aren't already sold.
A great read, wonderfully written and surprisingly unconventional, especially considering the genre. A suspenseful thriller that is obviously much deeper and with more purpose than the usual fare. Don't gloss over this title or cover just because you THINK you already know what the book is about. Give it a try and it will entertain, teach, and raise questions in your own mind at the same time.

Something for everyone -- this book puts you in the woods in the middle of detective story where happenings in the halls of Congress loom as large as the things in the woods. Well-woven story that's hard to put down.

Had Jay Kumar approached his novel from a strong angle of horror and blended it with his skillful mix of hunter outdoorsmanship and well-researched Bigfoot lore, he would have had a runaway bestseller with DARK WOODS. The setting and story-line literally beg to be made frightening by their very virtue.

Frank Vaughn kicks off events while out hunting with two buddies, when he shoots a Sasquatch, thinking it an attacking bear. Understandably, Vaughn does not force his shaken friends to pursue the injured beast and finish it off or make sure it can survive. Driven by a strong hunter's ethic, Vaughn returns to the forest to do the right thing. Unfortunately for him, a lid cannot be kept on a story of Bigfoot proportions, especially in a wilderness county of Washington State. As a result, he is quickly joined by Mackey, a representative from the lumber company that owns the land where the shooting occurred; Dr Lansing, a Bigfoot expert whose career has stalled as a result of his devotion to the mythic creature; and Alison, a Fish & Wildlife officer representing her aunt, a high-ranking official with the Department of the Interior, calling shots from Washington, DC.

Kumar wisely departs from the JAWS paradigm, so often copied and so seldom matched, by exploring the consequences of discovering a previously undiscovered bipedal primate roaming the Pacific northwest, given the current use of the Endangered Species Act. Consequences that could result in virtual economic devastation should the timber industry be shut down by environmentalists in the name of preservation.

All of this and the hopes of Lansing hinge on one thing: Killing a Bigfoot to prove to the skeptical world that the creature exists.

There is a lot of debate between the characters about these issues and whether environmentalists really know what they are doing when they hijack the law to "save" and insignificant creature and make thousands of acres unusable.

And sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. If not for the shadowy image of a Sasquatch in the upper right-hand corner, I'd have never picked this novel up. It is a respectful treatment of the Bigfoot legend. If it had been given a horror slant, this book would have been out of sight and a bestseller.

Bravo. I've waited my whole life to read a book like this.