Customer Reviews

Darkness Demands

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You know the drill: A knock at your door for a treat and, if you don't comply, it is implied that something unpleasant will happen to you. Well, Simon Clark introduces us to what might be a possible beginning of that most unique of Halloween traditions. John Newton, a British writer of true crimes, finds a letter at his door asking that a "pound of chock latt" be delivered to the "grief stowne" of one Jess Bowen by "Sabbath night". If John does not comply, "Yew will be sorry if yew do not". Well, John doesn't and an accident does befall his young daughter. The "requests" continue - nothing major, mind you - a "pinte of porter", a red ball, etc. John delivers on these occasions and he is rewarded with a couple of new book contracts. But, as you can imagine, things aren't always what they seem. For John and his family are being indoctrinated into a horror that resides in the Necropolis Cemetery next door that has been around since the Norman invasion.

Clark starts out slow but then warms us to the game. John talks to some folks who had relatives the last time these letters started to appear around town some 70 years ago. Specifially, a lady doctor and a old gentleman who is entering the dark tunnel of dementia, but snaps out every now and then, to leave John some clues and to fend off his son-in-law, who is trying to do him in for his money. John realizes the extent of what could happen when he hears of one of his neighbors who suffers a stroke and his scalded by a red hot shower nozzle in a cheap motel.

Clark weaves a tale that, at times, appears to be collected off of the drawing room floor of Stephen King. I mean, a writer is the main character and a child, John's daughter Elizabeth, and the old gentleman ( Stan Price) are, at times, the books most appealing characters. Others, such as John's hot-to-trot wife, Val, are less appealing. And John's 17-year-old son, Paul, is involved with a girl named Miranda, who's sole interest appears to be keeping the condom industry going. In the last quarter of the book, we see what their relationship has to do with the rest of the story. For, you see, it is easy to adhere to the original requests - candy, a pint of lager, a toy - but when the request addresses something much more dear, much more precious, there's the rub. Trick or treat!

Darkness Demands is the kind of horror novel that comes along once in a rare while because its a rather new concept and a very horrifying story. I love horror but most books don't really scare me. This one did. The whole idea of living next to a gigantic cemetery is creepy but mysterious notes popping up on your doorstep telling you to bring candy or beer to the cemetery is odd yet frightening in some weird way. This was good storytelling at its finest. The characters are real and you actually feel involved while reading this. You care about them.

Darkness Demands is not a simple book in the end. It doesn't end the way you want it to and there is no easy answers or solutions but its one heck of a ride.

Darkness Demands is one of the few horror novels that I've read that actually scared me and made me not want to turn off the lights at night once I was done reading. Clark does a great job of developing the setting and the characters. We really do get to care and feel for John and his family, and old man Stan Price. The evils in this novel are not seen or described, only felt. They are open to the reader's imagination.

Just a warning before reading: Don't expect another Blood Crazy. With Blood Crazy, Clark served up an epic, over-the-top, roller-coaster ride of horror violence that was unlike anything I'd ever read before. Darkness Demands is very different. It uses subtleness and old folklore to create an old-fashioned ghost story. No matter your tastes in horror, I highly recommend this book. I will remember Darkness Demands for many years to come.

"Darkness Demands" by British thriller novelist, Simon Clark definitely has "staying power". It's this "staying power" that is one of the criterion that I use to judge an outstanding horror novel. Long after you have read it, "Darkness Demands" will remain in your memory. It's that good!

Life begins to look good for novelist John Newton as he finally starts to make it good as a novelist. Good, that is, until he (along with other members of his town) begin to receive cryptic, almost comical, messages left on their doorsteps asking that candy bars and pints of beer be left in the creepy old cemetary just outside of town. No one seems to know who or why these messages are being left until they begin to talk to some of the town's older residents who let them is on the town's dirty little secret. A secret so perverse that John Newton can't believe it!

Clark does his usual great job creating memorable characters that the reader actually cares about. This book is just as impressive in that area as his earlier works, especially "Nailed By the Heart".

This is a book that has a great "hook" - "creepy local legend that the townsfolk try to survive from generation to generation". Newton and his family are caught in the middle of the legend and he does what he can to try and put an end to it. When the life of his daughter becomes part of the "game" then the book really takes off.

"Darkness Demands" is a great novel that will certainly keep you turning the pages. The suspense builds throughout the book and Clark really turns up the heat on the Newton family as the book progresses. The ending is unexpected, but totally believeable.

If you enjoy a good yarn and are a fan of novelists such as, Owl Goingback, Stephen King or Richard Laymon, then I think you'll enjoy this book. Clark is a very promising talent that should be around for a long, long, time. Maybe long enough to create his own legends!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Clark has done it again. Another dark novel, guaranteed to delight and frighten, to shock and rock. Here he delivers another 5-star classic to frighten parents around the world. Like Nailed through the Heart, a parent's worst nightmare.

Clark has an uncanny knack for getting in our heads and scaring the ... out of us! He also has the knack for taking a cliched premise and turning it into something brand-spanking new. He is a new breed of horror writer and I hope he stays around for a long, long time. Each new novel he writes is an experience in terror, suspense, and good old fashioned creepy thrills. This guy has a nolds-barred attitude when he writes and his love of writing shows on each and every page.

The story revolves around a mystery writer who has letters left near his house that demand things, not asks, but demands. There is a hint if he doesn't comply something bad will happen. And boy is that the understatement of the century. I don't want to give away too much, but this book rocks and deserves some type of award, possibly a Stoker.

Keep 'em coming, Mr Clark!!!

It has taken John Newton a long time to make it as a true crime writer but he finally done it when his last book attained the hardcover bestseller lists. Now, he and his family have moved to the bucolic village of Skelbrooke in the heart of England. John, his wife Val, their teenage son Paul, and their preadolescent daughter Elizabeth have found their dream home and have become a part of the village.

Paradise ends when the first letter arrives demanding that John deliver a candy bar to a particular grave in the nearby cemetery commonly called the Necropolis. John ignores the letter and his daughter is seriously injured. When the second letter arrives, John follows the instructions of the note and realizes other people have received the same memo as well. When the entity that is sending the letters makes his final horrific request, John decides to take his family and flee town if they can.

This is definitely a very scary horror novel that preys on our most primal emotions and fears. While the reader never actually gets to see the entity inspiring terror in Skelbrooke, the author cleverly entices the audience into imagining what it is and what it looks like. That is more terrifying than any description could be. Simon Clark understands the horror genre by terrifying his fans to the point that the electric companies will treat him as a VIP because of all the profits made from adults sleeping with the lights on.

Harriet Klausner

Simon Clark has created a truly monstrous haunted cemetery novel. A true crime writer begins recieving strange notes which request that he leave items (a red ball, a pint of beer) in a giant rundown cemetery next door. At first he resists but bad things start to happen, accidents, coincidences, and he finally gives in. But when you bargain with the Devil you always pay a price. This thriller is true to the classic formula of a small town which hides an ancient evil. The supernatural forces are glimpsed but never fully explained. I strongly recommend this novel for fans of Stephen King or John Saul.

Darkness Demands, by Simon Clark, is one of the best horror books of the year. The book is suspenseful, and contains well-written characters that you come to care about. I read this book in a matter of days, as I couldn't resist the temptation to keep reading to find out how certain situations were going to be resolved. A nice surprise for me was the ending. I expected the ending to go the typical route, and Clark pulled the rug out from under me by going in a completely unexpected direction.

The reason I don't give this book five stars...and it was very close...is for two slight disappointments for me. Despite what I wrote earlier, there two characters who have little, if any depth, and border on being clichés. One, the "bad guy", is written as being so blatantly "evil", that he borders on being cartoonish (his fate at book's end is also a disappointment). His totally oblivious and mousy wife is the other. Second, I'm disappointed that Clark falls to using an overused cliché of the horror genre: The protagonist who, despite every instinct and amount of danger, refuses to tell the spouse what's going on. And here, in this book, doesn't for little more reason than "not wanting to burden her."

But those two quibbles are minor and only slightly took away from the book for me. Horror fans shouldn't pass this one up.

I am not a horror reader, but have been trying different genres to see what's out there. Writing styles, turns of expression, etc. This sounded like a good story, graveyards and all, so I gave it a shot, assuming I'd put it down halfway through, like I do so many books. No way.

This book messed with my head. Movies never scare me. I hate to watch horror. But when you read it... it's in your head then, your mind bending and twisting. I actually had nightmares, which I guess means that the author has done his job.

This author is very good and I want to read more of his work. My daughter wanted something to read, so I handed her this book. She hasn't been the same since... (Not really, but it did shake her a bit.)

Darkness Demands is a tense and compulsively readable little tale of things that go bump in the cemetery. It hews closely to genre conventions, but enjoyably so - a nice old-fashioned creepy gothic by a highly competent wordsmith.

The finest thing in the book is the Necropolis itself, the sprawling Victorian city of the dead from which written demands for this and that emanate to the unfortunate neighbors. Clark's writing is really at its finest in his descriptions of this uncanny location, and the Necropolis is more vividly characterized than any of the actual people in the book (Clark's characters are serviceable but not memorable). I really enjoyed prowling the cemetery's weedy byways and abandoned rail station, and it's here that the story is most original and unnerving.

A few things undermine Darkness Demands - for one, the aftermath of a small child's murder is described in profoundly nasty detail. This occurs as part of a minor subplot and does nothing to advance the plot or the atmosphere of this otherwise restrained and elegant novel, which generally doesn't rely on the gratuitous gross-out to achieve its effects. I might be oversensitive as the parent of a small child myself, but I just didn't need to know which body parts were found in the little boy's potty.

More importantly, the ending is, as other reviewers have noticed, unsatisfying. Rather than the epic confrontation between fear and courage, selfishness and altruism, the greater good and the individual, the human and ... gulp! ... the inhuman that the book has been promising us all along, we get a wet little fart of a conclusion. Not only is this disappointing, but it means that the book ditches any of the bigger themes it flirts with in favor of a "Ooh, look, full circle to the opening paragraphs" cutesy wrap-up.

In all conscience I can't award the book a full five stars, but lovers of spectral horror will still find Darkness Demands a pleasantly uneasy read.