Customer Reviews

Darkness on the Edge of Town

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Walden is your average small town. That is, until residents awoke to complete and total darkness, darkness that only covered the town itself. People who attempt to leave do not return and are presumed dead. Once they enter the darkness they fall victims to whatever evil is residing inside. The narrator of the book is Robbie, a pizza delivery guy, who is detailing everything in a journal which may serve as the only witness of what occurs in Walden. The other key characters are Robbie's girlfriend and a few of his neighbors. Dez, a rambling homeless man, plays an integral role in the novel. He seems to be the only citizen able to explain the darkness, and it's source. Unfortunately, Dez is known to be a bit "eccentric", so his knowledge of the Darkness almost implicates his involvement in the catastrophe. The Darkness itself is also a very active character within the story. It overtakes the people of Walden. It tricks them by manifesting into their loved ones, calling them into the darkness.

People have compared it to King's The Mist, and while I thought that too in the beginning, the overall theme is completely different. Keene does an outstanding job of portraying what happens to people when catastrophe hits. And in typical Keene style, he leaves you guessing at the end. Highly recommended, especially to existing Keene fans.

This is the second book by Brian Keene that I have read so far this year. "Darkness on the Edge of Town" finds Keene back in the more traditional horror genre where he has made his name. It's a place where he's more comfortable, and a place that will feel more familiar to his long time readers.

If you read my earlier review of "Terminal" you know that it wasn't a happy book. I would have to say that this isn't a happy book either - and it's proud of that fact. So what is the story, you ask? "Darkness on the Edge of Town" tells the tale of Walden, Virginia. They awaken one morning to find the entire town cloaked in darkness. There is no power, no phone service, no television - nothing. There also appears to be a barrier at the edge of town that cuts it off from everything that surrounds it. No one knows why the Darkness is there, what caused it, or when it will dissipate. It soon becomes clear that there is no escape, and the town starts to dissolve into chaos as the Darkness takes it's toll.

I really enjoyed this book. It's a great addition to the Keene library, and does a lot to expand upon the underlying "Keene-verse", the Thirteen, and the Labyrinth. Long time fans will find a good bit of meat added to the underlying Labyrinth story, and a few potentially major things are teased for, what I presume, will be future stories. If you like horror novels, if you like the idea of a wide tapestry woven throughout an author's own universe, and you like just a good fun read - check out Brian Keene. You won't be disappointed.

**Could be some very very very very minor spoilers**

I've always loved Keene books, and I've always looked forward to his books. I'm sorry to report that Darkness on the Edge of Town is a rare miss or Keene.

The plot is pretty simple. There is a darkness that seems to be on just the edge of the a town, hence the name. The people in the town, can't cross it, and they heard the screams of the people that have tried. However, something is in the darkness that's watching the town, watching and waiting for the right moment to strike.

I had several problems with this book. The biggest problem I had is that, well, nothing happens. Nothing to much, just one or two things, and that's it. The darkness can take the form of others that the people know. Could be a family member, or someone you know, just to lure you into the darkness. I really meant what I said, nothing happens. It was a dull read.

The characters are just okay. The main character is named Robbie and he's keeping a journal on what is happening. Most of the characters were so flat and had no depth to them. I just liked one, Dez, who was the local homeless crazy guy, but he knew what the "Darkness" was. What he said about the Darkness and where it came from was pretty interesting. Now, did he really know, or was it just the ramblings of a crazy man. Either way, he was the only character that had any depth.

The writing style left a lot to be desired. There was no plot twists, nothing to really keep the reader hooked. I just finished it to see what would happen, and nothing does. Not a thing. When I read Keene, I do expect horror, and we didn't even get a lot of that. I guess Keene wanted to show the "horror" of what man can do to man when darkness takes over your soul. I guess he did that, but that's not what I expected.

Some have said that he ripped off Stephen King's The Mist, okay maybe. I feel he also ripped off Harry Potter. The Darkness was called, "He who shall not be named" and the Darkness fed of the misery of others. If that's not talking about Voldermort and the Dementors, then I don't know what is.

For me, this book was a major let down. This was a very rare miss for Keene. I hope his next book is up to his usual standards.

Hell has come to Earth. Actually, Hell has come to Walden, Virginia in particular. It may have come to the rest of the world, but nobody knows because Hell has come in the guise of eternal darkness. The first thing that the people in Keene's novel do, is what people everywhere would do. Some panic, some go into denial, and some kick back and wait and see what is going to happen, and hope for the best. With the darkness comes the death of all electricity as the darkness takes the shape of a vaporic wall that has either cut off all power to Walden, or the world really is gone, and if so, so are all the power plants.

Now, people can pass through this darkness, in which case these people die, and die horribly from the sounds of the screaming, or you can stay put. Those that go into denial, get ready for work and drive into the darkness and die; those that panic, pack it all in and flee the town, into the darkness, and die. Those that take the wait and see attitude will also mostly die, but it will just take a longer and be more painful. The darkness also has the ability to reach out and infect Walden's populace, and cause them to do truly dark deeds. And people will die. Odd, death and dying seem to be a reoccurring theme here.

The novel's storyline takes place around pizza deliveryman Robbie Higgins, as he attempts to survive what is happening with his live-in girlfriend Christie, his upstairs neighbor Russ, and his downstairs neighbor, aging hippy Cranston. Also of interest is T and his whiteboy, gang wannabes, and Dez, a homeless, brain damaged man who seems to have all the answers. Although in the end he does precious little with any of them.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Walden, with the help of the darkness which is seeping into people's minds, is quickly lapsing into savagery. Keene does his best to end the world again, as he has done is so many of his other novels, but somehow this time this novel has several problems that are difficult to overcome. The first is that according to form, and according to the formula as set down by Steven King, Keene once again gives us a novel with a crappy ending. I'm not giving anything away as Robbie tells us that all will die, probably, within the first half dozen pages, as he is writing down what has happened after the fact. This leads to the second major problem that this novel has. It is all told from Robbie's viewpoint. This means that while all kinds of things are happening in Walden, Robbie, and us, only learn of them, or some of them, through some second or third person who reports what they have seen to Robbie. Most of what is happening in Walden though is only heard through the screams in the night, or through wreckage that is seen on the streets afterwards. Keene does way too much telling instead of showing. By writing "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" this way Keene almost guarantees that most of the characters will forever remain distant from the reader.

On the other hand, Keene seems to trying to create a complex multiverse, as the Sons Of Liberty from "Castaways" are referenced, and, I think, the events from "Ghost Walk"/"Dark Hollow" are also referenced, by Dez, who may have been involved these two novels under a different name, and since the novel "Urban Gothic" also referenced the events in "Ghost Walk"/"Dark Hollow", I guess that novel is also involved in that mythology. And yet despite the attempt at some serious myth building here, little of interest happens in this novel. This is because Keene's sloppy and arbitrary plotting keeps getting in the way of him telling his stories, and you can see this in that we NEVER find out just how this disaster started. We never find out, it JUST happens. And the ending, well, the ending is very similar to several of Keene's novels in that there is no real ending here, just a form of segueway to the next possible novel in the series, even if there is never going to be a sequel. And I'm getting sick and tired of Keene's inability to actually know how to end his novels. Too many of them just seem to de-rez into textual static. He's done enough writing now to know how to get it together and know how to end his novels.

"Darkness On The Edge Of Town"'s plot is hardly original, as it reads like a combination of the "Outer Limits" episode 'Feasibility Study' and the "Twilight Zone" episode 'The Monsters On Maple Street' as filtered through Lord of the Flies. Considering the thinness of the plot, the sloppy plotting, weak characterization and Keene's inability to know how to really start and stop his novels, this could have made still made a nifty hundred page novella, but at two hundred and sixty-four pages this novel is just too long for what it is.

For this site I have reviewed:

Castaways (Leisure Fiction)
Urban Gothic

Darkness on the Edge of Town takes place in Walden, West Virginia. Everyone wakes up one morning to find the town surrounded by utter darkness. Anyone crossing the town limits is sucked up and killed by the darkness, and anyone that even gets near it is taunted with their worst fears or the voices and images of dead loved ones. I seem to remember Keene mentioning comparisons to Stephen King's Under the Dome, and I can see why those comparisons exist, but in my opinion, Darkness is what Under the Dome could have been; a short, brutal story that starts out bad, gets worse and ends on a fairly bleak note. Of course, Darkness ties into Keene's Labyrinth mythos, and the homeless magus, Dez, is an intriguing character that I'd love to see again. Given Keene's predilection for telling Labyrinth stories that take place in multiple worlds, this is possible.

I have never read anything by this author before, I did find the book to be interesting. It kept me coming back for more and I didn't want to put it down. That being said, there were things I had to overlook throughout the book that really bothered me a lot. In a place that is supposed to be engulfed in complete darkness, there sure were a lot of contradictions. The author mentioned how dark it was, but would also mention the characters being "in the shadow" or would describe what the people saw around them or what another person's facial expression was. This took place even when the characters weren't using lights, or only had a flashlight or candle. The concepts of light and darkness and how they would really work seemed to be lost on the author, at the convenience of being able to tell a story. If there were complete darkness, it would be unlike anything we've ever experienced. There would be nothing to allow us to even have a shadow, we wouldn't be able to see in front of our face. There would be a lot of limitations and very few lights being used by everyone wouldn't provide the kind of light we're used to. Also, he mentioned throughout the book that there hadn't been a breeze at all. When he was talking to the truck driver, he mentions the cold breeze. It wasn't said like it was a breeze coming from the truck, why would there be a breeze that one time only? I know it's a work of fiction, but inconsistencies and contradictions bother me a lot. I also noticed a place with the wrong form of "your" which is a pet peeve of mine. I also would have liked more substance to the characters. I was surprised to learn that the author has other works. While reading it, I assumed it was a new author. No offense to him, I may read some of his other works, perhaps I'll have a better opinion of those.

I was really looking forward to this book but ultimately it was a let down. Although I liked the premise of the story, I just thought so much more could have been done with it. Part of the problem was that I didn't really like the characters all that much and felt no sympathy towards them. Also, given the situation, there were too many details that were overlooked. The story takes place over a period of several weeks. These people must have had a lot of batteries and candles with them, and the water in the toilet bowl that is mentioned lasted an awfully long time. For an end-of-the-world type novel, there should have been more focus on what these people needed to do to survive. Instead, they spend a lot of time getting or wanting to get high.

As for the Darkness itself, several other reviewers have mentioned that it is part of a larger mythos by Keene, the ideas and concepts of which are featured in some of his other books. That's all fine and dandy, but when the character Dez tries to explain what the Darkness is, there's no mention of how or why he knows it, or even who he ultimately is. Was he a character from another book?

What should have been a really good book seemed more like a missed opportunity.

Brian Keene came up with a great idea, a twist on the Dome stories prevalent right now (Under the Dome by Stephen King and the Gone series by Grant). However, he didn't have enough follow through to satisfy the reader. I was completely captured initially and my interest was held until halfway through the book, while his main character wrote in a journal about the horrific events in the small town of Walden after the residents were trapped within by a mysterious,evil darkness. After he established the horrors of entrapment and the debasement of humanity with no controls and a fight for survival, he didn't know where to take the story. It became repetitive and the ending was ultimately very dissatisfying. Even after the story became boring, I continued to read, because I really did want to know how it turned out. To my dismay, I never did find out. Setting up for a sequel or didn't know how to end?

That's it. Just "eh". This story just sort of fell flat with me. I keep finding that I enjoy much of his storytelling until he brings in the 'darkside' and black magic and such. I don't really find this creepy, and "creepy" is what I'm really looking for in a horror book.

And I'm getting tired of the hopeless tone of Keene's stories. They are dark and bleak and I'm left with little hope when the story is over. That's not what I like. I love a happy ending. An ending of possibilities and good things. An ending with a solid closing (I hate when they leave them open-ended. I don't want to imagine how the story might have ended. I like to be told how it did end.)

So this was one of those stories which started out developing all nice and fat, and then just deflated disappointingly for me.

This is the first fiction I have read by Brian Keene, but I can say that Mr. Keene has a brand new fan. Darkness on the Edge of Town is a 264 page brutal study of a small American town in the the twenty-first century that becomes surrounded by a supernatural darkness and consumed by the darkness that already resided within.

Being told from the first person perspective allows the story to remain mysterious, immediate and brutal. I particularly liked the fact that the novel succeeds in creating a reality that speaks to the experience of people of Generation X and younger. We no longer know our neighbors, we no longer enjoy a sense of community, however claustrophobic an experience that was for the baby boom generation and those of earlier generations. In this way, Keene's story is a bit more persuasive in its horror than such works as Under the Dome, that are still inevitably told from the narrative perspective of those who experienced a different America.

I did not want to like this book, as it is visceral, haunting, and deeply explored the edge of madness we all skirt at times. I did like this book, however, and for anyone who is sick of torture porn or stories where evil is so easily categorized and made mundane by Vampire detectives and the like, you will here find a story that will not fail to tickle your terror bone.

The book, in its veiled references and the characters' mad hypothesizing, alludes to a lot of historical horror, it also hints at the terror of existing in the black prison of a gnostic universe. I will read more of Keene's work, intrigued to see if he explores this vision in the rest of his body of work.

I will rate this book five stars out of five. I do this because I kept reading, despite the despair and terror I experienced. It is an apocalyptic vision that I will not soon forget. Now, I will wait for the sun to come out of the late winter sky and savor every last bit of its light.