Customer Reviews

Darkness Falls

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Seriously, though, it's great to see a horror story come about where creating a frightening story is paramount over a body count.

The story itself, to me at least, seems a bit of a mixture of 'The Blair Witch' and 'Pitch Black'. Also, the main character is not a goody-goody, nor is he the typical bad [guy] anti-hero. Instead, he's just a normal guy who has been tormented for most of his life by images of the Tooth Fairy.

This book was such an easy and captivating read that I finished it one day, and I am eagerly looking forward to seeing it on the big screen.

When young Kyle Walsh loses his last baby tooth, you-know-who comes to retrieve it that night. But this is a very different tooth fairy from the one who came to you and I. The spirit of an innocent woman murdered only because she was different, this tooth fairy is a malevolent specter hell-bent on avenging herself on the town of Darkness Falls by tormenting her killers' children. So instead of leaving Kyle a quarter under his pillow, she leaves him his mother's corpse and the murder rap to go with it.

Twelve years later, Kyle has grown up into a deeply disturbed man, one addicted to anti-psychotics and who always stays in the light...he's tried to put the past behind him, but an urgent phone call from his old girlfriend brings him back to Darkness Falls to face his fears once and for all...

Though Keith R.A. DeCandido's adaptation of the hit thriller doesn't quite match up to the movie in terms of tone, scares, or characterization, it is still a fun, fast book that has its share of high points and definitely makes you want to see the movie. One of the great things about this story is the protagonist, Kyle Walsh, a fully realized and empathetic man of flesh and blood who has lived his whole life in the shadows and struggles to break free. Also, "Darkness Falls" manages to avoid many of the horror genre's typical cliches--though the novelization does succumb to pattern a bit more frequently than the film. Still, a worthwhile read and a great take-off on a beloved fairy tale.

Let me start off the review by saying that I read the book before I saw the movie and in no way did the book make me not want to see the movie. So, I guess that's a good thing. Let me say next that the book is not scary in the least and at times is pourly written. The word choice is pour and some of the events that take place are done to fast and unclearly. But, those are the bad notes of the book; on the good notes, the book was written by an author who has also written a book based on the tv series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer...At times, the book is something well written that very much deserves to be read; it made me want to see the movie even more (.... So, pick up "Darkness Falls", it will at least make you wonder about The Tooth Fairy and "tricks of the light."