Imagine waking up in the morning, going outside and the sun hasn’t come out. It’s completely dark, so much so that even at night, there are no stars in the sky. That’s the scenario our characters find themselves in the book Darkness at the Edge of Town by Brian Keene. As if that isn’t horrifying enough, the darkness seems to be almost like a dome over the small town of Walden, WV. There is no electricity, radios only play static, nothing can get in and no one can get out. To test that theory, our narrator Robbie talks several townspeople into going to the place where the darkness seems to end and they form a rope chain of people…several step in, but never return. All that is heard are their terrified screams. But that’s not all that that the darkness can do. From the inky blackness anyone looking in can either be tempted by images of people they love. These false holograms (for lack of a better term), beckon them to join them…just for a hug, or a reunitement of a dead loved one, or perhaps even a divorced spouse. It’s tempting, but those that go for it, are never seen again, however, their pain is heard. Only one man (Dez) seems to know what is going on and his placement of salt and graffitied runes are the only things that are keeping the darkness out of Walden. The only problem? He’s a homeless man who goes around naked and is mildly unhinged. Can the citizens of Walden place all of their hope on Dez? Is there any hope left to be had?
As the days pass is absolute darkness, the people of Walden begin to devolve. Looting, rape, murder and screams of pain are now common place and the only safe place for our main characters (Robbie, his girlfriend Christy, Russ and their other neighbor whose name escapes me) is behind the doors of their apartment. But even there, they’re not entirely safe. They can feel the darkness pressing into their brains. The slightest bit of anger if not fought, causes one to lash out murderously. They do attempt to fight these impulses by remaining separate from one another. Each day brings more desperation and more isolation. But Robbie proposes one last ditch effort…but will it end as his first plan did, in death and misery? Guess you’ll just have to read it and find out (I feel like I’m on Reading Rainbow when I write dumb lines like that…also, I LOVED Reading Rainbow so it makes sense).
The book was recommended to “me” by my good “friend” Stephen King. Actually, Book Bub sent me an email and it said, “See Stephen King’s top 15 recommendations for the summer”. Being a fan of King, I checked it out and wrote down a handful of his suggestions that I’m currently plowing through. Fun fact, he recommended Big Little Lies too, so he obviously must be a fan of CBR and all of our glowing reviews! Give yourselves a pat on the back kids, we got through to him. Ahem, back to the review. I believe that the book was inspired by King’s The Mist. In fact there’s a tongue in cheek line where one of the townspeople said, “This is kind of like that book The Mist!” and our main character seems to turn to us and wink when he says, “Yeah, that’s where I got the idea to do this (in reference to the rope into the darkness plan but I think also in reference to the book as a whole). The book is bleak, kind of like if the people from the The Road ended up trapped Under the Dome. I didn’t particularly love the explanation for the darkness but I was glad that there was one and I thought that the ending didn’t do the rest of the book justice. It wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t a great book. Also this is petty, but the book cover?? That’s just sad. I expect the next one to be better Uncle Stephen! Next up from his recommendations–The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood.
