It’s the winter of 1897 in upstate New York, Elspeth Howell is trudging through heavy snow (it’s always snowing in these kind of novels) towards her humble cabin after another elongated midwife journey. She has much needed money in her sock and gifts for her five children and husband in her pack. As she gets to the top of the knoll and looks down at her house, she is immediately alarmed. There is no light in the windows and no smoke coming out of the chimney. She runs down the hill and finds her children Emma, Mary, Amos, Jesse and her husband, Jorah shot to death. What happened and where is her last child, Caleb? She thinks that she hears a mouse noise in the pantry and opens the door, only to be blasted by a shotgun. The mouse turns out to be her son, Caleb. He shot her full of pellets thinking that the three killers with red scarfs came back. He is scared. He does his best trying to clean out her wounds. While she is recovering in a semi-coma, he decides to cremate his siblings in the snow outside the cabin (dad is too heavy to move out of his bed). The blaze is wind swept towards the house. Now his cabin is ablaze with mom in it. Caleb drags his mom out and they take refuge in the barn. I told you that the beginning was interesting, didn’t I? After Elspeth somewhat recovers, Caleb and mom hike through the snow towards Watersbridge in pursuit of the three murderers.
Once in Watersbridge, Elspeth decides to dress as a man. Why? They get a room in The Brick and Feather Hotel where we meet a interesting character, Frank the deskman. Elspeth now goes by her dead husband's name, Jorah. She meets Charles Heather (another good sidebar character), who gets her/him a dangerous job at the ice factory. Meanwhile, Caleb visits a very rough and tumble saloon and whorehouse called The Elm Inn, owned by London White. This saloon reminded me of the T.V. series, Deadwood. London White and Al Swearengen of The Gem Saloon could be twins. Anyway, London hires twelve year old Caleb as his general maintenance man/boy. Caleb figures that if he is to find the three killers, this is the kind of place that they would hang out in. Caleb starts to wonder why none of his siblings look alike, and why would anybody want to kill them? At this point the story bogs down for quite awhile. I mean there was action, but for some unknown reason, it didn’t arouse me. And then the last part of the novel left me discontented. Maybe it’s me, but I know when a ending lights my fire. There are a lot of unfinished themes in this novel besides the ending. For instance, several times in the story, Caleb mentions seeing his father shoot a man dead in the field near his house. But we never find out who the man was and why he was killed. It never develops further. And why did Elspeth do what she did? Does that make any sense? I have to give this novel one of my rare neutral ratings. Sorry, Mr. Scott.
RATING: 3 out of 5 stars
Comment: Lets talk about dark novels, such as the one I just reviewed. I’m not going to talk about Cormac McCarthy’s books, since everybody knows he is my favorite dark writer. But what three novels are considered classically ungodly and evil? Wow, there are a lot out there, so what are my choices? Well here goes; wait, lets make it five:
Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley, goodreads.com says: “Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.”
Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker, amazon.com says: “During a business visit to Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania, a young English solicitor finds himself at the center of a series of horrifying incidents. Jonathan Harker is attacked by three phantom women, observes the Count's transformation from human to bat form, and discovers puncture wounds on his own neck that seem to have been made by teeth. Harker returns home upon his escape from Dracula's grim fortress, but a friend's strange malady — involving sleepwalking, inexplicable blood loss, and mysterious throat wounds — initiates a frantic vampire hunt. The popularity of Bram Stoker's 1897 horror romance is as deathless as any vampire. Its supernatural appeal has spawned a host of film and stage adaptations, and more than a century after its initial publication, it continues to hold readers spellbound.”
Rebecca (1938) by Daphne du Maurier, goodreads.com says: “Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Her future looks bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Max de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding housekeeper, Mrs Danvers…”
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) by Ray Bradbury, goodreads.com says: “A masterpiece of modern Gothic literature, Something Wicked This Way Comes is the memorable story of two boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, and the evil that grips their small Midwestern town with the arrival of a “dark carnival” one Autumn midnight. How these two innocents, both age 13, save the souls of the town (as well as their own), makes for compelling reading on timeless themes. What would you do if your secret wishes could be granted by the mysterious ringmaster Mr. Dark? Bradbury excels in revealing the dark side that exists in us all, teaching us ultimately to celebrate the shadows rather than fear them. In many ways, this is a companion piece to his joyful, nostalgia-drenched Dandelion Wine, in which Bradbury presented us with one perfect summer as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old. In Something Wicked This Way Comes, he deftly explores the fearsome delights of one perfectly terrifying, unforgettable autumn.”
The Shining (1977) by Stephen King, goodreads.com says: “Danny was only five years old but in the words of old Mr Halloran he was a 'shiner', aglow with psychic voltage. When his father became caretaker of the Overlook Hotel his visions grew frighteningly out of control. As winter closed in and blizzards cut them off, the hotel seemed to develop a life of its own. It was meant to be empty, but who was the lady in Room 217, and who were the masked guests going up and down in the elevator? And why did the hedges shaped like animals seem so alive?Somewhere, somehow there was an evil force in the hotel - and that too had begun to shine…”
There are literally hundreds of dark novels available to read from this genre. These are some of my favorites, what are yours?
Picture of actor Jack Nicholson (from the 1980 movie, The Shining) as Jack Torrance uttering his famous line…”Here’s Johnny!”
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