This was a very entertaining book. I found myself being able to guess the outcome way before it was revealed so I wasn't that surprised at the ending when it was explained. The only part I didn't like were the last few chapters. I felt it over-explained what I had already concluded. But other than that the book was really good.

This is the first book I read by John Saul and I loved it. I had it finished the day after I started it. I love books that can make me visualize everything going on and this one did that for me. I'll probably read this one again someday.

I love John Saul books. He is almost as good of a horror author as Stephen King. His writing style is unique and that is what makes him one of my favorite authors. I haven't read a book of his I haven't liked yet, they are all so great. I would reread any of his books anytime but there are too many to go into detail about each one.

I think this was supposed to be scarier than it was. It had potential to be scary with The Dark Man and his family of zombie children, the spooky swamp and its inscrutable inhabitants, and the obvious terror of the characters but somehow it just didn’t hit me. There were parts that were really creepy, especially toward the end, but I wouldn’t say scary. At times it sort of slipped toward corny and that made it lose some of its horror bite. I was also waiting for all the pieces to fall into place and I don’t think they ever really did. I understand there being mystery and magic around the events and I don’t need to know how all the stuff happened. But I do think there are some things that need some explaining so they make sense within the context of the book. One of the main characters is just sort of plopped into this story. She is integral to the plot but where she came from, her connection to everything else, and the motivations for her actions are never explained. It felt like you were coming at the story from two angles but they never quite met in the middle. It was a fast read and there were some interesting ideas and scenes and could be kind of fun in a light, not-too-much-thinking sort of way but this book, my first John Saul, did not leave me in a hurry to read any more.

I read one of John Saul's novel in my teenage years and I liked his writing then. I picked "Darkness" out because I remembered that feeling of a good chilly read and I wanted to be delighted again. But "Darkness" just disappointed me. It was like watching a B movie with lines of over cliched dialogue and predictable course of action. I knew how it would end by the middle of the book. I don't know how his other novels are, maybe they are better written (because the ideas are not bad), but I don't know if I would pick out another book pretty soon.

It was a good book. I got some 3/4 into it before dropping it for lack of interest, but I will likely finish it in time. It was a bit boring for time to time, but it also had some moments that caught me.

Good balance of dark ickyness and satisfying redemption. Great dark swamp atmosphere and sociopathic villains. I think the best thing about this book is how the mystery unfolds so tightly. Nice little read to get lost in for a couple of days.

Never disappoints

John Saul has never disappointed me. I've read many of his novels and have yet to find one deserving or less than four stars. Darkness is a very good read, indeed.

John Saul consistently demonstrates a great style of writing that not only makes his books a smooth read, but captures his readers. My general disappointment in Saul's work is that the endings tend to be too predictable where I feel something more powerful should come out of the climax.

Darkness does not have this problem. That is probably mostly due to this book being a bit less supernatural and somewhat more action-oriented. Most of us won't complain when we find out who the main bad guy is a film and know that there will be some type of final battle. It's what we expect and this book fits into that standard.

This book is definitely a good read, but probably not much of a scare to those of us who read loads of horror.

Tengo que decir que a pesar de que "dejad en paz a los niños" me gustó bastante mas, en esta novela tambien destaca la union que hay entre padres e hijos, relacionado con ciencia ficcion bastante realista y la experimentacion (ya que mirando un poco al futuro nunca he negado dicha posivilidad de que puedan suceder tales cosas). He empatizado con los protagonistas desde el principio, pero sobre todo lo que mas destaco de ellos es la fuerza y la esperanza de creer siempre en las sensaciones de uno mismo. Como punto negativo, creo que el villano se identifica muy pronto, quitandole bastante misterio al trama. Ademas, muchos de los misterios y relaciones de personajes se hacen bastante predictivos, es decir, no sucede grandes giros ni sorpresas en la trama. Respecto al final me ha gustado bastante, aunque algunos temas hayan quedado sin zanjar; como por ejemplo como el villano elabora el proceso de su por llamarlo de una manera "experimento con seres vivos". En resumen, a pesar de que no podría decir que tenga algo innovador ni destacable, es una lectura agradable y atrapante si te gustan las novelas de este tipo de ciencia y thriller con no mucha accion

To begin with, I wanted note that although I rated this book only 2 stars, it was not a terrible story. It had many flaws, but was enjoyable enough for me to finish and not be too terribly bored. The plotline itself was intriguing and the setting of dangerous swamp was depicted well.

These are the issues I had:
1. The writing style was somewhat unsophisticated. Many of the sentences did not flow together well and the language was a little too simple for my personal preferences, which made the book read more like a young adult novel.
2. Shifts between character's points of view were not always apparent. Sometimes I would be thinking that I was still in one character's head, but then get a few paragraphs in and realize the POV had switched to another character. When writing in omniscient POV, I think it's important to make it clear in the first sentence when there is a POV shift. That did not always happen in this book and sometimes the POV would switch without there being any page breaks. It got confusing and forced me to reread certain passages once I discovered whose head I was in now.
3. The plot twists were overly predictable.
4. I assumed this was a horror novel, but there were no scary parts. I think there were certain passages that were meant to be scary, but they were not written with much suspense.

Again, this is not a horrible book, but there are definitely much better works in this genre out there. This one fell flat for me, unfortunately.

This was the first book I ever read by John Saul! Loved, LOVED, this book. My imagination goes all kinds of places and I love to watch TV,I could see this being a real life thing....only in my world
Zombified flesh eating humans...