This was a really good book. It had a unique story line, and though if being honest, I guessed the outcome quite early. Still it had me gripped and I wanted to see just how that outcome was reached. I wouldn't exactly call this a scary book, but it is tense and has the makings of a brilliant thriller movie.

My first John Saul book. If I'd read this even 10 years ago, it would be definitely 3 and maybe 4 stars on this review. His atmosphere and plot reminds me of a early '80's Dean Koontz (before corny humor was a staple, but when the scope was less ambitious) - horror explained by science fiction, weird visions, and even down to the combination of hard PG-13 violence combined with soft PG language. In Saul's favor, the villain isn't as black to the hero's white, but compared to Koontz (or King), the prose is less remarkable. The Florida swamp town is a nice setting. Ultimately, the sci-fi reveal had more of the "fi" than "sci" to it. Nice premise, but tremendous levels of disbelief have to be suspended before this is anything other than fantasy. Very flawed, but still creepy and entertaining.

Rating : 2 stars
Recommendation : Nothing terrifying .Can be skipped.
Review: I had picked up a John Saul novel to read after a long time since I had some good memories of the other novels that I had read earlier, particularly "Suffer the Children". I expected it to be a quick read. But alas it turned to be a very excruciating one. The novel did not provide a feeling of a sense of terror or horror that one would expect when one picks up such a novel. Thus I have been disappointed with it overall. The novel lacks the pace for the first half of the novel . Only midway through the novel do things start to uplift up a bit. Thus one will have to have the patience to reach up to this point. It ups the tempo but ultimately collapses into an anticlimax. Thus I am let down with the novel and would recommend others to look elsewhere for some genuine pulse riding horror novels.

I read this several years ago and can't remember much of it ... which tells me it wasn't that interesting a book. Probably an okay read in the early teen years but I didn't care for it much. I think King is a hard man to beat in the horror genre.

This book is unbelievable!!! I saw this at work, ur allowed to borrow books and read them, so i grabbed it...good thing i did! Its about a cult i think, where a man called the dark man takes babies as gifts and pierces them in the chest. its complicated to explain, these children grow up as swamp rats as they are called, and not educated! its very hard to put it down but i do!

This book was sooo good and i finished i tlas tnight..I was right about who the Dark Man is, but im not goin gto spoil it for u all who hasn't read it...but if u have, don't spoil it for others who haven't!! I wish he said who was Kelly's real mother was!!!

I'm glad I read this book now because it's getting close to Halloween. It reminded me of the goosebumps a bit, only because in the beginning you think the Dark Man is a creature or some demon but really it's a guy in a mask. There's nothing in the book that I didn't like, it was good. The way the kids got there souls back I was like whoa! That's gross but I was happy because those guys deserved it. The ending was good there wasn't really any info about what happens after everything like did Kelly go to her real parents or did she stay with her adoptive parents? That's something I really would like to know. But I was really happy with the epilogue, it was sad but also happy.

A sweltering hot and humid Florida swamp full of creepy critters, creepier kids, deadly mysteries, and a black-cloaked puppet master known as the “Dark Man” running shit like a ruthless dictator. Welcome to the world of Darkness, where if the evil cult doesn’t get you, the gators will.

This was my first John Saul book, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. The concept was super cool, and the swamp setting really worked perfectly for this story. There is a lot to love here, and I flew through this book in no time. It’s compulsively readable.

A few minor issues prevented me from handing out the full 5 stars; namely, some loose ends that were never fully explained, and a few classic cases of “why the hell did that character make that insanely idiotic decision?”. Overall, though, Darkness is an effective horror novel with a winning formula. I’ll definitely be reading more of Saul’s work in the future.

Hug your children, and for goodness sake, keep them out of the damn swamp!

I spent most of time reading The Darkness wondering why I still haven’t been able to connect with John Saul’s writing.

It’s perplexing, because I know he’s a Big Name Horror Guy; he sold a bajillion books in the 80s & 90s, & he’s one of those names that horror fans at least know, even if they haven’t read his stuff. But through two books (this one & Suffer the Children, his debut), it just ain’t happening for me.

And it is weird, because there’s a delightfully creepy story in here, dealing with murky Florida swamps & nefarious medical procedures conducted on children & a cabal of men who never seem to age. It’s a little more mystery than horror, but it’s got a striking setting & a plot that seems tailor-made for delivering the frights.

So what’s holding me back?

In a word, style.

Or rather, a lack of one.

There are writers who have an obvious style (Ray Bradbury is Exhibit A). Then there are writers like Vonnegut & Cormac McCarthy & Peter Heller who are minimalist & seem not to have a style, when in fact their non-style is their style (cue that scene from 1992’s Singles where Kyra Sedgwick says to Campbell Scott, “I think that, a) you have an act, & that, b) not having an act is your act”).

But Saul, by contrast, really has no style. His writing is pedestrian. Workmanlike. And sometimes that can be effective. But not here. Reading The Darkness is like watching someone trudge through deep snow, placing one foot laboriously in front of the other. They eventually get where they’re going, but man – the journey is no fun to watch.

To put it simply, there’s nothing about the way Saul wrote this story to convince me it’s worth telling.

I tell my students this all the time: it isn’t the story that matters, it’s how you tell it.

I don’t need bells & whistles. That can be exhausting. But I’d like, at a minimum, a sense that the author is invested in his own tale. The Darkness is all building blocks with no ornamentation.

And as a result, I found it to be a completely passive experience.

My eyes registered the words, I flipped the pages, but 24 hours from now I’ll have forgotten all about it.

I really liked reading John Saul when I was in jr high/high school. The writing isn't the greatest, but they're entertaining. They often involve genetic mutation/disasters (on a small scale) that happen because of people interfering with nature. Think Smallville's episodes involving "meteor freaks" or X-Files.

I would have given this book 3.5 stars if that were an option. It was enjoyable and I will probably read more of his books since it was a fun quick read, but I don't know if I would go as far to recommend it. I felt it was missing something that could have made it better.

Welcome to Villejuene, a small secluded town situated at the edge of a vast, dangerous swamp. The swamp rats – the people of the swamp live a primitive live and have minimal contact with the civilized world. In the swamp there is also the Darkman and his dark rites involving blood and infants. The perfect setting for evil!

The Andersons had left for Atlanta, never to return. However, circumstances force them to come back to Villejuene and they bring with them Kelly, their adopted teenage daughter. Kelly has been haunted by an evil presence and grew up alienated from her loving adoptive parents.

In Villejuene Kelly meets Michael, another adopted kid with no real problems. Wait! He does lose track of time. No points for guessing, Kelly and Michael sort of latch on to each other and discover something evil is happening around them. With the help of some pretty interesting characters they set out to fight the Darkman.

If you seek literary merit, then you don’t need me to tell you that this is not the book for you. This is a decent pulp fiction-ish horror novel with thrills and chills. The author has used the usual tropes of horror fiction to write a fairly entertaining story. What I liked best was his description of the swamp – the eerie place where danger is not only from the Darkman but from nature as well. The writer has managed to create an atmosphere of fear and suspense from the very beginning.

A point of criticism would be that the mystery would be revealed halfway through the novel. As an incorrigible whodunit lover, I would have preferred if the identity of the evildoers or the reason behind the conspiracy had been revealed at the end.

Overall, it is a decent horror novel, not great but still enjoyable if you like evil in small town and eerie swamps.

Every time I try to read a John Saul book, I think, "Why did I bother?" Yet every so often I will pick one up and hope for the best. I need to learn from the past. I couldn't finish this one -- I got about a third of the way through and then just skipped to the end. And I never skip to the end. It was that bad.

You can be a poor to mediocre writer in certain genres: Danielle Steel and Stephenie Meyer immediately come to mind. But in the horror genre, the writing needs to work. It needs to, you know, SCARE you. Creep you out. Create tension.

Not put you to sleep.