I love Saul but this is one of his weaker moments. The "surprises" this book has in store are so painfully obvious that you might not want to finish it. I would have given it a two, but I went with a three because John Saul is just so damn good at making characters that you can sympathize with and root for. Even if you have the ending figured out, it can still be enjoyable just to see the protagonists fight their battles and and get their revenge.

This was the first book I read from John Saul.I bought this book a million years ago at a yard sale for like 25 cents haha. It was a beat up book but the back had me interested. I swear this had to bought back when Scott and I first got married and that was 19 years ago! I even still have this book.

John Saul is a great horror author. Out of all the books I've read by him I have more than enjoyed. He gives you that creep factor as well in some that out of this world, that would never happen factor. But at the end of the day he will scare you!

These type of books aren't for everyone and I haven't read anything from him in some time. Though I do pick them up and read the backs, I just don't buy them any more. Maybe it's my old age and becoming a mom but since so many involve children it kinda freaks me out some. But if you don't mind that type of stuff then by all means please read his stuff.

A back woods doctor finds the secret of youth in small children taken from the swamp

When I first started reading many years ago John Saul was one of my first authors. During those years I left behind his works and after reading this one I have no idea why. This is a supernatural thriller that takes place in the swamp. There is a cult of children that follow the Dark Man. The Dark Man has ulterior motives for his cult.

I enjoyed this book so much. I liked the setting of the swamp and using children and teenagers as the victims added to the creepiness. I am a sucker for supernatural themes that are explained by science (even though the science is ludicrous) and that is prevalent in this novel. There are several moral themes throughout this book. Examples would be a mother's love for her child or how man is corrupt in their attempts to retain their youth. Everything worked perfectly. I had no problem with any of the characters and the twists and turns kept my interest throughout.

After reading this book I plan to revisit this author more frequently. It is an older novel but it entertained me throughout with its eerie setting and supernatural aspects.

I'm not usually interested in stories that take place in swampy areas, but this book is among my favorites from him. The story is dark and really twisted in that whole big bad corporation doing horrible experiments on people no one will miss.

Predictable, far fetched and thoroughly addictive.... I've read so many John Saul books since the age of 14 that I'm used to his formula, but still keep going back for more. I loved the setting of the swamps - John Saul is definitely up there on my list of guilty pleasures and if you like his style then this is well worth a few evenings of your time.

Dos familias, con hijos adolescentes, habitando en los limites de un ambiente pantanoso; una entidad llamada el Tenebroso, que esta acechando a jóvenes elegidos para un plan muy siniestro, parecía algo bueno pero...

Entretiene a ratos, pero creo que debí haber leído primero la novela mas conocida del autor (Dejad a los niños), tal vez tendría una mejor impresión, quien sabe.

Lo que no me gusto, era que parecía una película de misterio, pero de las del montón, de esas que luego quitas para acabar después cuando no tienes nada que ver, pero que pasado un tiempo ni te acuerdas de que iba. Lo que mas descoloco era leer como los personajes llegaban a resoluciones de cualquier problema pero sin analizar nada, como por tanteo, al punto sin desarrollar nada; digo no pido que me de 20 paginas o mas para desarrollar una solución, pero que al menos tenga sentido el asunto, pues no, ellos tenían una respuesta para todo, parecían adivinanzas o todo muy infantil, un sin sentido.

También, los llamados hijos del pantano, creo que no se aprovecharon bien, había material, para crear con ellos una historia mas creepy, pero no, solo por encima, con algunas acciones relevantes casi al final.

Lo bueno de esto, fue la atmósfera; imaginarme esos ambientes pantanosos, manglares, habitados por caimanes, y otras especies; Cada que la acción se desarrollaba en ese ambiente, se salvaba la historia, de lo mas rescatable.

Tenia material con que hacer algo bueno, pero creo que para mi se quedo en el intento, quizá luego me anime con Dejad a los niños, aver que tal ...

Another good John Saul book

When your 50 years old such as myself you tend to see the same old premises over and over reworded and rewritten many different ways. I was able to genuinely enjoy this book. I will definitely read more John Saul in the future.

This was one of John Saul's earlier works and it showed. Around page 170 I figured out the secrets that the family (I presumed the reader as well) was supposed to discover much later in the story. The premise was okay, but even that didn't hold up because of Mr. Saul's incessent usage of adverbs. The book was peppered with words such as sulkily, mistakenly, cowardly, mischieviously, and hundreds more. So much so that I began to think Mr. Saul was forced to do this in order to reduce the word count. Adverbs ruled the roost in this book, not just during sequences of dialogue, but in most of the narrative portions as well. It became so distracting that I found myself forced to rewrite the work in my head as I went along in order to enjoy the story.

I thought it was a great read. Not over the top hide under the covers scary more of the horror of what some people will do for eternal youth. Sadly I think I know people who'd be willing to do it LOL Very entertaining

Well, i read the romanian version of this book and from now on i will keep my reviews as short and to the point as possible.Darkness is quite a good book if you are into mistery, horror.It kept me in suspense while reading it and i was not bored at all and not quite scared, ,mostly i was surprised by some story developments.Basically you are taken to Villejeune, Florida, where eerie things happen.You have this huge, creepy swamp, with aligators, snakes, insects, an evil presence and a mysterious old lady.This town holds many secrets and you will be surprised by who the bad guy is, or should i say bad guys.The Sheffields and the Andersons are caught up in a maze of lies, fear and darkness.For many years, children have died or disappeared in this city but no one really knows what is happening.Souls are being stolen by this evil presence.I enjoyed this story, and my favourite characters are the 2 teenagers, Michael and Kelly.They are trying to find out what happened to them , why they feel so empty, why the strange sounds of the swamp control their minds, why they are connected in some way.I was really angry at some other characters because betrayal was their middle name and i was waiting for their secrets to be revealed.There were some creepy parts and i really hoped, throughout the story, that someone would see the truth and help the children win their lives back.So, read the book, you won”t regret it.I bought my own copy of this and it won”t be the last John Saul book i buy.Thank you