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The Dark
The Dark by Scott Bradley and Peter Giglio
“An ass-kicking one-night-only L.A. Apocalypse of the soul." -- John Skipp, from his introduction.
Ben Pilot was a TV star, until some bad decisions cost him his career, wife, and child. Now broke and alone, he manages a video store in the shadows of Hollywood. But tonight, the shadows just woke up, crawling across the face of Los Angeles. It’s a sentient Darkness that can shut down your power, tear you to pieces, or peer deep into your soul. If Ben wants to save his family, he will have to move fast, across a blackened nightmare landscape of rampaging death and possession. Where the light is the only safe place to hide...too bad it’s dying fast in THE DARK.
“Bradley & Giglio are one hell of a writing team, and I say read anything they produce. It’s bound to be unique.” –Joe R. Lansdale, author of Edge of Dark Water
“In The Dark, Bradley & Giglio have taken the Los Angeles of Raymond Chandler, updated it with the electric pacing of James Ellroy and the hip, pop culture savvy of Quentin Tarantino, and given it a savage poetry all their own. I loved The Dark. This is the perfect example of why horror matters. And with this book, Bradley & Giglio have cemented their star in horror’s big leagues.” – Joe McKinney, author of Flesh Eaters and Dead City
“An ass-kicking one-night-only L.A. Apocalypse of the soul." -- John Skipp, from his introduction.
Ben Pilot was a TV star, until some bad decisions cost him his career, wife, and child. Now broke and alone, he manages a video store in the shadows of Hollywood. But tonight, the shadows just woke up, crawling across the face of Los Angeles. It’s a sentient Darkness that can shut down your power, tear you to pieces, or peer deep into your soul. If Ben wants to save his family, he will have to move fast, across a blackened nightmare landscape of rampaging death and possession. Where the light is the only safe place to hide...too bad it’s dying fast in THE DARK.
“Bradley & Giglio are one hell of a writing team, and I say read anything they produce. It’s bound to be unique.” –Joe R. Lansdale, author of Edge of Dark Water
“In The Dark, Bradley & Giglio have taken the Los Angeles of Raymond Chandler, updated it with the electric pacing of James Ellroy and the hip, pop culture savvy of Quentin Tarantino, and given it a savage poetry all their own. I loved The Dark. This is the perfect example of why horror matters. And with this book, Bradley & Giglio have cemented their star in horror’s big leagues.” – Joe McKinney, author of Flesh Eaters and Dead City
236 pages, Paperback
First published October 10, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 9, 2015
Scott Bradley, the co-author of The Dark (with Peter Giglio), is not only one of my great friends and an all-around cool guy to know, but he's a damn terrific writer to boot. The Dark is a relentless thrill ride that packs in plenty of action, thrills, gore, frights, and heart. It's more entertaining and caustic than the majority of horror films that get released every year. One of the best page-turners I've read in years.
December 10, 2012
Ben Pilot isn't a police officer. He once played one on TV, but that isn't enough to prepare him for what's going to happen when the sun goes down.
He doesn't act anymore. That's not necessarily a bad thing. He also doesn't drink anymore. That, most definitely, is a good thing. But they're closing down the video store that writes his paychecks these days. And Claire, his ex-wife, is threatening to sever the last tenuous thread of contact he maintains with their 11-year-old daughter Susie. Those are the bad things. The worst things.
Until that night.
The night The Dark comes to life.
THE DARK by Scott Bradley and Peter Giglio is the latest in Ravenous Shadows' line of short novels, which executive editor John Skipp says are specifically engineered to give you the best bang for your buck by cutting out all the boring stuff you'd just skim over anyway. This book, like the four before it, takes that mission seriously. There are no boring parts. There is character introduction. There is a tiny bit of necessary exposition to that end. Then there is some gory death at the tendrils of an unknown enemy, a terrifying chase, and a bloody, brutal battle to stay alive that would have you gnawing the ends of your fingers down well beyond the knuckles if you didn't need them to hold the book in front of your face.
Turns out that The Dark has suddenly discovered that it has its own needs. One of those needs is the extermination of all light. The other is the occupation and consumption of human life.
THE DARK is fast-paced and juicy, visceral in that way any good horror story must be if it is to effectively catch you off-guard and scare you. After all, you go in knowing you're reading a scary story. You go in thinking you are desensitized to whatever's going to occur between those pages. It is the horror author's job to take your arrogance, your comfort with the genre, and use it against you, proving to you chapter after chapter that you haven't read everything--you haven't read ANYthing--yet. THE DARK offers such surprises. More than that, its characters are realistic people. People you might know in real life. People who might live next to you.
It's been theorized that people who become addicted to alcohol early in life remain emotionally child-like throughout adulthood, unable to mature psychologically and to learn to depend on themselves. In Ben Pilot, Bradley and Giglio have created a protagonist who, in quitting his addiction, has essentially become a child again. He's on the wagon, but he's struggling with being a grown-up, a responsible man who earns a living and parents a young daughter. He's learning how to live anew, like any child is required to do.
And what's the first thing about this old world that most children come to fear?
The Dark.
In Bradley and Giglio's world, there's a very good reason for that.
He doesn't act anymore. That's not necessarily a bad thing. He also doesn't drink anymore. That, most definitely, is a good thing. But they're closing down the video store that writes his paychecks these days. And Claire, his ex-wife, is threatening to sever the last tenuous thread of contact he maintains with their 11-year-old daughter Susie. Those are the bad things. The worst things.
Until that night.
The night The Dark comes to life.
THE DARK by Scott Bradley and Peter Giglio is the latest in Ravenous Shadows' line of short novels, which executive editor John Skipp says are specifically engineered to give you the best bang for your buck by cutting out all the boring stuff you'd just skim over anyway. This book, like the four before it, takes that mission seriously. There are no boring parts. There is character introduction. There is a tiny bit of necessary exposition to that end. Then there is some gory death at the tendrils of an unknown enemy, a terrifying chase, and a bloody, brutal battle to stay alive that would have you gnawing the ends of your fingers down well beyond the knuckles if you didn't need them to hold the book in front of your face.
Turns out that The Dark has suddenly discovered that it has its own needs. One of those needs is the extermination of all light. The other is the occupation and consumption of human life.
THE DARK is fast-paced and juicy, visceral in that way any good horror story must be if it is to effectively catch you off-guard and scare you. After all, you go in knowing you're reading a scary story. You go in thinking you are desensitized to whatever's going to occur between those pages. It is the horror author's job to take your arrogance, your comfort with the genre, and use it against you, proving to you chapter after chapter that you haven't read everything--you haven't read ANYthing--yet. THE DARK offers such surprises. More than that, its characters are realistic people. People you might know in real life. People who might live next to you.
It's been theorized that people who become addicted to alcohol early in life remain emotionally child-like throughout adulthood, unable to mature psychologically and to learn to depend on themselves. In Ben Pilot, Bradley and Giglio have created a protagonist who, in quitting his addiction, has essentially become a child again. He's on the wagon, but he's struggling with being a grown-up, a responsible man who earns a living and parents a young daughter. He's learning how to live anew, like any child is required to do.
And what's the first thing about this old world that most children come to fear?
The Dark.
In Bradley and Giglio's world, there's a very good reason for that.
November 25, 2012
Scott Bradley and Pete Giglio have written an awesome book titled THE DARK. This This frightening and exhausting tale has everything that a good book should have: mayhem, horror, things that go bump and snarl in the night, love lost and love found and then the sun comes out, indifference, animosity, friendship, and gun fire, light and dark and a majority of the characters biting it or getting bit then blowing up. I loved this book and feel it has a great chance of being nominated for this year’s Bram Stoker Award. The character development is awesome, you feel like you are there with Ben, Claire and Susie, as they struggle to survive the night when Hollywood goes Holly-weird. This story supersedes zombies and vampires where the walking dead (not zombies though as we know them) have an agenda following the will of THE DARK. The Dark is as much of a character as the protagonists and antagonists of the book. Bradley and Giglio bring to life the feelings of THE TWILIGHT ZONE with a touch of THE OUTER LIMITS. They have brought out the frustration and discontent of a life not well lived for the main character Ben. He has many regrets but soon finds a purpose for which he is willing to lay his life down. Claire is disillusioned and unfulfilled and is exasperated with her current life except for the little girl who provides a light in both Ben’s and Claire’s soul.
I highly recommend this book, because it addresses a fear that nearly all people have, fear of something lurking in the dark and the absence of light. Fear of the dark is usually not fear of the darkness itself, but fear of possible or imagined dangers concealed by the darkness. This book is a nyctophobic’s nightmare and a horror reader’s dream. Read this book at night and you will understand why Stephen King stated that he never sleeps with his arms or legs outside of the sheets at night. King further indicated when asked about his head being outside the covers remarked,” you don’t start with dessert, do you?” Grab this book and be on the ground floor of something amazing. You won’t regret it…but keep a nightlight close. You never know when THE DARK might GET ya.
I highly recommend this book, because it addresses a fear that nearly all people have, fear of something lurking in the dark and the absence of light. Fear of the dark is usually not fear of the darkness itself, but fear of possible or imagined dangers concealed by the darkness. This book is a nyctophobic’s nightmare and a horror reader’s dream. Read this book at night and you will understand why Stephen King stated that he never sleeps with his arms or legs outside of the sheets at night. King further indicated when asked about his head being outside the covers remarked,” you don’t start with dessert, do you?” Grab this book and be on the ground floor of something amazing. You won’t regret it…but keep a nightlight close. You never know when THE DARK might GET ya.
October 16, 2012
I haven't been on a roller coaster in a while, but when I finished THE DARK, I felt like I'd just stepped off of one of the best coasters around. Bradley and Giglio crafted a fast-paced thrill-ride through the darkening streets of L.A. that will keep you turning the pages and will keep you from turning off the lights. THE DARK is a smart horror story and was, for me, a great introduction to the work of this dynamic writing pair. Filled with real emotion, cool pop culture references, and interesting characters, THE DARK is well worth a read. Easily one of my favorite books of the year. Please keep your hands and arms inside the car at all times.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews