What do you think?
Rate this book
Dark Time
Teenager Corey Carpenter watches in horror as the tranquility of his town is shattered by hideous beasts that enter the townfolk, feeding on their brains, twisting their emotions, and driving them to impulsive acts of violence. Original.
- GenresHorror
266 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1992
31 people want to read
About the author
Maxine O'Callaghan
42 books17 followersReceived the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 1999.
Aka Marissa Owens
Aka Marissa Owens
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 27, 2019
--Updated 8/14/19--
Here's a larger image of the cover. Ms. O'Callaghan may not care for the artwork according to a commenter below, but I certainly do. Scary cats are scary.
With a lot of supernatural fiction, my interest will start to wane a little when I get the general idea of what's going on. Once the monster/ghost/demon/vampire/whatever is made known (or its intentions made known), the mystery is gone and it usually becomes a straight good vs. evil tale. Which is fine, but the fear of the unknown is a much more powerful drug for me compared to finding the answers. With Dark Time, my experience was the exact opposite. The mystery of what's causing the people and animals of quiet little Longview to go crazy didn't really absorb me until I found out who or what was causing it and why.
Although it has a pretty slow buildup that didn't always keep me engrossed (there's a lot of ink devoted to some AK-47-toting pot growers I could have done without), the terror really ramps up in the second half, with numerous savage and inexplicable murders in town, as well as prophetic dreams suggesting that cosmic forces may be at play. It's up to two young teens--who witnessed something unbelievably strange in the woods while on a secret date--to convince the sheriff and an undercover cop of this fact, and figure out a way to stop whatever's happening before the whole town ends up murdering the shit out of each other.
Overall it's a pretty typical latter-day horror boom novel with passable characterization, but the final 80-90 pages or so are filled with enough tension and insanity to make it worth the read in the end. And the "big baddie" is pretty awesome. I'm not sure I'd recommend going out of your way to track it down, but if you happen to come across it on the cheap it may be worth a looksee.
Plus the cover's cool.
3.0 Stars.
Here's a larger image of the cover. Ms. O'Callaghan may not care for the artwork according to a commenter below, but I certainly do. Scary cats are scary.
With a lot of supernatural fiction, my interest will start to wane a little when I get the general idea of what's going on. Once the monster/ghost/demon/vampire/whatever is made known (or its intentions made known), the mystery is gone and it usually becomes a straight good vs. evil tale. Which is fine, but the fear of the unknown is a much more powerful drug for me compared to finding the answers. With Dark Time, my experience was the exact opposite. The mystery of what's causing the people and animals of quiet little Longview to go crazy didn't really absorb me until I found out who or what was causing it and why.
Although it has a pretty slow buildup that didn't always keep me engrossed (there's a lot of ink devoted to some AK-47-toting pot growers I could have done without), the terror really ramps up in the second half, with numerous savage and inexplicable murders in town, as well as prophetic dreams suggesting that cosmic forces may be at play. It's up to two young teens--who witnessed something unbelievably strange in the woods while on a secret date--to convince the sheriff and an undercover cop of this fact, and figure out a way to stop whatever's happening before the whole town ends up murdering the shit out of each other.
Overall it's a pretty typical latter-day horror boom novel with passable characterization, but the final 80-90 pages or so are filled with enough tension and insanity to make it worth the read in the end. And the "big baddie" is pretty awesome. I'm not sure I'd recommend going out of your way to track it down, but if you happen to come across it on the cheap it may be worth a looksee.
Plus the cover's cool.
3.0 Stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review