The Dark Valley

by Joe Donnelly

A town locked down. Police are hunting a mad, bad stranger whose shocking deeds have put fear into the hearts of every mother; fear for their children.
In the hot summer, the oppressive atmosphere nears breaking strain. And five young friends need to get out from under. They plan a camping trip, to find an old wartime relic high on the moors.
They don’t know that their every move is being watched. Not until the stranger stalks out of the trees and into the valley.
And for five trapped boys, the nightmare has just begun.

Genres: Horror, Halloween

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Aryanah Rivera · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Mom, can we read “IT” ?”

“No, we have “IT” at home”

Is the exact vibe of this over-long, ludicrous, book. I read this because it was on the best horror books of all time list from Esquire. It was boring, repetitive, and there’s a typo if not more than one typo, per page.

There is SO much information in this book that I did not need to make this a compelling and scary story.

And if you do read it, Billy’s fate is just purely ridiculous and maybe homophobic???? I don’t know, I skimmed through the last half of this book for a lot of parts because they were repetitive and boring. Maybe if this book had been edited like 2 times, even ONCE?? It could have been a decent horror novel.

Ugh.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very scary book, a group of young lads out on an adventure, which turns into a nightmare. I was so frightened for them all.
The boys reminded me of Stephen King's Stand by Me. This book made me laugh, made me cry and made me worried for the boys.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be warned, this dark valley is very, very dark indeed. Child murder. Extreme violence. And so on. I consider myself pretty hardy when it comes to adult themes in books, but this one had me wincing at times. But "warning to the sensitive" aside, if you're up for gruesome events then this a very good read. It's perhaps a tad long and there are a lot of typos (which doesn't bother me so much, you get the gist), yet it's gripping and well written. It has the coming-of-age theme: A group of boys on the cusp of their teenage years go out one last adventure together, where they discover buried strengths, hidden secrets, and ultimately, that their bond is stronger than they thought. While on this adventure, unbeknownst to them, a serial killer is watching their every move. The book flicks back and forth in time, so we get insights into the killer and his previous crimes, and it gets incredibly tense. If you can stomach it, I'd recommend it.

[Justin Fraxi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhere in here there's a great story, but this book badly needed a copy editor. Or a regular editor. Or the band The Editors. (I don't think the band members are actually editors, but they probably could have helped somehow.) There's also some low key homophobia, but I guess that's not surprising since it's from the '90s. This probably could have been a five star book with some fixing.

[Judy Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great novel, but ...

The storyline is gripping and well thought through. However it is ruined by the plethora of typos. If it gets a reprint, please have it proofread properly.

[Candice Hopper-Owrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I almost didn’t finish this book. It was really boring at times. Every time I read it I though “I can’t wait for this book to be over”. For starters it’s just gross. Listen, I enjoy thrillers. I read them on a regular basis but the killer is obsessed with maggots and flies. Reading the description over and over and over was just yuck. There was no character development of the killer. I do feel like the chapter development of the boys was decent. There were pages and pages I just skipped because the writing was boring. It was supposed to be a “scary” book to read for Halloween. It was just boring. I like a lot of description and this was here but there could be six pages in a row where nothing happened. The writing is just not my style. Im so happy to have finally finished the book. Maybe the worst book I read this year?

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in my teens somewhere and as far as thrillers go it left an impression. Back then I'd have given it four stars, if Goodreads had existed. By now, three stars will do. Back then I found it terrifying, gruesome and couldn't stop reading. These kids go through it. Style wise, a little repetitive, spelling errors (but I notice those often, in many books). If horrible things happening to kids and lots of atmospheric descriptions are your thing, this is a good one to read.

I won't be rereading it in my present day.

[Magnus Schwarz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was like a 3,5. A tad too long, but well written. Also incredibly violent. I wanted to stop reading several times because such horrible things were happening to these children and the events were described so gleefully, meanly and in such detail. But at the same time, this is a book you can't put down easily.

[Michelle Diggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Terrifying Story

Reminded me of Stand By Me by Stephen King, with a much darker tone. Some of the story was over analyzed and I caught myself drifting off, but it would quickly pick back up and take off to give me nightmares. It was a great read overall.