The People of the Dark

Strange Seed #4

by T.M. Wright

It's a nice house on a country road. Jack and Erika Harris expect to be happy there. — It doesn't matter that they're living near a deserted suburb where, years ago, murders and mutilations destroyed the residents. It doesn't matter -- until those that caused the deaths come back -- those that sprang from the earth, those that need, those that are not human.

The Harris's nice house stands between them and what they must have.

Nothing has ever mattered more.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1985

About the author

Terrance Michael Wright (AKA T. M. Wright) is best known as a writer of horror fiction, speculative fiction, and poetry. He has written over 25 novels, novellas, and short stories over the last 40 years. His first novel, 1978's Strange Seed, was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, and his 2003 novel Cold House was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. His novels have been translated into many different languages around the world. His works have been reviewed by Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, and many genre magazines.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

the children are born from the earth, born hungry. they grow, they eat, they explore the world. some put on the costume of a human adult, playing dress-up, until they believe the role they've taken on, until they forget what birthed them. but return to their mother they must; those born of the earth must go back into that earth, eventually. to be reborn again, eventually. it is a cycle...

although one book remains in this series of standalone novels, The People of the Dark feels like a natural ending. we return to the original setting of the first two books, and to the abandoned upscale housing development and massacre site of the second, and a key character from the third makes an appearance. the first book had a child born and an adult realizing their true nature; the second book had more children born, and born hungry. the third book had children exploring, and still hungry. this fourth book has a child turned adult, a strange being who thinks she's a human realizing she's something different, her husband unable to understand what is happening to her and in the nearby town, unable to make sense of what has come from the woods that surround them, from the woods and from the earth. people, or rather "people," wandering around the town and up to his doorstep, not knowing what they are but going through the motions, wondering why, slowly fading. all of this is a spoiler if this is the first book being read (not recommended) but all of this makes perfect sense if the prior books have been read first (highly recommended).

this is a minor novel; none of the novels after the first, Strange Seed, have quite reached that book's heights or depths. minor note in tone as well. nevertheless, T.M. Wright is a masterful writer and his talents are on full display here. this is a surprisingly moving story, suffused with a forlorn longing, in the words of the lost earth-beings, and in how a man sees his love and his life with that love slipping away, for reasons he refuses to understand, no matter how many people try to explain to him why. The People of the Dark is an eerily quiet novel, full of ambiguity and unsettling occurrences, whispery voices from the walls and blank faces at the door, the sense of another world overlapping with our world. this other world has its own rules and ways of living, just as Wright has his own unique style and way of writing.

[Kevin Lucia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think out of all Wright's "strange seed novels" this one I liked the best, this one hit the hardest. It might've been the first person narrative, or the fact we've got the perspective of a man who is losing someone he could never have completely to begin with...but that seemed to magnify the usual surreal nature of this series, because of Jack Harris' confusion as the the world slowly turns mad around him, and "people" start "slipping" and losing their hold on life and reality.

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 4th book in the Strange Seed series and quite possibly the strongest. It's also the one that's the easiest to read as a stand alone, although I strongly recommend reading the books in order. All the books in this series, all Wright's books really, have his unique and most excellent blend of eerily subtly unsettling quiet horror at its finest, however every one has its own theme. Here it's a love story, a very moving love story of a couple who moves to a huge old home in the country (as if that on its own wasn't creepy enough) right around the time as the children of the earth (the titular strange seeds) begin to make their appearances. Very quick read, only a few hours, yet very emotionally involving, atmospheric and evocative. Highly recommended.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel shares the background of Wright's three Strange Seed books that Playboy Press published, but this Tor offering stands quite well on its own. It's a very well-paced haunted house story with a quiet and understated feeling of tension and suspense that builds to a very well played supernatural crescendo. A good chiller!

[Stephen Abell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The People Of The Dark is the Strange Seed Saga coming full circle. The Earth Folk have left the cities and are heading back to their countryside roots. And, Wright takes his readers back into Granada one last time.

Primarily this is the tale of Jack and Erika Harris, a married couple who decide to move into the country to get away from city life. And because of this, it has a similar feel to the original Strange Seeds book. Luckily for the reader, Wright throws in more of his eerie and strange happenings. Unfortunately, some of these go over old ground: Like moving shadows in the garden and people and voices in the house. Two occurrences effectively used in the previous books now feel a tad worn.

Stranger yet is his characterisations. Even though we have met some strange characters along the way, the people populating this part of America are pretty unrealistic, to say the least. Jack and Erica are okay and they work well together, especially when the truth about Erika begins to be revealed. But Martin, the stand-off-ish neighbour across the road, is a bore and needed more flushing out. Something peculiar is happening in his house, but Wright doesn't give you enough to pique your interest. Then you have a mentally challenged bloke roaming the country with his shotgun. These occurrences are okay because the sheriff knows him and knows he's not clever enough to load the weapon. And then there's Jack's brother. For me, he's the most dreadful thing about the story. Not only does he feel unrealistic, but his actions are also unbelievable. And Wright misses his big chance to make this a novel to rival the rest when he doesn't use Sarah (sister of Gellis from Nursery Tale) to her fullest potential. She and the goings-on in Granada could have made a fuller and more rewarding read.

I will say that I particularly like the way we get to meet Seth once more as he shambles through the countryside and village. A couple of lines reintroduces him to the readers and then sends him into oblivion.

All that said, this is still a good read, though not as great as the previous novels. It is, however, much better than what is to come in the last instalment. You have been warned. The People of the Dark may be a good place to leave the Strange Seed Saga.

Take Care, Stay Well, And Make Love Not War.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is part of a series which I haven't read before, and I'm very leery of reading Book #4 in a series when I haven't read the others. However, I had heard this stood well enough on its own, and I suppose it did. But overall, I just felt something lacking. It could have been because I haven't read the others, which would be the most obvious answer, or maybe it was just the book itself.

It held my interest, the writing was well done, it was creepy, and I did enjoy it. But there was still a piece missing since it never quite grabbed me the way it should have. Overall a good, creepy story though.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice, stange book. I didn't even know that this was part of a series. It works fine by itself. Plenty of strange people. Strange dialogue. Plenty of atmosphere. This book goes from point A to point B in many various ways. Sometimes it feels like its going off the rails, but it pulls it back together. It kept me reading.

[Bryon Decker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The People of the Dark is a gripping story of a couple moving to small town America and everything doesn't go as planned. Needless to say Cohocton isn't always rainy and foggy, I live about 18 miles from there. I would recommend this book to any Stephen King fan.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many things that I didn't completely understand while and also after reading The People of the Dark but still... I think that it wasn't a bad book. I really enjoyed it to be honest, I have to admit it, especially in front of myself.
The atmosphere of Cohocton town is very disturbing, reminds me Silent Hill a bit. The weather is rainy and foggy most of the time, houses and merely few shops are very distant from each other. It has only a few residents, some of them are freaks, some not, but everybody knows each other, that's for sure. Makes quite a nice start for a good horror movie. The story of Erika and Jack who move into their new house, after like 6 years of marriage, is not giving a foretaste of what changes are about to enter their lives besides getting used to a new place. The house on the farm that they've bought for their life savings is not as cozy and quiet as they thought. First they find various body parts in the backyard of their garden, after that Erika starts to claim that the house is talking to her and finally THEY appear. People of the earth who don't know anything about their past, wonder pointlessly around the couple's property and scare the hell out of them. And even devastate their house, leave red writings on the walls and furniture, destroy their belongings. Yes, maybe the story is not very original, I've seen similar movies about haunted houses and irritating strangers who don't do any harm really but simply EXIST... yet it had something that seduced me and made me want to read it till the end. There are some inaccuracies in the plot though. And they are the primary reason I've taken one star from the overall rating.
The main characters, after finding an arm in their garden, should've called the police. It seems quite obvious for every normal citizen. Yet, they don't do anything at all with that fact even when it turns out there is more than just one arm. The only thing they are worried about is if they're going to find human heads 'cause that, somehow, would mean for them these are parts of murdered or dead people (!) as if arms or legs found by them before weren't parts of dead people but simply lost by their owners who are in fact living happily somewhere. Yeah, very interesting logic we've got here. Another unintelligible aspect of the story is Erika's disappearance. In the end we are being vaguely informed that she was one of those spooky earth people and that from time to time, once in a decade or so, they're rising from the ground just for a couple of months and then come back to where they came from. How is that possible then that Erika didn't act like them for all those years of her marriage with Jack? That she was there with him for 7 years, not only months? The author is not explaining that unfortunately... but it doesn't bother me that much as I didn't like Erika from the very beginning. Can't explain exactly why. I just didn't like her just like Jack's mother didn't... and Jack himself wasn't much better. His actions were totally stupid for most of the time, storytelling about his life with Erika or his school mate who got missing... for the entirety of the book those parts didn't matter at all.
As for the style of writing. I read the original English version and I must say that one thing I hate in every language are repetitions. All characters in this book were constantly nodding. This word appeared on every page at least once or twice. Lack of vocabulary Mr. Wrigt? And describing every single person's clothing was superfluous. Sometimes it is nice to know but not necessarily every single time. The reader doesn't really give a damn if someone is wearing brown hiking shoes, denim skirt or jeans and sunglasses on top of that.
I also wanted to refer to all those accusations that King has supposedly recommended The People of the Dark just because Jack was reading his book in one of the chapters... do you really think that such well-known and admired author would've descended so low? He had his reasons, maybe the same as I to give T.M. Wright's story as high as 4 stars. Or maybe it was just his type of book? At least... it was my type of book and that's all that matters.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book hums along nicely in Wright’s normal restrained fashion as things get stranger and stranger. But there comes a point when the reader realizes that Wright forgot to add the horror entirely, and that there is no real sense of danger or fear by the time things come to a confusing close.

[Debra]

Stephen King recommended author: "T.M. Wright is a rare and blazing talent!"

[Ken Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are told that 1985's THE PEOPLE OF THE DARK is set about 20 years after NURSERY TALE - which would put it sometime around 2007! However, there's nothing 'futuristic' about this book and it has a lot more in common with A MANHATTAN GHOST STORY than with the earlier STRANGE SEED books. NURSERY TALE and CHILDREN OF THE ISLAND featured chaotic hordes of humanoid creatures that went about starting fires and making a huge mess devouring kids and grandparents by the dozen. These PEOPLE are just annoying missionaries or salesmen endlessly buzzing your doorbell. I am sad to report there are no fires and no people-eating.

The setup rolls out a straightforward folk horror story, checking off the tropes one by one: newcomers Jack and Erika Harris move to a rural community and encounter ominous warnings from the locals. Next, something ghastly gets dug up from the earth (in this case a withered arm from their foundation). Then, they start seeing strange events and weird behavior. Check, check, check.

In this case the strange events concern the return of the 'city-dwellers' that we last saw assuming human lives in Manhattan at the end of CHILDREN OF THE ISLAND. These lost creatures, including Seth from the earlier books, are now drawn back to this upstate region and wander around bothering people in their confusion. Mostly they introduce themselves repeatedly. They also hide in awkward places, like an antique cabinet in a furniture store. Soon, Erika disappears and Jack searches the area to find her. He visits the abandoned homes of Granada (the setting for NURSERY TALE), and finds dozens of the wayward clones going through the motions of the former residents there. Finally they begin literally disintegrating. They are compared to water that gets tossed out of a bucket and absorbed into the ground. Some of the rural residents don't mind them. They let them fall apart in their yards or homes. But soon the people in town get fed up and start blasting them with a shotgun to get rid of them. Jack ends up isolated from everyone, wandering around his house, convinced that Erika is still there with him in spirit.

  This is a very short, quick read. The writing is better here than in the earlier books but still full of T.M. Wright doing his repetetive thing. The story is thin and not much happens, but the narrative jumps around and uses the power of suggestion to make it seem like it's building up to something. The problem is that 'something' never happens. The folk horror angle fades away. As much as I love CARLISLE STREET and NURSERY TALE, I have to admit this one just falls apart the more I think about and re-read it. Why specify in the beginning that Jack's closest neighbor is a mile and a half away, when there are several scenes later on with the neighbor (Martin) right across the road? Why reveal Erika as a creature when we have already been told she has brown eyes, a complete and functional human reproductive system, and a bunch of baby pictures her parents bought (at the Sears portrait studio)? And as in THE ISLAND there are repeated musings about memory and how we shouldn't dwell in them or we will be trapped. I do recall from the earlier books that Seth and the others felt the people they ate became part of them, so maybe that is why the city-dwellers "remembered" their lives in Granada.

"Our memories do sustain us. They give the present a backdrop, scenery, substance; they tell us who we are and what we are becoming, and if what we're becoming is worth anything at all.
  Our memories sing to us, too. And caress us. And chill us, hurt us, make us numb, so that we sit for hours quietly, unmoving and unchanging because that will put time off, and the moments will not happen."

[Hectaizani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was one of a series of books when I selected it. If I'd read from the beginning it might have made a little more sense but it was a pretty good stand alone read/listen. I would call it slow horror, there is a sense of dread and foreboding but nothing blatant.

Jack and Ericka move into a huge, old farmhouse but then weirdness ensues. Most of the tension comes from Jack discovering that's he's lost something important to him and trying to figure out what is going on.

The narration was excellent. It was done in first person as though Jack was telling the story of the events from his perspective. The narrator used a conversational tone that I just really enjoyed.

Oops, almost forgot to mention. I requested a free review copy of this audiobook in return for an honest review.

[Mike Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this years ago at a used book store with no idea about the author or the works. I just read it. I had no idea it was part of a series until I went to post it on here. Maybe starting from the beginning would have changed my perspective here. I was in the dark about where the book was going. It was a spooky premise, but I was looking for a little more of a climax or closure here. Maybe that’s part of the allure - it’s a slow burn!

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started to read this, not knowing the series. I stopped and read the first book, which was just ok. This entry is a little better, but still somewhat meh.

[Stacy Simpson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was yet another flop suggested once again by Stephen King...I only think he endorsed the book because the main character was stated to have been reading a Stephen King novel while in bed...SHAMELESS!

The authour jumped all over the place which I hate and the story was hard to follow without all that nonsense...DONT READ!

[Christopher Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another reviewer said she didn't quite understand everything about this book but enjoyed it nonetheless, and I have to agree with her. I was expecting something a little more frightening and gruesome, but the writing was good, the mood was good,and the atmosphere was good.

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the spookiest books in TM Wright's "earth children" series. I couldn't put it down. The voice, style, and writing will captivate you, as will the characters. TM Wright's signature brand of subtle terror is guaranteed to give you chills!

[Subu · Rating 3 out of 5]

just average but the writing is much better than the plot