Status Updates From The Dark Is Rising (The Dar...

Idk. Sometimes the action feels just a bit too tidy, like how they found the sign at the church, but that’s the nature of the beast, I think. It was still a good showdown, and it helps to think of Will as coming into his own. We have also laid the seeds as to how the Dark intends to bend a member of Will’s family—apparently his sister, Mary, judging by the strand of hair and fumbling with the ornaments.

The fact that Will is moving around in time without invoking paradoxical effects blurs the stakes of the story. I also feel with the economy of characters that the tramp, the Walker, is one and the same with Hawkin, taking the punishment for breaking the sanctity of the manor. At least, Merlin alludes that the Walker was responsible for a betrayal, and that Hawkin would have a dire punishment.

It’s a pretty good read thus far. We don’t get a long burn like the housekeeper from OSUS. The story gives Maggie a weird vibe when she’s first seen and then she reveals herself in a harrowing moment for Will. It’s better for him to be on his own, so that it isn’t three kids being obtuse to further a plot element. I am wondering about Tom. I know that he’s dead, but this can’t be a throwaway detail.

and finished