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Dark Hollow |
Author: Brian Keene
Published: 2008-01-29 |
List price: $7.99
Our price: $7.99
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As of: December 01st, 2008 12:02:06 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Pagan Horror
Keene's DARK HOLLOW is a real page turner, a good, old-fashioned fright fest with its horror rooted deep in pagan tradition. The story is well summarized here elsewhere, but this is fresh and original horror, the kind that nags at you to keep turning the pages and keep the lights around you burning, and not just because you can't put this terrifying novel down. A fine effort and recommended highly for fans of quality horror.
 Not Keene's Best
I enjoy Brian Keene. He isn't the greatest horror novelist out there right now, but he certainly isn't the worst. I have, for the most part, enjoyed his novels. I love the mythology he pulls into it. The only parts of Dark Hollow that made this a worthwhile read for me was when he was talking about powwow and other sorts of folk magic. I like the allusions to other stories of his, although he isn't very subtle about them.
Overall though I just found this book to be lacking. I felt it was one of his more poorly written stories. The characters seemed two dimensional, especially women. This book seems to have been written just so it could be referenced in Ghost Walk excessively.
This books is really for only the die-hard Keene fan. That's why I read it in spite of hearing about how awful it was. I don't regret reading it, otherwise I wouldn't fully understand all the references and back story in Ghost walk, but it was really an excuse for flat characters and graphic sex scenes.
Oh Brian!
I became a fan of Keene after reading Ghoul. I followed that with The Conquerer Worms, and then I even procurred an autographed copy of his novella, Take the Long Way Home. At some point, however, his books started steadily declining in quality. Is it Leisure, asking him to put out more books than he can supply? Did he get creatively fat on his accolades? Is he content to turn into the horror equivalent of Nora Roberts? I don't know, but I can say at least this book is a little better than Ghost Walk. I'm not going to be buying anymore Keene books until I've read enough critical reviews to tell me he's getting back to his formerly high quality of writing.
 Could have been much better.
In Dark Hollow, an author named Adam Senft (which, while I'm sure is a perfectly good name wherever Mr. Keene is from, sounds like a sneeze and was a bit distracting) has marital problems and a dog. A satyr invades the woods near his house and throws the town into upheaval.
I've oversimplified the plot, of course, to keep from spoiling anything. All of that you get in the first chapter, and it unfolds from there.
I enjoyed the plot. The scenes were perfectly serviceable for the story (while not terribly outstanding), and the ending ties in very well to the core of the story. It was one of the high points for me. Endings can be tough to make satisfying (Dean Koontz comes to mind, he has some awful endings), so this made the read almost worth it.
Well, I enjoyed the plot, I liked the ending, and I thought the story worked from beginning to end. So why only three stars? (I was going to give it 2 stars, but the last couple of paragraphs bumped up my rating a star, that's how good the ending is.)
My problem with the book is, quite simply, the writing. This is Mr. Keene's fourth (or fifth) book. I have not read any others so I don't know if this is just his style, but I suspect it is not. (I have read other reviews on here, and they seem to reflect that.) But after five books, there is really no excuse for the lack of characterization, the sophomoric descriptions (especially from a character who is supposed to be a writer), and the stilted and (sometimes) silly dialogue. The characters felt manipulated, not by the situation in the book, but by the needs of the author: i.e. This character needs to be standing there so the other character can make a certain remark, OK, he walks there for no reason. (That is a simplistic example that may or may not reflect an actual occurrence in the book, but that was the 'feeling' I got from the text.) I guess I'm saying it felt forced, not natural or organic.
This is not a bad story, just a bad example of writing. When literary snobs point to the lack of talent in this genre, if they point to it at all, this book would do nothing to change their minds, and that is my main problem with it. To be fair, I read a lot of books and there are many that are well written but the stories are awful. I'd rather read a "Dark Hollow"-esq book instead of each of those bad stories.
I can't recommend this book to anyone looking for "thoughtful" horror or dark fantasy, but I would to a casual reader who just wants to shut off for however long it takes them to read this. (It took me 2 days of intermittent reading.)
 old reader
One of the most ragged stories I have read..The characters have no depth, the book is full of cliches, graphic sexual scenes and expletives abound and the dialog overall does not evoke any lasting or worthwhile image.
A new Stephen King he is NOT. I bought this book used because I am a rapid reader and thrillers/fantasy is escapism for me..The reviews were over blown and frankly, even used this book is not worth the money.
Maybe in 10 or 15 years this author will turn into a fair writer.
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