Book Review: "The Dark" by James Herbert

You can read my review of The Fog, also by James Herbert, here:

Written in the 1980s, The Dark was called one of the novels that made James Herbert one of the greats of horror according to many of the reviews I read after the fact. I'm not going to lie to you though, I didn't enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed The Fog. Namely, that's because The Fog was more visceral and entertaining, it had more of an intensity about it, more atmosphere and it was overall, a bit more frightening. Be that as it may, that doesn't mean that The Dark was no good at all. It just means, there's something a bit better I've already read and therefore, it's a bit of a downer.

Chris Bishop is an investigator and is also quite interested in debunking paranormal activity. In this job, he's called back to a place where he first saw the results of a mass cult ritual. It was a suicide at a Victorian House involving over thirty of its members. It is only shortly afterwards that the local residents start acting out: they are going crazy, uncharacteristically so and committing strange acts of violence that cannot be simply explained away. I have to say that the beginning of this book is a little obvious: you have the cynic who will be proven wrong by being brought back to a horrific location. Anyone, whether they are cynical about the paranormal or not, would have a natural human reaction in which they can sense the former danger of space when they are called back to somewhere in which they had known the former danger. It just seems like an underwhelming outset which I couldn't see as massively believable. I get where James Herbert is coming from but it isn't my favourite.

It's when Bishop gives the go-ahead to destroy the house even though there's an entity down in the basement that he is aware of. Yes, it is a strange decision and even though he knows the danger, he seems to do it anyway. Is there pushback? Yes. But then again, the entity is so well written I can almost forgive not liking the main character that much. James Herbert can write atmosphere well when he wants to and at this point in the book, you really sit back and admire the craft rather than simply paying attention to the weird motives of the main character. I am not saying that it's all bad for him, but there are definitely more advantages of this book elsewhere. One other place we see these advantages are in the 'history' of the plot. There's a whole backstory we keep flashing back to including those cult members which I think is a very clever spin. But then again, it still keeps the storyline quite simple. There's lots of room Herbert leaves for expansion. I have to admire it.

The realisation that the zombie figures are allergic to light and can only function in the dark seems like M Night Shymalan's Signs to me and is a little bit silly. But the atmosphere again is James Herbert's advantage. He's probably one writer who is on par with Stephen King when it comes to writing the horror atmosphere. I understand Herbert's want for keeping the storyline simple and obvious and that realisation only came about here in the book. This book doesn't have very much to do with the story itself but what it is actually about is the darkness paradox and its atmosphere. What I call the 'darkness paradox' is this: you're not afraid of being alone in the dark, you're afraid of not being alone in the dark. The entire book revolves around this and that is the best explanation of the storyline I have.

All in all, it wasn't as good as The Fog or some of his other books I read whilst on my hiatus some years' ago. I hope to read more of his works though and even though there were some advantages to this book, I would still put it fairly low on the list of James Herbert books I have read. I am interested though: have you ever read anything by this author?