Book Review: Darkness Rising – Author Brian Moreland

Darkness Rising
By: Brian Moreland
Samhain Publishing

98 Pages

Marty Weaver is a dreamer that expresses his romantic nature through poetry. Often going to a nearby lake for inspiration he ventures forth to ponder over his unrequited love Jennifer. On this ill-fated evening Marty is not alone. Three ruthless killers have occupied his sanctuary. As the killers commence a hellacious game of cat and mouse the dark, deep secrets within Marty are exhumed and unleashed beckoning a most Darkness Rising.

Once again the fine folks at Samhain Publishing have a home run in Brian Moreland’s Darkness Rising. This novella embodies the type of innovative and creative landscape that all writers aspiring and well-seasoned had wished they thought of first. Perhaps what is most notable about this gifted author’s work is has unprecedented ability to create spell binding imagery of grisly grandiose proportions.

Particular references to each of the victims’ rising souls is highly imaginative and captivating. It takes mere paragraphs to become highly engaged in this tale. Moreland drafts a prose that is not entirely unlike unravelling a dream like sequence or movie reel within our collective imaginations. Darkness Rising is one of those rare diamond in the rough type stories that would translate magnificently unto the silver screen.

Without engaging in an abundance of plot spoilers, I will state that the scenes surrounding a certain snuff film production company inspires skin crawling unease. While the components for dread and insomnia are spawned a direct correlation into a sense of suspended plausibility is enhanced. A dramatic supernatural tale this threatens to burst the parameters of our psyches somehow seems like it could occur in certain aspects, forever upping the ante on the fright meter for even the most cynical of horror readers.

The tenderness between Marty and Jennifer is endearing and makes Darkness Rising every bit as much of a romance story as it is a bona fide horror. Moreland’s work is further testament that even the most beautiful of things cannot exist without an element of terror. He seems to have a firm grasp on his market and what fears lurk within each of us, exploiting them and pouring out the contents to a most receptive audience.

A great deal of plot, action, exposition, character development and plot escalation as told through dialogue exists for a relative brief synapsis of 98 pages. This author knows how to steal your attention, fixate your enchantment and perpetuate your intrigue.

Certainly last but not least is the poetry scribed through the point of view of Marty; such eloquence and abstract ambiguity is bared indicative of a highly gifted writer of immense diversity. It’s evident a great deal of thought and planning was invested into Darkness Rising, one of my favorite reading odysseys of 2015. I highly look forward to additional voyages of reading with Brian Moreland at the helm.