Darkness Demands

November 14, 2003
Darkness Demands
Simon Clark

Ennh.

Really, it was a good story. Great plot. I’m just getting SO TIRED of the “family in crisis, must protect the children” theme! Especially when told by a male protagonist, because it’s just getting OLD.
John Newton is a true crime writer with a bit of writer’s block, who has recently moved with his wife, teenage son Paul and young daughter Elizabeth to a stately English house they can’t really afford. He begins receiving anonymous notes, written in very old English, demanding small things, like a chocolate bar or a bottle of ale, to be left on an old grave in the Necropolis cemetery. John disregards the notes, thinking they’re pranks, but others in the town take it very show more seriously and talk of a creature named "Baby Bones", whose evil spirit resurfaces every so often and makes these demands of the townspeople, and the consequences of ignoring them are terrible. The demands start out simple, but eventually become unbearable, and the ultimate sacrifice has to be made in the end.

It really was a very good story; I’m just tired of the whole family thing. I’d like some single, un-corny protagonists for a change, please. I guess I should read Poppy Z. Brite… show less

I can tell you what I liked best in this book......the Necropolis itself. The Gothic imagery of the abandoned cemetery and the lavish Victorian era monuments is very haunting in and of itself. I picture it looking much like the old section of London's Highgate.

The plot was purely incidental; I would have been happy with an epistolary description of a series of walks through the Necropolis with all sorts of unexplained phenomena.

Enjoyed this book, wasn't as freaky as the first Simon Clark I read but was interesting with superstition and all that goes along with it :)

Soyons clair dès le départ : je suis très très loin d'être un fan de littérature de terreur, et c'est un miracle que Bragelonne ait réussi à m'en faire apprécier un !
Je fais un vrai blocage sur ce type de livre : ils ne me font tout simplement pas peur, pitié plutôt (exception faite à Lovecraft et aux premiers Anne Rice).
Alors qu'est-ce qui a bien pu me faire aimer ce roman ? Et bien dans un premier temps, ces 330 pages se boivent comme du petit lait, si bien que j'ai même eu l'impression de n'avoir lu qu'une nouvelle quand c'était fini. Clark à une écriture nerveuse, rapide, directe et sans chichis, ça se lit très bien et extrêmement vite. Le scénario est soigné et laisse un goût amer dans la bouche, et les show more personnages suffisamment attachants pour les rendre précieux aux lecteurs. Tous les ingrédients sont réunis pour un petit cauchemar duquel vous viendrez à bout en un week-end.
Ne vous en privez pas si la couverture vous interpelle... show less