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A review by alexauthorshay
Darkfall by Stephen Laws
3.0
My first horror genre novel not by Koontz or King in quite a while. It started out rather promising, and I quite liked the concept even to the end. But the way things end up and the explanations given, scientific vs religious, left me wanting something more definitive, I guess. It seems really science-based until about halfway or two-thirds done, wherein it swaps to the religious, and it never really clarifies one way or the other.
The characters were surprisingly flat as well; Koontz' characters usually encourage a little more emotional investment than the characters in this book. I didn't actively dislike anyone in terms of quality, though I wouldn't say I liked any, either. I got so distracted by the plot and backstory that it didn't bother me a whole lot anyway, but I actually liked the characters a touch more in the beginning of the book than I did by the end.
The idea of people being blended with their surrounding environment and being stuck in walls, being able to come back out, was actually a little disturbing. I wouldn't say scary, but a few descriptions did give me the inner shivers of disgust, which is a first. But the other half of the time, the description was so generic or so repetitive with certain words that I couldn't picture what was going on or follow what was happening. Action scenes in particular seemed extremely vague.
The characters were surprisingly flat as well; Koontz' characters usually encourage a little more emotional investment than the characters in this book. I didn't actively dislike anyone in terms of quality, though I wouldn't say I liked any, either. I got so distracted by the plot and backstory that it didn't bother me a whole lot anyway, but I actually liked the characters a touch more in the beginning of the book than I did by the end.
The idea of people being blended with their surrounding environment and being stuck in walls, being able to come back out, was actually a little disturbing. I wouldn't say scary, but a few descriptions did give me the inner shivers of disgust, which is a first. But the other half of the time, the description was so generic or so repetitive with certain words that I couldn't picture what was going on or follow what was happening. Action scenes in particular seemed extremely vague.