Started off slow, but ended up being ok in the end. ( )

Oh, boy. Dean Koontz is such a hit-or-miss author for me. When he hits, he knocks it out of the park. Some of my favorite books of all times are Koontz books (Life Expectancy, Odd Thomas, Forever Odd). But some of his others have fallen flat for me (The Taking, The Husband, and now, Darkfall).

I thought the premise was interesting. Crossing a police procedural with a horror novel while throwing in a love story and a dash of humour sounds like a neat ride. Unfortunately, I was bored and annoyed for most of it. There were so many repetitive scenes that could have easily been cut without impacting the plot at all. There were also multiple instances within the first hundred pages where the creatures lurked and hissed and slithered while people tried to spot them but couldn't. Those scenes could have easily been condensed into one. Cutting at least a hundred pages from the book would have made a leaner, more fast-paced novel.

But there were other problems, too. The characters were extremely stereotypical and the main characters came across as caricatures. I didn't care about any of them, and it was hard to muster up the motivation to pick up the book once I set it down.

I will continue reading Koontz novels in the hopes that I'll find another outstanding one soon, but this one definitely fell short. ( )

This was a reread for me as I read it when it first came out 14 years ago. I’m happy to see that it is just as good or as bad as it was then. The bad: The same thing bothered me yet today that bothered me all those years ago was that I didn’t understand how the father…a policeman no less…does nothing when he knows his children are being threatened. He just continues with his investigation efforts without asking help from fellow officers. The relative he assumed they would be safe with was barely able to care for herself let alone two children. That didn’t make sense to me then and made even less sense to me today. The Good: It was an intriguing storyline with a “bad thing” that was totally creepy and unpredictable…and it did have a terrifying satisfactory climax. ( )

Very much a mixed offering, and even though this is an early example of this author’s career, it feels weaker than some others that came before. There was as much I liked about it as I disliked. I wanted to care about the characters more. It’s fun in a B-Movie way. The monsters of the story come straight out of Lovecraft. Whether this is a bad thing it’s hard to say. There are a few creepy moments but not as many as in other novels and the threat seemed diminished with introducing the antagonist who seemed rather cartoonlike to me. Still, I’m not knocking a novel that was perfectly acceptable at the time it released, but I reread this as part of a book clearance and have no problems letting go of it. ( )

Dean Koontz has been and remains one of my favorite authors. I gave this one four stars because I didn't feel that it was one of his best books. The storyline was good and the synopsis of the book was very intriguing but I didn't especially like any of the characters. Ten year old Penny was actually the best...and her father, Jack would have been a spot on detective IF anyone had listened to him and given him some credit. His partner was obnoxious and superficial through the entire book. Also more details could have been provided about the things in the dark. With that said, it is still a wonderful suspenseful, thriller, that is a fairly quick read. The author just didn't leave me wanting more like he usually does and even Dean Koontz himself admits in the back of the book that this wasn't his best work. ( )