The Darkling

by R. B. Chesterton

In the 1940s, Coden, Alabama was a hideaway for movie stars - an isolated playground tucked among live oaks and placid bay waters where pleasure and vice could be indulged. By the summer of 1974 Coden's glamour has faded, but it doesn't bother Mimi Bosarge, who is just happy to have a job as a live-in tutor with the wealthiest family in town, the Hendersons. When the Hendersons generously open their arms to Annie, a troubled teenager with no recollection of her past, Mimi's greatest concern is creating a curriculum for the family's new ward.

But it soon becomes obvious that something is wrong. Annie seems suspiciously savvy for her young age, and Mimi can't quell the unnerving sense that there is something malicious about the waiflike beauty.

• ISBN10: 145329855X
• ISBN13: 9781453298558
• Publish Date: 2 April 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Pegasus Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[tellemonstar]

I DNF’d this one. I just couldn’t get into it. The beginning is way too slow, and the parts that should have been spooky, or at the very least a bit freaky aren’t.

The Darkling should have been creepy, and should have made you either want to stop reading it because it was just too damn scary, or keep reading it for the same reason. But I just don’t buy it, which is unfortunate as the plot seems like a really interesting premise. Orphaned child, sweet and mostly loving foster family, everyone dies but the tutor.

Apparently it gets better later on, but I don’t want to read more to find out if it does. I’ve already figured out that Annie is ‘bad’ and probably not actually human, and I don’t want to keep reading to find out what she does because I’m not motivated by the novel to do so.

I’m not always a fan of horror/thriller, because I have an over-active imagination, but even that’s having a hard time with this one. I don’t think it’s a bad book, it’s just not for me. People who like a certain style of ‘horror’ will probably enjoy this once they get past the slow part. I can’t get past the slow part.