Anthony Hains
  • Home
  • Books & Novellas
    • Wrath of a Minor God
    • Terrain of Lost Souls
    • Sins of the Father
    • Nightshade's Requiem
    • Sleep in the Dust of the Earth
    • The Torment
    • Sweet Aswang
    • The Disembodied
    • Dead Works
    • Birth Offering
  • Bio
  • Blog

Dark Father: A review

3/9/2015

 
Dark Father by James Cooper is a suspense thriller from DarkFuse, so it represents a bit of a departure from the standard horror fare. The novel’s structure involves three parallel story lines which alternate across chapters. All have a similar theme; namely, individuals trying to deal with brutal events that occur within abusive families. To provide more detail about the narrative would spoil (to some degree) the dramatic plot that propels the reader along a breakneck pace. The unfolding story lines are spellbinding, and the dilemmas faced by the characters are ghastly. The writing is strong, and the characterizations are nicely portrayed. There is a bit of a downside to the work, however. In order to make the parallel lines intersect into a coherent whole at the end, the author is forced to rely on some farfetched contrivances. I thought these strained credibility and found myself muttering, “Oh, come on…” on more than a few occasions. A character suffers an extreme injury and is still able to keep going beyond human limits, characters disappear, and some characters experience trauma that causes them to descend into psychoses (this does not happen). If you are able to overlook these unbelievable set ups, this is a riveting story. I still give it a 3.5 (rounded to 4.0) for being a gripping, entertaining read.


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Anthony Hains is a horror & speculative fiction writer.

    Archives

    January 2020
    January 2018
    July 2017
    May 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    Categories

    All
    Academia
    Adolescents
    Apocalypse
    Birth Offering
    Birth Offering
    Dead Works
    Horror Authors
    Horror Fiction
    Horror Fiction
    Influences
    Psychology
    Real Life Horror
    Real-life Horror
    Reflections
    Reviews
    Ryan Braun

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.