REVIEW: Comes The Dark by: Patrick D’Orazio
The end came with a whimper, not a bang. The mysterious virus came out of nowhere and engulfed the world in a matter of days. Everyone who was infected seemed to die and then rise again. Governments collapsed, armies disappeared, and entire civilizations turned to dust as the human race tore itself to pieces.
Jeff Blaine had a good life: a beautiful wife, adorable children, and a nice house in the suburbs. He liked his job, loved his family, and spent his lazy suburban Sundays out on the deck, barbecuing with the neighbors. Things were perfect until everything fell apart. And no matter how hard Jeff tried, he could not spare his family from the horrors scratching at the door.
Now, with his family gone, his life in ruins, the only thing left is raw anger and pain. As the world continues to sink into darkness, Jeff does as well. So he ventures out into the desolation with no better plan than to destroy as many of the monsters that stole his life away before they destroy him as well.
But soon Jeff will discover other survivors unwilling to give up. They will force him to decide whether or not to give in to the venom that gnaws at his soul. Should he continue to fight to survive, or succumb to the things that come with the dark?
This book was Patrick D. Orazio’s first novel. Okay, well I have to admit that I did enjoy reading this book a lot. I took me two days to read this book, because it is a fairly short read, although I wouldn’t consider it a ‘quick’ read.
The book is mostly description driven. He spends a lot of time in the story creating the scene and going in depth on the surroundings. Which has its pros and its cons like anything else. Most zombie novelists try to avoid too many descriptions of surroundings because it slows down the story, and if not placed properly than it could affect the flow of the story. A reader doesn’t want to be in the middle of a fight scene when there appears a page long description about a chaos filled neighborhood, luckily the author doesn’t disturb the flow of the story as suggested in said manner. But I feel as though the descriptions did slow down the tempo of the story gradually. But there is a pro to being a descriptive writer, you are more in tune with the craft of storytelling instead of just trying to bang out a novel that reads like a script. By writing a descriptive laden story, he shows that he is in tune with the writing aspect of the novel, instead of the shock factor and that’s important, and it will assist him further on with his writing pieces.
Pace:
The story of the story is of a slow tempo. Describing the pace of the story can be easily done by comparing it to music. Think of a fast paced book as an electric guitar: the sound is quick and energetic and gets the blood pumping, and think of a slower paced story as a bass guitar. It is much slower but the sound of every chord reverberates and the vibration stays with you for a longer period of time. Comes the Dark would be the bass guitar in this comparison because it goes at a slower pace than most stories, but this is not in vain and doesn’t pose too much harm to the story itself, because he writes very well composed descriptive texts. But the weakness that comes with the descriptive driven text is that it may disinterest the modern reader. Cause the modern reader wants a fast paced story, but a novel written in this manner does look well upon the genre, because it shows naysayers that zombie novels can be well written. So, in saying that, hats off to Patrick D. Orazio for helping prove those naysayers wrong.
Gore:
Now, I understand that this is Patrick D. Orazio’s first book, but there occurs a few problems when it comes to the gore. A common mistake a lot of new novelist make is that they fill the pages with as much gore as they could think of. This creates a few problems for the credit of the work, and for further pieces of work. He had a substantial amount of gore in this novel, which was well written and can be pictured very easily in the readers mind, but a good portion of it wasn’t purely necessary. I do not blame the author for this tactic because most authors make this mistake in their first novel; they try and flex their Gore muscles to show the readers what they got, and sometimes it comes out as unnecessary to the story. Although, he does have a lot of gore that is necessary for the tone of the story, but there are some things he could have left out. For example, don’t go into a 4 sentence long description of a zombie, that will be disposed of in half a sentence, what I mean by that is, don’t over describe a zombie’s appearance if that particular zombie doesn’t do much to affect the plot. The author did not make this mistake often but he did do it sometimes.
This book would be a Gore hound’s dream, but when it came to the gore, I felt it was a tad bit overdone. Just a tad bit, cause I have to admit it was done very well when he did describe a zombie.
Plot:
Okay, right off the bat he made a mistake in my opinion. He started the story right off the hammer with action. This is not a bad thing to do, but it was the point WHERE he started this action that I had a problem with. He returned home and his family had been killed. He spent a good portion of time describing the characters emotions for the time being and they were realistic as to what somebody would truly feel, but I felt he should have incorporated a scene with his family being alive prior to their massacre. This is important because it would have added depth to the character, he didn’t have to include a particularly large scene, just one that would create a foundation for the character’s emotions. In order to survive he tries to completely let go of his loss, now why incorporate a scene with Jeff’s family if the author isn’t going to go too in depth on it as the story progressed. Because it still establishes a stronger emotional foundation for the readers grasp on the character, and as the character changes his feelings in order to survive, the reader can really see how the character must change emotionally in order to survive this apocalypse. The story itself plot wise is average, in my opinion.
Now another thing to discuss about the plot is the dialogue. The dialogue between two of the characters is quite realistic in a lot of ways. They spend a lot of the time bickering about their decisions; you know what’s good about this tactic? It’s realistic! Because real people bicker all the time! so that’s a good point for the author.
Realism:
This is my favorite aspect to examine in any story, because for horror it is ( in my opinion) one of the most important elements to good horror. Comes the Dark is one of those realistic stories, and that makes it scary because it’s more relatable to the reader. What the characters feel is genuine fear and he portraits it well. The fight scenes, dialogue and plot events are realistically concocted which is very important.
Characters:
The characters are well conceived overall. The only thing I would have adjusted was what I mentioned earlier about Jeff’s family. The characters are fresh and they are realistically drawn. And one of the most important elements is likable and relatable characters and he does this well, which adds texture to the story.
Overall, this is a fun story to reader. The Gore can be a little overwhelming and a little unnecessary but it would be perfect for the Gore Hound reader. The pace of the story is slowed down by the descriptive style of the author, but he does help the genre’s image by doing this. The characters are a lot of fun and they are well drawn which is very important to the story. This story is realistic in a lot of forms which makes it an enjoyable read.
Would I recommend this book? Of course I would, it is well written, and it’s an interesting story with likable characters. This book is a formidable introduction to the works of Patrick D. Orazio, he made a few mistakes which is common to a lot of new authors so its no big deal. (These mistakes are also opinionated) But it does establish a style with his writing, and if he makes the right corrections than he could emerge as a fantastic zombie writer, he has a lot of potential as an author and I expect a lot more from Patrick D. Orazio in the future. This was an exhilarating read that kept me going, and D. Orazio’s apocalyptic world is a dismal wasteland that will remain etched in your mind.
