Over the last decade or so, (starting in the mid-2010s) one of the shining dark stars of horror fiction is Jonathan Janz. His first novel, The Sorrows, was published 2011 and over the next 5 years he published another 9 novels, culminating in Children of the Dark in 2016 by Sinister Grin Press. Unfortunately, the Sinister Grin press edition had been out of print for several years. That is, until Cemetery Dance gained the rights and published a slightly updated version of the novel in January 2024. The novel fits comfortably in that very popular sub-genre (?) or storytelling template of horror: kids vs. monsters and is as good a take on that kind of story as I’ve ever read.
Fifteen-year-old Will Burgess is used to rough times. Abandoned by his father, son of a drug-addicted mother, and charged with raising his six-year-old sister, Will has far more to worry about than most high school freshmen. To make matters worse, Mia Samuels, the girl of Will’s dreams, is dating his worst enemy, the cruelest upperclassman at Shadeland High. Will’s troubles, however, are just beginning.
Because one of the nation’s most notorious criminals—the Moonlight Killer—has escaped from prison and is headed straight toward Will’s hometown. And something else is lurking in Savage Hollow, the forest surrounding Will’s rundown house. Something ancient and infinitely evil. When the worst storm of the decade descends on Shadeland, Will and his friends must confront unfathomable horrors. Everyone Will loves—his mother, his little sister, Mia, and his friends—will be threatened. And very few of them will escape with their lives.
Will is a 15-year-old high school baseball player in a small-town in Indiana. Will is a good pitcher, he has a couple of very good friends, but his home life is less than ideal. He doesn’t know who his father is and his mother is an addict, essentially leaving Will to be the “parent” to his younger sister, Peach. The girl he likes is dating his enemy, the biggest jock in the school. As if that weren’t enough, the “Moonlight Killer,” the most notorious serial killer in the country who happens to be from Indiana. But is the Moonlight Killer the one responsible for people being snatched away? Because there are the local legends of “The Children,” humanoid monstrosities that have lived below the surface of the earth.
Janz does a great job of establishing Will at the center of this novel and he provides a believable supporting cast around Will. From his two closest friends, to his crush, to the other baseball players who bully him, to Will’s little sister Peach, to the adults in the town, these are all people we may be able to recognize. These characters are a great cast and form a wonderful foundation so that when the inhuman monsters show up, they are equally believable.
We’ve got human monsters and inhuman monsters in the shadows with Will as the only one who seems to know the truth of the increasing number of disappearances. The local police can only see Will as the son of an addict, so when Will starts talking about stark white claws on the things that attack his friends, they do not believe him and think only the worst of him. What I found refreshing; however, was that the federal agents believed Will. Or at worst, the agents didn’t immediately dismiss him.
A lot is packed into this one: growing up without a father, living in the shadow of a parent who is an addict, a family that is not the happy veneer it seems to be, teens being seen as dishonest, standing up for yourself and those you love. With all those emotional elements, Janz brings plenty action to the story. Some wonderful, tense, gripping set pieces when the monsters and humans come into physical conflict with each other were fantastic and felt genuine. That is, if I was in that scene with people I knew who were counterparts to the fictional characters, I could potentially see the people I knew acting similarly.
When Children of the Dark first published in 2016 it happened to be an interesting time because another story focusing on “kids vs monsters” took the country (and world) by storm – Stranger Things. Janz and the Duffer Brothers are clearly pulling from some of the same influences like 1980s horror and Stephen King and both stories are set in Indiana. Oft times, these kinds of things happen where two creators (or sets of creators) happen to release something similar at the same time because of that shared source of inspiration.
Since I “discovered” Janz’s writing a couple of years ago, Children of the Dark is the one I found myself most curious about and interested in reading. It had a reputation as an “instant classic” of the horror genre so of course I wanted to read it. But it wasn’t readily available as it was published by a small press in a rather limited run. Enter Cemetery Dance publications, who published the edition I read in January 2024. I understand Janz made some tweaks to the novel.
When this new revised edition was announced, Janz & Cemetery Dance also announced a sequel, Children of the Dark 2: The Night Flyers. When I finished this book, I was thankful that I would be able to read that sequel sooner rather than having to wait because the ending is a bit abrupt and all but promises that Will’s story is far from over.
Children of the Dark is my favorite Jonathan Janz novel at this point and very quickly ascended my all-time favorite list of horror novels.
Highly Recommended
© 2024 Rob H. Bedford
Paperback (Reissue) | January 2024
https://jonathanjanz.com/
Review copy purchased
