A trip to the mountains – a review of the book “Darkness”

A scriptwriter in a cabin

In the life of the hero of Darknessit’s not going well. After several years of marriage with the pharmacist Natalia, something starts to go wrong. There are more and more arguments, aggression and physical violence. The prospect of spending Christmas in such conditions seems to be your worst nightmare. The tapeworm writer’s work also generates problems in the form of a constant wave of criticism. Desiring a break from it all, the protagonist decides to spend a week in a hut in the middle of nowhere. Can you imagine a better way to cut yourself off from the problems of everyday life for a while? Nobody is shouting or disturbing you, and ideas for new stories are born in your head. What could go wrong? Unfortunately, the dream getaway quickly turns into a nightmare when, as a result of an apparently innocent action, the man loses his eyesight.

Omnipresent darkness

After the advent of complete darkness, the hero becomes almost defenseless, stripped of the most important sense for man, and we with him. Performing even the simplest activities becomes a torment. In addition, there is a threat that you will have to fight for survival. With time, it’s getting harder and harder to tell if it’s the other person or some inexplicable force. Or is it all just a product of the hero’s and the reader ‘s raging imagination? We observe how the man grasps every seed of hope, even the smallest one, but it is quickly taken away from him. We are excited about small successes on the bumpy road to getting out of this frosty hell. Appearing clues arouse in the reader the instinct of a detective, desperately trying to solve the mystery at all costs. The tension is incessant and when it seems to us when we discover something, it gets turned upside down. Jozef Karika masterfully plays with the reader, building a story full of understatements, and makes it impossible to stop reading despite the overwhelming anxiety. The author draws the viewer into his world and does not let him go until the very end.

Summary

Darkness is my first contact with the works of the Slovak master of horror. I wonder how I might not have heard of him before. Only a handful of other horror writers have managed to draw me completely into the dark world of literature. Now Jozef Karika joins this group. For a long time, penetrating the human mind has not been so scary and at the same time fascinating. The book is very quick to read, it’s really hard to put it down. I look forward to reading the author’s older novels.