I’d still consider myself a relative newcomer to Jonathan Janz’s work. I loved the Siren and the Specter, and had a few more on the shelf. When I asked the horror community what Janz book I should include with my October reading, I got a fantastic, and varied, response. Then, the man himself suggested Children of the Dark, and having backed myself into that particular corner, I acquiesced. I mean, the author would be the expert in this situation, right?

Children of the Dark starts up as a coming-of-age story, and checks all the boxes reminding us what it was like to be 15. Trying to figure out where life is going, dealing with drama between friends, and believing that talking to a girl just may be the most difficult task you’re ever going to face.

Will Burgess has had a tougher go of it than your average 15 year old, with a barely there mom, and a sweet, younger sister that he is essentially responsible for. Part one revolves around drama with Will’s group of friends, the neighborhood bullies, and, of course, teenage love. When we find out a notorious child murderer is now on the loose and may be headed towards Shadeland, we think we’ve found the crux of our story. Holy shit, are we ever wrong.

Janz strings enough plot threads through here to make up approximately three novels, and sometimes that’s not a good thing. Here, it works nicely. While professional murderer Carl Padgett probably could have held down the story, the supernatural element, which feels random when introduced, winds up tying everything together nicely. It also justifies the large scale mayhem in a way that a single killer could not have pulled off.

Janz was clearly not afraid to put his main character through the ringer, air him out, then run him through again. As a result, our remaining characters are in unique predicaments and states of mind when the story ends. This goes a long way toward setting up a sequel that Janz has announced is in progress.

The action and brutality in the story are top notch, and I found myself having a lot of fun reading it. The chapters can be pretty long, but the narrative flows at such a pace that you don’t notice. I typically enjoy books with relatively short chapters, but this really worked for me. One of the only parts that took me out of the story, was how inept, and borderline corrupt, the local police department came across.  In a story packed with relatable small-town characters, it was very close to being cartoonish.

If you haven’t gotten around to reading this one yet, procrastinate no more. There are fantastic characters, great scares, well-done tragedies, and some terrific mythology if, like me, you’re into that sort of thing.