Walk The Darkness Down Review

Walk the Darkness Down by John Boden

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Walk The Darkness Down is a hard beast to explain. Billed as a weird western, this a book that’s quite unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

This is a tale of of evil at work, and the people set on a path of confrontation with said evil. But really, it’s more than that. This is a book about human characters with different strengths and flaws. I found myself reading this fairly slowly. Although I read it in a day, it felt quite different,it was taking me a while to get through the book, but when I realized why, it wasn’t a negative. You have to savor this book plain and simple. The best way to think of it for me was like food. Sometimes you eat something with a bunch of junk calories and no nutrition, so you’re hungry and you keep eating. Other times, you eat something so densely packed with nutrients you feel full the rest of the day. Walk the Darkness Down is that nutrient rich meal. It’s something hard to explain until you experience it yourself. So why did I start talking about food? Frankly, because this is a book you have to read for yourself. Novellas I find tougher to review because of the short length, it’s too easy to spoil. With this book, it’s even more difficult to discuss without spoiling anything. That being said, I will tell you there are some creepy moments in this book. Jubal carries his sisters around on a sling. Let that sit with you for a moment. Levi is an absolute mechanism of evil. Whenever you read a chapter from his point of view, you know you’re in for an unsettling few pages. As the pages turn, the book picks up steam until you’re at the ultimately satisfying conclusion.

If you’re looking for a bloody, weird book. This is it. You’ve got weird (cosmic?) horror, blood, violence, a horrific villain, friendships, and some beautiful writing. I enjoyed Walk the Darkness Down, and I suspect most of you will too.

4/5