A Dark Matter

How do you take a fairly uninspired short story about a bunch of hippies who accidentally open a portal to hell and turn it into a full length novel? Tell it over and over again from 5 different points of view. Throw in a cast of equally uninspired characters, a dash of gore (to offset the lack of scariness) and some big words like "obstreperous" and you've got the recipe for A Dark Matter. Ta da.

Gosh, the premise of this one sounded SO good: a bunch of kids follow their guru into a meadow, something horrible happens, and the ones that don't die or disappear emerge broken, blind or insane.... It's grim, but it sounds interesting, doesn't it? Sadly, the reality doesn't live up to the premise. The story never really gets moving. It just gets retold by each of the central characters with an extra detail here and there and with not so much as an "aha!" moment at the end. I can't quite put my finger on exactly what's missing here. It just isn't good... or scary... or spine-tingling...

What I CAN put my finger on is how one-dimensional the characters are. They are cut-and-pasted out of any nameless teen slasher movie: the hopelessly beautiful girl who doesn't do or contribute anything except being hopelessly beautiful, the menacing frat guy, the menacing frat guy's side-kick, the tomboy who's "just one of the guys," the handsome natural-leader guy. Blah blah blah. And of course every one of them has "daddy issues," which is why they fall for the spellbinding, father-replacing guru guy. Why is he spellbinding? Don't know, really. Even he isn't developed much beyond the fact that he looks like Indiana Jones.

There is one exception in this cast of pancake-flat characters... and that exception is Howard "Hootie" Bly. Driven insane by the events in the meadow, he spends his life in an asylum unable to communicate except in quotes from Nathaniel Hawthorne. I was fascinated by Hootie Bly. In fact, Hootie alone was the deciding factor between the two star rating that I actually give this book and the one star rating that I considered giving it. Loved Hootie!

The Bottom Line: A lackluster, largely uninteresting read with one notable character. [This review originally appeared on my blog.]

The year is 1966 in Madison, WI. Four high school students Hootie Bly, Dilly Olson, Jason Boatman, and Eel Truax, become enamored by Spencer Mallon, a charismatic guru who promises to introduce them to a "higher reality." During an occult ritual, something goes horribly wrong, killing one teen. The four friends are forever changed, each dealt with this horrid day in a different way. Hootie was taken to a mental institution. His only means of communication is quoting lines from Hawthorne's A Scarlet Letter. Eel marries Lee Hayward, her high school sweetheart, but she eventually loses her sight. Boatman, once a shoplifter, now runs his own theft prevention company. Dilly Olson never really got over the entire situation. Decades later the group comes back together when Hayward decides to write a non-fictional account of that afternoon. Each learns that their own personal account wasn't as accurate as they believed. This reunion is the first time they have had the opportunity to share their experiences with one another. Pieces of the puzzle are finally starting to come together to form a large, broad picture.

Once again, Straub does an outstanding job. A Dark Matter is purely character-driven; the book is broken up into several parts, each devoted to detailing the account of each of the main characters. Readers are transported thirty years in a matter of pages. I was impressed at how smoothly this transformation flowed. There is potential for the novels with character-driven storylines, specifically ones with as many characters as A Dark Matter, to seem drawn-out and exaggerated. I did not feel that in this case, for I do not think the overall "feel" of the novel would have carried through had it not been for the varying and differing accounts of each of the characters.

Those demanding a defined and definite resolution might be disappointed, however I think this aspect is what makes this such an amazing book. I takes an extremely talented writer to do what Straub has done with this one: giving detailed explanations of one situation from various standpoints, yet still leaving the actual event quite vague. Highly, highly recommended book.

After thinking about it quite a bit, I have to say that Peter Straub takes a bit of a different approach to the sorts of scary stories that he writes. Unlike King, I don't believe that Straub's intentions when he writes is to simply deliver thrills and chills to the reader. Don't get me wrong, Straub can put together some really spooky stuff, but his intention isn't just to spook the reader. Instead, he really wants to explore, and he really wants the reader to explore these different ideas and concepts with him.

It's almost like his stories are more like examinations of different aspects of horror and terror. They are a glimpse at how people react and cope with horrific and terrible situations. He's more subtle, less overt in some of the things that he does, which is partly why I love his work so much.

A Dark Matter is a prime example of this exploration of horror. A Dark Matter doesn't really set out to terrify the reader. It's quite literally an examination and exploration of what happens when people cross the line and dive head first into the horrors and wonders of the metaphysical. What is on the other side of reality, and what would happen to those who get a taste of it?

So, if anybody is looking forward to some speedy page turner that sends shivers running up and down your spine, you're going to be let down. (but seriously, this was never the sort of book that Straub writes anyways and you should know that already). This book is far more introspective and subtle than any of his other books.

The plot itself, the story of Lee going around and collecting the stories, interpretations and experiences from the people who were there on that insane night in the meadow, is really interesting and engrossing. it's the story of a person trying to understand something that is essentially impossible to comprehend.

The stories themselves, are a means for the reader to really look at how people interpret things differently, and what they do with the terrible and reality-defying things that they've seen and experienced. It's a taste of the metaphysical, and in those stories you are put in Lee's place. You are given multiple chances to try and comprehend things that cannot truly be comprehended. Lee's journey is really your own in the book.

Of everything that Straub has written, this is probably the most literary. In a lot of ways it his probably his most abstract book, and for people who don't realize that or are not expecting that, I can only imagine that they're going to be pretty put off by that. I'd suggest anybody picking up this book do so with an open mind. You need to set your expectations aside and see the book for what it is, and not for what you wanted it to be.

With ADM, it seemed that Straub was going to take the same general premise as "It," but make it entirely his own. Given his credibility and recent releases (Bram Stoker winners INTR and LBLG), and his uber-creepy "Ghost Story" it seemed as though this would be what one of the critics called a "Tour De Force." Unfortunately, that novel never actually made it to the publisher. Instead, we are stuck with this; a muddled, overly lengthy, and, quite frankly, boring novel from one of the better names in Horror/Suspense fiction.

The basic premise of the book is that 4 high school students and two college students (5 males, 1 female) are drawn into the world of Spencer Mallon, a "charismatic" individual who claims that he will be able to change the world, if even for a moment. They're, somehow, drawn into this creep's world, and before long something awful happens in a meadow on the outskirts of town; one person dies, Spencer flees, and the kids are irrevocably scarred for the rest of their lives.

Sounds like a great premise, huh? Sadly, Straub decided to take an entirely different rout, which could only make me wonder why he would ruin such a great base storyline. The story is largely told in flashbacks, as was expected, but we follow around someone who, while connected with the group, didn't actually participate in the festivities. He's an extremely bland character, as are those that actually experienced the "terror;" furthermore, one of the main characters, Lee Harwell's wife "Eel," who becomes more "important" towards the end of the book, is a completely lacking character; she's blind, has developed uncannily strong senses to make up for this (not so hard to believe), and, somehow, has avoided discussing the event, in detail, with her husband throughout the years. Honestly, by the end of the book and through all the supposed suspenseful parts, I didn't care what she had to say.

I'd been waiting for months for this to be released; I've always been a fan of Straub, and anyone in the same boat can attest that this novel was poorly executed and NOT a good book for anyone look for suspense or horror. Let's hope that this is just an anomaly...Straub is too good to release anything as bad as this (more than once).

I like Peter Straub, and he has written some of my favorite horror books - but this isn't one of them. It goes nowhere and end's like a dud. It's all about the past. Something 'horrible' happens one night with four friends, two bullies, a college girl, and a sort of older cult leader figure. The husband of one of the friends (he wasn't taken in by the cult leader and declined to participate in 'that night's events' years later decides he wants to know the truth about what happen. So begins the story as most of the characters tell their version of what happened.

There is no suspense, no scares, and so real adventure. After events are told the story ends and people go on with their lives.
One big yawn. I found the book to be so ...plain...that it took me awhile to remember the story. One of Straub's strengths has always been his character and there wasn't any character who was believable - especially not the married couple. I already gave the book away to my local library for their book sale.

Peter Straub is a great story teller and he has written books that I can't put down and will write more like that. This, however isn't one of them.