Fell of Dark

Gr 10 Up—Erik is often silenced by headaches and suffers from more mysterious afflictions including stigmatalike bleeding. He spends his time walking, writing, waiting for his soulmate, and trying to discover his purpose on earth. Thorn is plagued by demons and the voices that come from within. Eventually, the stories of these two deeply disturbed young men collide. Though stylistically ambitious, the pacing struggles as the only real plot point comes at the very end when Erik must stop Thorn from doing something terrible. Though the imagery Downes implements is vivid, it is often violent toward children and animals. Terms such as stigmata and demons are mentioned, but are often co-opted by the disturbed characters and aren't used in relation to faith, which may offend some. While authors like Daniel Kraus, especially in his Scowler (Delacorte, 2013), use dark themes and images quite effectively, in this case it feels purely like an attempt to push boundaries and shock. Pair those issues with unreliable narration and page-long digressions on subjects like food preferences, and Fell of Dark will likely confuse and disturb far more readers than it engages.