BOOK REVIEW: DARK WOOD DARK WATER BY TINA CALLAGHAN

30/8/2018

by tony jones

Irish public librarian makes a splash with impressive YA horror debut

We’re always on the lookout for new talent in the YA horror world and Tina Callaghan’s fine debut novel “Dark Wood Dark Water” really caught our attention. Kids who enjoy dark fiction, aged 12+, will find much to enjoy in this unsettling tale which I sped through happily over a couple of evenings. The plot has a convincing balance of the supernatural, family/teen drama with an excellent sense of time and place. The brooding small town where the novel is set dominates proceedings and is an atmospheric backdrop for a skilfully told yarn of the uncanny perfect for enticing bored kids away from their mobile devices.

The town of Bailey is a place to avoid (thankfully it only exists in the imagination of the author!) and is almost portrayed as a character in itself. However, this Irish town has problems, big problems. Something evil has a weird long-standing hold over the town, people die (often drowning) and nobody seems to truly notice or care and they are quickly forgotten until the next death. This evil presence is skilfully and believably portrayed, and the uncanny fog which has a stranglehold over the town is a key component in the success of the novel.

One of the opening sequences illustrates perfectly how the weird phenomena operates; a young man stands at the river edge and is initially thinking of how much he is looking forward to returning to university and escaping Bailey once again. But out of the blue a powerful compulsion to move closer to the river edge, thinking that the water just looks so perfect, comes over him. Before you know it, he jumps and Bailey has another unexplained death on its hands. Every family in this town has its tragedies.

The three main characters are older teens old teenagers whom have all lost someone close to them. Kate and Gabe have been best friends for years, with Josh joining the trio after he saves Kate when she is pushed into river and almost drowns. Josh is instantly attracted to Kate and together the three begin to look more closely into the mystery and its possible origins. But the deeper they dig, the more likely it is that the evil will turn its force in their direction.

There is also a strong historical element to the novel which introduces the origins of the evil which shrouds the town, much of which is effectively told through dream sequences. However, put yourself in the head of a young teen, and I did wonder how engaged they would be with these ‘Old Ireland’ sequences. They meandered somewhat and I am also not sure how impressed they will be by the origins of the curse which controls Bailey. It’s no Pennywise and as a ‘Big Bad’ I have seen a lot scarier, even in children’s books. If the projected sequel does materialise then I think the evil needs to be more defined and, well, eviler, if that makes any sense. It’s all relatively ‘PG’ level and lots of twelve-year-old kids will have read a lot nastier, but on the other hand it is a safe read and suitably for any kid in secondary school.

“Dark Wood Dark Water” is greatly enhanced by a full range of support characters who either enable the evil or are influenced by it, and drift in and out of the novel. This helps develop a fuller picture of the town of Bailey and takes the heat from the three main characters. It also gives the author to build effective supernatural set-pieces with smaller characters, such as a boy who strangles to death a girl he walks home with after a party without ever realising why he did it, or another who pushes Kate in the river and has no clue why they did it.

Tina Callaghan has a superb quote on the title page from Peadar Ó Guilín, author of “The Call” whom we have featured on Ginger Nuts several times: “’Dark Wood Dark Water’ is the sort of story Stephen King would have written if he'd grown up in Ireland -- a read-in-one-sitting, sleep-with-the-lights-on sort of book”. This is a good and accurate headline from Peader, however, perhaps he is also eluding to the fact there are a number of similarities to Stephen King’s “It”. Of course, your average young teen is not likely to notice, but the Big Bad in this novel is not a million miles away from Pennywise, and the Irish town of Bailey is controlled in a similar way to how Pennywise influences Derry. King uses the sewers in Derry, Callaghan uses the river in Bailey. These are merely observations through adult eyes and has no bearing on how a child will enjoy it. Callaghan is probably a Stephen King fan and wears her influences on her sleeve and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Like Peadar Ó Guilín “The Call” Callaghan convincingly blends in elements of Irish folklore, for instance, ‘fetches’ are doppelgänger shape-changer creatures which make several note-worthy appearances. Interestingly chilling occurrences can happen in the middle of the day, when lots of people are around, this only adds to the atmosphere and the danger the central characters find themselves in. After all, the river snakes its way around the town and so the threat is never way away.

This was a convincing debut from an author who is one to watch. If you have a child around 11-14 who likes creepy books or are looking to buy a present for a friend’s child, or you dream of reducing the hours your child plays on online guff like “Fortnite” then “Dark Wood, Dark Water” may do the trick. An impressive, ambitious and entertaining debut.

Tony Jones