REVIEW : THE NIGHT JUST GOT DARKER BY GARY McMAHON

“I can tell you a dozen different stories. This is what we are: a collection of stories that we share, in common. This is what we are to each other.”  - Graeme Joyce - The Silent Land 

THE NIGHT JUST GOT DARKER

After reading Gary McMahon's The Night Just Got Darker, the above quote from Graeme Joyce immediately sprang to mind. As that is all we really are, we live and we die. If we are lucky enough to have made an impression, good or bad, on those who we have met, then our story will continue.  But what if our story wasn't really our story to tell?  What if our story was constantly being rewritten, edited and published by a mysterious writer, desperately trying to hold back the darkness, shaping our world so the very worst of human nature is held in check.    

In essence  that is what this latest offering from Gary McMahon is about.  I say in essence as this is not a merely a simple tale, it is a multilayered story that deals the breakdown of relationships, blame, the futile quest for control of ones life from outside influences, and the fact that despite what we do we are doomed from birth.  

Expertly, written with an emotional depth that stabs straight to the heart, The Night Just Got Darker  is  deeply moving story, almost as bleak and nihilistic as anything Gary has previously written, it is clear that this is a very personal tale to him.  I cannot help but feel that Gary is the mysterious writer of the story.  A writer who with every story he writes gets ever more scarred both emotionally and physically.  

There are some weighty issues presented in this story, and Gary cleverly doesn't tie these all up in happy ending full of resolutions.  The story like life is never has all the answers.  

The Night Just Got Darker  is one of those stories that reviewers both love and dread.  We love it as it allows for a review that states the more we talk about what happens the more we will lessen the power of the story. It is also one that fills us with dread as we sit here wondering how to write a review that makes you go and buy it. 

So take my word for it this is a book that you really should read, it is raw, emotional and deeply moving.  A powerful fairy tale for an urban generation.  

The Chapbook will be released from KnightWatch Press

PURCHASE A COPY HERE    (Just scroll down for the book)

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