WALK THE DARKNESS DOWN BY JOHN BODEN - BOOK REVIEW

 
Walk The Darkness Down is a work by John Boden that exists in and explores liminal spaces. This exploration and occupation begins with the word count itself, which at just over fourty thousand words places it in a twilight zone between long novella and short novel. It’s the kind of length that once upon a time would instantly have been labelled unsellable, but we live in more enlightened times - and that’s a damn good thing, because Walk The Darkness Down is one of the finest pieces I have read in the last couple of years at any length.
 
And yes I know, like, and admire John Boden, so take what follows with that knowledge, but also this; no matter how much I like someone, I only review if I enjoy what I’ve read.
 
Walk The Darkness Down feels like a next level piece, to me; a new high tide mark from an author already running long on voice, characterisation, and mythos building. Walk The Darkness Down builds on the country-blue-collar hardscrabble lives depicted in both Out Behind The Barn (a co-authored effort with Chad Lutzke) and semi-autobiographical Jedi Summer, and the American mythology of Spungunion and Detritus In Love  (the latter co-written with Stoker Award winner Mercedes Murdock Yardley), and the trademark lyricism that connects all of Boden’s work, but what he’s doing here is something deeper, something harder and more elemental. Even as he nods to that past work (explicitly, in the case of Spungunion, with a lightly handled callback that stands on it’s own two feet but will delight more dedicated followers), Boden is striding forward confidently into uncharted territory, pulling us in his wake.
 
Hence the setting; 1860’s western US; or at least, a mythological version of the same. That’s not to say Walk The Darkness Down isn’t grounded; it most assuredly is, with Boden’s trademark lifeworn characters present and correct, the harshness of their day to day expressed with empathy but without mercy. What Boden does is use that grounding in real grime and dust to build a solid bedrock foundation for an arching, grand gothic narrative that walks the line between mythological and biblical (assuming that even is a line).
 
And, I mean, I could at this point list off the influences, of which there are many, and all top drawer; There’s a Barkeresque eye for The Grand Narrative, for the creation of powerful archetypes that manage to feel both fresh and ancient; especially with the ‘villain’ of the piece, who is one of the more ‘sympathy for the Devil’ monsters you’ll come across. Bradbury is all over the place, in the evocative language, the poetry of the everyday, the choice simile that just makes you grin (or grimace). King is here, too, especially Roland and his Ka-Tet, and most especially The Gunslinger, that first book full of fire and blood and brimstone. All of that, and the real classics, too; there’s shades of Greek notions of destiny and fate, and gods messing with the lives of mortals for sport, Shakespearian characterisation, again, finding humanity, individuality within archetypes, bringing them to life, whole breathed and windswept, and, yes, Biblical ideas of sin, justice, vengeance, and redemption. Thing is, when you bring that many elements together, and add in specific preoccupations/obsessions that are often the hallmark of really driven artists, what you’re left with is something that feels both part of a rich heritage, but also something, fresh, surprising; new.
 
It’s fucking brilliant, is what I’m trying to say. One of the great joys of this writing and reviewing gig is that, on occasion, you get to see writers at the beginning of their career develop in front of your eyes, from story to story, growing in confidence and stature, bringing more, digging deeper. Boden is one such writer, and with Walk The Darkness Down, there really is the feeling of it all coming together; the unique voice and tone, the epic-and-personal intertwined, all those giant influences woven together to create a new tapestry of story, a unique vision with something to say about life, and people, and pain.
 
Walk The Darkness Down is everything you want and expect from a John Boden book, but it’s also unmistakably a sizable step up from what’s come before; and, as well as a triumph on it’s own terms, a thrilling signpost of what’s to come from this writer.
 
If any of the above sounds remotely appealing to you, I urge you to get the hell on board. You won’t regret it.
 
KP
6/5/19

Walk the Darkness Down by John Boden 

Levi is a monstrous man—made of scars and scary as hell, he’s glutted on ghosts and evolving to carry out the dark wishes of the ancient whispers in his head. He’s building a door and what’s on the other side is terrifying.

Jones spent a lot of time living bottle to bottle and trying to erase things. Now he’s looking for the man who killed his mother and maybe a little bit of looking or himself as well.

Keaton is on the run from accusations as well as himself, he suffers alone until he meets Jubal, an orphaned boy with his little sisters in a sling.

Every line is not a straight line and everything must converge. A parable writ in dust and blood on warped barn wood. A journey in the classic sense, populated with dried husks of towns…and people both odd and anything but ordinary. Hornets, reverse-werewolves and one of the most vicious villains you’ll ever know are all part of it.

Pull on your boots and saddle up, we’ll Walk The Darkness Down.

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