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| © Berkley |
The story, about Colin, a 14 year-old outcast who befriends Roy, the coolest kid in town, only to find out that his new friend might be a psychopath, isn’t original, but Koontz has a lot more on his mind than delivering a mere suspense novel, although The Voice of The Night works quite well as one.
Koontz, who has been very open about his childhood traumas involving parental abuse, writes here with a candor, with an urgency, that is rare in his work. On the surface, this is a compelling page-turner about a child’s loss of innocence, and the realization that the world is a much darker place than previously imagined. Colin, a “geeky” teen, who spends his time reading horror and sci-fi to escape his loneliness, is a wonderfully drawn character. He is likeable, vulnerable, and real. Which makes his rude awakening all the more heartbreaking. Slowly, as Roy reveals one layer of his psyche after another, Colin starts to see what his friend, and the world, are really like. Ghouls, monsters, and aliens are good for a brief glimpse into a darkness imagined, but true human evil is an abyss.
This is heartfelt stuff, as Koontz vividly and realistically paints an honest picture of a lonely, alienated boy, starved for attention and companionship. His father is an aggressive, gruff man, who bullies his son for being sensitive; and his mother is a self-involved, absentee parent who doesn’t really make the effort to understand the complex nature of her son and his worries.
Koontz’s writing here is solid, unfussy, and, for the most part, confident. The dialogue flows smoothly, capturing the combination of innocence and vulgarity that is unique to teenage conversations. And his command of atmosphere is impressive, conjuring an evocative feel for the small California town, its beauty, its dark secrets, with a few clear sentences, unlike the verbose, and occasionally trying, style he would later adopt in many of his novels from the mid 1990s onward. The plotting is a bit bumpy, and Roy is never fully realized as a believable villain. While the ending, though hard-hitting, is a bit rushed. But the closing lines are both moving and disturbing.
The Voice of The Night is one of the few novels where Koontz faces the dark full on, with only a glimmer of hope. It is one of his rawest, darkest books, and one of the best American horror coming-of-age novels to come out of the 1980s, preceding, and, in many ways, surpassing, the Stephen King novels dealing with similar themes that would make King one of the most popular writers of all time. Highly recommended.
Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2021.
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Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @Dark.Fantastic.AK·Writer
