Hold the Dark

A Novel

By: William Giraldi

Narrated by: Richard Ferrone

Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

A terrifying literary thriller set on the Alaskan tundra, about the mystery of evil and mankind’s losing battle with nature.

At the start of another pitiless winter, the wolves have come for the children of Keelut. Three children have been taken from this isolated Alaskan village, including the six-year-old son of Medora and Vernon Slone.

Shaken with grief and seeking consolation, Medora contacts nature writer and wolf expert Russell Core. Sixty years old, ailing in both body and spirit, and estranged from his daughter and wife, Core arrives in Keelut to investigate the killings. Immersing himself in this settlement at the end of the world, he discovers the horrifying darkness at the heart of Medora Slone and learns of an unholy truth harbored by this village.

When Vernon Slone returns from a desert war to discover his son dead and his wife missing, he begins a methodical pursuit across this frozen landscape. Aided by his boyhood companion, the taciturn and deadly Cheeon, and pursued by the stalwart detective Donald Marium, Slone is without mercy, cutting a bloody swath through the wilderness of his homeland. As Russell Core attempts to rescue Medora from her husband's vengeance, he comes face-to-face with an unspeakable secret at the furthermost reaches of American soil - a secret about the unkillable bonds of family and the untamed animal in the soul of every human being.

An Alaskan Oresteia, an epic woven of both blood and myth, Hold the Dark recalls the hyperborean climate and tribalism of Daniel Woodrell's Winter’s Bone and the primeval violence of James Dickey's Deliverance.

©2014 William Giraldi (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Well Done

Good story, great writing and character development. And you'll learn something. Not sure you'll ever use what you learned but it's still interesting and good to know.

Beautiful , bizarre and DARK.

At the center of this story is a small village suffering the death of children, captures the parent's aloneness, mourning, debilitating grief and craving for vengeance.

"When we're killed, the past is killed. When kids are killed... that's different. When kids are killed, the future dies. There's no life without a future."

The scene is Alaska and the prose is beautiful, always clear warnings of natural dangers and hints that these people are going to end up someplace ugly.


The narrator has the perfect voice for this novel and his performance was spot-on.

Most definitely worth the listen and I'll be looking for more work by both the author William Giraldi and the narrator Richard Ferrone.

Wow!

The story grabs you from the beginning and holds your attention to the very end!!!

Not what I thought it was going to be.

All around, a pretty decent book. Very descriptive and pretty. But I was expecting a little more gore a d brutality.

Excellent, atmospheric, and beautifully performed

Compelling story with a descriptive yet forceful prose. The narrator's gravelly voice was the embodiment of Alaskan bleakness and the darkness inherent in each of us.

Disappointing twist

I got this book because I watched the movie and I felt there was something left out, something the movie didn’t explain - and I was right. I just didn’t appreciate the incest twist.

Postmodern Interpretation of Beowulf-esque Themes?

I began reading this book on the off-chance that it might be a creature feature or supernatural thriller of some kind. My tastes are pretty mundane. Instead, I found that this is a story revolving around lots of themes that I really don't like.
It is written well enough and the narrator did a fine job, but I found virtually every aspect of this work runs counter to my sensibilities. If you enjoy repetitive, 2 dimensional characters, child murder, graphic incest, among other aberrant sexual themes, this may be the book for you. If you aren't a soulless cynic who projects your own psychological/social defects and paraphilias onto the world around you, you may be better served by reading something else.

Hard to follow

The story was hard to follow. Maybe better if I read the print version myself.

Short but compelling.

After seeing the trailer on Netflix I decided to give the book a try before I saw the film. Man I was not expecting such twists from this novel. There was one point where the entire story flipped around and I was shocked at such a development. The lines are blurred when it comes to the main characters goals and the ending is not what you would expect. Time to watch the movie and see how it does!

Great film, great book!

We took this one on vacation with us!! perfect choice while flying and waiting for transfers!!