The Darkening

By: Paul Antony Jones

Narrated by: Laura Copland

Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the author of the best-selling Extinction Point series

"Where has everyone gone?"

That's the question 15-year-old Annabelle 'Birdy' Finch is asking. As a 100-year storm descends on Los Angeles, Birdy's not the only one looking for answers to the city's vanishing population.

A wheelchair-bound Army veteran watches the world from his apartment window, and what he sees terrifies him.

An LA detective has two missing patrol cops, a bloody crime scene, but no bodies. A desperate mother will stop at nothing in her search to find her missing daughter.

But the storm provides the perfect cover for an even greater threat; an ancient and terrible evil that stalks the city's residents, mercilessly hunting them within their homes. Together, the survivors must fight to escape their drowning city and the creatures that now roam its streets under the cover of perpetual darkness.

©2016 Paul Antony Jones (P)2017 Paul Antony Jones

Finished this in one Day! GREAT book!

Holy Cow. I loved this one. Vampires are true monsters here! I read a few reviews that said it was predictable but I had to say I didn't find the story predictable at all. It was truly spooky and delightfully scary. I won't ruined how the vampires end up coming to the U.S. but I'll start with what happens when they're here. A few dead bodies go missing from a plane crash, homeless people start to vanish, L.A. is preparing for a HUGE storm and everyone assumes the missing people are prepping for the upcoming storm. Birdy is a 15 year old parkour protege and being raised by her mother who works two jobs. (I don't know what happened here the author really played up the parkour in the beginning but Birdy never really used it escaping from the vampires I was just waiting for her to do some phenomenal leaps & tricks to escape her imminent doom at the last minute but just one minor scene and that was the end of it) Tyrese is a war vet who has lost both his legs and his wife and hasn't left his apartment in two years. He spends his time in his wheelchair by the window.............not a creepy old man its just his view to the outside world. Birdy's mom is attacked at the gas station she works at and disappears. The police come to her apartment and in order to stave off foster care she says Tyrese is her uncle. Eventually the vampires make it to their building. They call the police and Collins who was investigating Birdy's mother's disappearance/involvement in the murders at the gas station initially thinks Tyrese killed a human.....until he sees her face! Collins/Tyrese/Birdy and a homeless woman named Janine try to make it out of the city before the vampires get them. They're everywhere and have been quietly taking over the city while everyone preps for the storm. They eventually make it to Las Vegas but not everyone survives. I won't give away the ending. I loved this one and I'm hoping Paul Antony Jones turns it into a series. I'd love to find out what happens to the survivors and those that were changed!!!! More please!

4 people found this helpful

Good but took a while

Predictable is a word I saw someone say about it. Yea I would agree. But it was still enjoyable. I did however wish that the story would have started sooner rather than half of the book (spoiler? Maybe?) describing random people being murdered. I would have liked more of a build to the climax than was given but other than that it was good.

2 people found this helpful

The ending was different from what I thought.

I you dont want to know the ending, dont read this. I was really pulling for Tyrese and Birdie together away from the vampires. but the book was good.

Interesting Premise but a lackluster execution

I love a good creature feature, and had discovered (via reddit) a list of great horror audiobooks. The Darkening was on it, and reading through a few reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, I decided to pick it up.

The premise is strong, but every character feels so one dimensional - constantly spelling things out for the audience and reiterating things that we already know. The story also lacks narrative thrust - how many chapters do I need to sit through before everyone knows it’s vampires? The writer was obviously infatuated with the idea of being surprised by a vampire invasion, but I didn’t find any of them tense.

That might also have been because of the narration. Just bad direction on this one - the narrator tries her best, but she gives the main character Birdy this whiny tone that kept bringing me out of the story. Her male characters are fine, but so many of them are gruff military men (seemingly every man in this book served time in the military at some point) and she just doesn’t do gruff well.

I gave it ten hours and I’m happy to call this a bad audiobook.

Good vampire story!

Big fan of supernatural stories so this is going in my favorites list. Well done!

Meh

The story was ok, but was predictable, mostly unoriginal. It seemed like a bunch of horror tropes rolled into one. The performance was was ok as well, nothing particularly fantastic.

it is decent

I not sure how this made it through production with all the incongruities in the storyline and some of the outright ignorance of some of the characters, of the scene taking place. It is just ridiculous at times, and within two to three pages the bad guy changes from a "postal worker to a cop" ... because of inattention to the writing.

There are some good points of the book, but the bang your-head-up-against-the-wall parts far out way them.

I kept on with the book because I was fascinated with the vampires and I got hooked on rooting for the survivors. I finished it for those two reasons. I also usually look for other books the author has written if they are good. I'm not so sure I will after this one, unless it is a daily bargain or free. I wish I hadn't paid full price for this one.

The narrator did a great job. It is hard for me to listen to female voices pull off men voices, but she did a great job. I won't hesitate listening to another book she's written.

Lazy writing

The overall story was entertaining and semi unique; there are a lot of parts to this book that seem forced and lazy. Basically ignoring common logic a character was proven to understand just to put them in simple peril later on in the book. *Chair legs.

It was OK at best

The book was OK, not that great, I unlike everyone else liked the fact he had chapters where a character was introduced and killed, but the rest was just OK.

1 person found this helpful

Entertaining Read

This book was well narrated, and it will keep you engaged. I thought it was a tad predictable, but overall it was still time well spent.

1 person found this helpful

Not the run of the mill vampire or zombie story.

This is not the expected, not the beginning nor the end. Perhaps we will get a sequel with a bit of luck. Well told, kept me wishing to hear it all yet, not wanting it to end.

2 people found this helpful

Good

I really enjoyed this more then I thought I would. Good first book for me.

1 person found this helpful