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A review by sisteray
After Dark by Manly Wade Wellman
4.0
This isn't a masterpiece or anything, but I found it really charming. The dialect and polite perspective in this weird Appalachian supernatural story made up for the rather mundane structure. For the most part, Silver John just hangs out in his new friends' cabin, a bunch of weirdos keep dropping by and they venture out to explore the various creepy neighbors from time to time. And, this isn't a spoiler as the novel makes it pretty clear what's going to happen, it culminates into what you think is going to be a home invasion story.
The whole thing kind of feels like an early 80s made-for-TV movie. But one you have an endearing nostalgia for.
The thing I think I liked the most about this was the distinctly Christian magic. It made real what many Christian superstitions perpetuate, including the I Ching parallel of opening a bible to see what random quotes predict, The Sator Square, etc. It doesn't really come across as goofy and totally works well in the world he paints.
The Appalachian propriety both makes this book uniquely compelling in a horror story, but also makes everything rather absurd and long winded as characters are in serious danger, but people feel compelled to talk things out constantly. But it all works well enough.
Having now read Wellman's first two Silver John novellas, I feel that while I enjoyed them, they both might have been better trimmed tighter to novelettes. That's not going to stop me from reading the rest of this series, eventually.
The whole thing kind of feels like an early 80s made-for-TV movie. But one you have an endearing nostalgia for.
The thing I think I liked the most about this was the distinctly Christian magic. It made real what many Christian superstitions perpetuate, including the I Ching parallel of opening a bible to see what random quotes predict, The Sator Square, etc. It doesn't really come across as goofy and totally works well in the world he paints.
The Appalachian propriety both makes this book uniquely compelling in a horror story, but also makes everything rather absurd and long winded as characters are in serious danger, but people feel compelled to talk things out constantly. But it all works well enough.
Having now read Wellman's first two Silver John novellas, I feel that while I enjoyed them, they both might have been better trimmed tighter to novelettes. That's not going to stop me from reading the rest of this series, eventually.