The Dark Net

Title: The Dark Net

Author: Benjamin Percy

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017

Pages: 272

Genre: horror

Obtained: from publisher in exchange for an honest review









Summary: In Portland, Oregon, twelve year old Hannah ( visually impaired but fitted with "the Mirage" to help her see), her Aunt Lela (a journalist), Mike (on the "spectrum" of mystical beings), Sarin (high on the "spectrum"), Derek (a hacker), Josh (a journalism intern) and Hemingway (a dog) come together to fight against evil gathering on the dark net.

Thoughts: After reading a book, I sometimes have to really think about it to make a decision if I liked it or not.  Maybe the plot was a bit lacking, but I just loved the characters.  Maybe the story was great, but I just hated the setting and feel to the book.  For me, after reading a horror story,  I can easily decide if I liked it or didn't like it.  It has to be creepy, scary, or terrifying.  (Having a mystery or mysterious feel is always a plus.)  It has to have creative characters.  It has to have some sort of plot to it that is entertaining.  And most importantly, it has to have a good ending.  Many times I feel cheated by the ending of horror stories.  The book just wraps up too nicely- good beats evil- the end.  It might also have some twist ending that makes no sense or is disappointing.

I liked the Dark Net.  The author did a great job of combining the present day evil of the dark net and technological vices with traditional, ancient evil, such as demons. He took the fear of digital vulnerabilities and dependence and used this to bring in the scare factor the reader could relate to.  He also was able to bring the real world, mystical world, and cyber world together in this book.   The author's writing style is a great match for writing horror stories.  He has a way of describing with minimal words, easily bringing the reader into the dark. This kept the story moving.  Even though the book is only 272 pages, it has tiny writing.  It is not a quick read.  One of my favorite parts was the characters who were all odd.  I didn't feel like I got to know them on a deep level or anything like that.  It was just that they added some humor and / or had clever lines that got me thinking.  The author jumps from character to character having them tell the story from their perspective.  This was never confusing, and kept me engaged.

Entertaining.  Creepy and dark.  Action packed and fast moving.  A great book for the Halloween season!


                                                                    

One of my favorite activities to do in the fall is to make grape jelly.  My husband and I pick wild grapes that grow at the edge of one of our fields.  They are usually ready to pick around Labor Day.  We can tell the grapes are ready by the wonderful scent, even before we have checked to see if they have turned purple.  This year must have been great weather for this fruit.  Usually we have just enough grapes for one batch of jelly.  This year there was probably four times the amount.  After making jelly, I had some left over juice.  I usually use the left over juice in a marinade or add it to smoothies, but today I decided on grape juice.

Yesterday I boiled the grapes in water and then let the juice run through cheese cloth for a few hours.  I stored the juice in the refrigerator overnight and made jelly today.  I took the juice that was left after making jelly, added sugar to it and heated it on the stove until the sugar melted.  I had to add quite a lot of sugar since the grape juice was very sour.  We picked the grapes before a frost and when they were just ripe.  I think if they had ripened some more, I would not have had to add so much sugar.  I let the juice cool and refrigerated it for a couple of hours.  When I sat down to read, I added ice and had a delicious grape beverage.  It still had a somewhat sour aftertaste, but the grape flavor was so much stronger than the grape juice bought in stores.