Synopsis:
A dark choir.
Six victims.
Six perpetrators.
A means for the scarred, abused, and powerless to take their revenge upon those who have wronged them. To make them pay the ultimate price for their crimes.
Dan Hepworth is forced to return to his home town of Scarsdale after his mother’s death where memories of fear and abuse still haunt him. His disabled sister, Lindsey, and her live-in nurse, Alison, still reside in his mother’s isolated rural house where Dan is to spend the next few days for his mother’s funeral. However, all is not right in Scarsdale. A ghostly robed man walks the hills around the town at night and unearthly singing had been heard coming from the derelict asylum across the valley.
Worse still, retired nurses and ex-patients from the asylum are being targeted at night by unknown assailants, enduring psychological and physical attacks on their person and property with the word CHOIR scrawled across the walls of their homes after each attack. When Dan’s sister, Lindsey, is visited by the robed apparition and those around her are stalked by the violent assailants, Dan begins to uncover uncomfortable truths and dark secrets about the asylum and its former patients.
Dan starts a perilous journey into the past as he gets close to finding out the identity of the nocturnal attackers, the abuse carried out on those too weak to defend themselves, and the reason why the ghostly singing can be heard from the asylum at night. Alone and isolated in the run-down former hospital, Dan will need to accept the mind-bending truth as he comes face to face with the Dark Choir.
Edition:
E-ARC
Disclaimer:
I received an Advance Reader copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for review consideration. They give me no money, nor do they in any way influence my thoughts – those are 100% my own for better or worse.
NOTE: I don’t think this was ever re-published post-Silver Shamrock’s incredible shitshow.
Trigger Warnings:
Hover for Trigger WarningsMy Thoughts:
Going in, I thought this was very much NOT going to be the book for me. Let me explain why before I move on to the part where I was wrong. This book focuses heavily on abuse perpetrated upon physically and developmentally disabled individuals in care centers. *consider this a content warning* I worked in an independent care facility for several years, at one point even managing a residential home for these wonderful folks. I loved my time there, and I treasure the individuals I was tasked with supporting. It hurts me deeply knowing that there are people out there who take advantage of some of society’s most vulnerable people. Honestly I kind of felt going in that this book was going to be all about exploiting that. Thankfully I was very, very wrong.
Rather, Dark Choir is all about payback. It’s all about righting these monumental wrongs in a tit-for-tat manner. Violence is met with violence, torment with torment. Someone is looking out for the victims here. I can’t tell you anything more than that because I REALLY don’t want to spoil what turned out to be one of the best books I’ve read recently.
It was dark and disturbing, yes, but I felt solace in the revenge aspect of it. Because I’m sorry, but those who abuse mentally and/or physically challenged people are basically the worst people alive. In fact, they’re fucking terrible and I hate them passionately. So seeing them get their comeuppance was actually a lot of fun for me.
“Even their Sunday best clothes couldn’t disguise the dead eyes and life-robbed faces. I conducted them and as one they vocalized. I say vocalized as what came out of their mouths could not be described as singing. Off key wailing and screaming.”
Don’t get me wrong though – this book heavily features abuse of vulnerable people. And it’s awful. But it never feels glorified, and it certainly isn’t lingered over. It is simply a plot device which explains the horrors that Dan Hepworth must encounter. You see, the abuse in this story goes well beyond what you initially believe. This story is really about a legacy of abuse, and the extraordinary means which became necessary to seek some semblance of justice – or possibly just retribution – depends on who you ask, I suppose.
Perhaps you’re asking how this Dark Choir comes into play. Well, remember that legacy of abuse I just mentioned? It has to do with that. Just read the book, ok? You won’t regret it. It’s very good.
About the Author:
Paul’s publishing history includes a short story in Dark Horizons, (The British Fantasy Society’s fiction magazine) about a farm that bred humans for meat. More recently a story of his was featured in issue 13 of Murky Depths magazine. This joyful piece was a satire on euthanasia entitled Do Not Resuscitate. In October 2010 one of his stories was included in the anthology Shoes, Ships and Cadavers: Tales from Northlondonshire. Edited by Ian Whates and Ian Watson with an introduction by Alan Moore (a Kindle version of this anthology is being considered by NewCon Press for release during 2011).
During spring 2011, Greyhart Press released a couple of Paul’s short stories as e-books (Fearworld and Necroforms), and followed this up in July with Babel, a short story that introduces the #Skyfire space opera/ horror universe.
In the Skyfire Saga, Paul deploys his unique blend of darkly cynical humor, and shambolic anti-heroes that somehow manage (sometimes) to triumph against the odds. Underneath the hellish set pieces, the page-turning plots, and the filthy Skyfirean vernacular, there lies a rich spiritual vein that underpins Paul’s writing. Any similarities between Paul’s anti-heroes and himself are purely coincidental.
The first Skyfirean novel, Terminus, will be released by Greyhart Press in fall 2011.
Rating:
It’s not always super fun to read, but it’s definitely good!
Dark Choir By Paul Melhuish Silver Shamrock Publishing ISBN: 9781951043193 Published: April 21, 2020 E-book, Paperback 300 pages (give or take - I can't find an official count) Author's website
