The charismatic and cunning Spenser Mallon is a campus guru in the 1960s, attracting the devotion and demanding sexual favors of his young acolytes. After he invites his most fervent followers to attend a secret ritual in a local meadow, the only thing that remains is a gruesomely dismembered body—and the shattered souls of all who were present.
Years later, one man attempts to understand what happened to his wife and to his friends by writing a book about this horrible night, and it’s through this process that they begin to examine the unspeakable events that have bound them in ways they cannot fathom, but that have haunted every one of them through their lives. As each of the old friends tries to come to grips with the darkness of the past, they find themselves face-to-face with the evil triggered so many years earlier. Unfolding through the individual stories of the fated group’s members, A Dark Matter is an electric, chilling, and unpredictable novel that will satisfy Peter Straub's many ardent fans, and win him legions more.
A DARK MATTER, by Peter Straub; Doubleday, 2010; 352 pages; $26.95
Master story teller, Peter Straub’s newest novel is all about history, memory, differing points of view, with a little touch of magic and plenty of demons, of both the real and personal variety, to be slain. It is not an easy book to get through. You will not find a quick read here. It is complex and challenging but if you’re up to it, this book offers an excellent tale of terror and a magnificent story about the human condition.
In 1966 four high school friends, a couple of frat boys, and what could best be described as a groupie, join a charismatic self styled “spiritual guru” for some magical meddling in a wooded meadow. On high school boy, Lee Harwell wisely decided not to participate in the event. What happens next remains a mystery to Lee but what is known for sure is that one of the frat boys is viciously killed and the other missing. As for his three guy friends and the girl he would one day marry, they are changed forever. While most of the scares they get from that evening are psychological, for the woman Lee loves, who is also named Lee, she pays a deeper price. She slowly starts to lose her sight until eventually she becomes completely blind.
Decades later and Lee and Lee are wed and things are good…almost. While husband Lee has become a bestselling author one thing still haunts him; what his wife and his friends did during that ceremony back in the sixties. Lee, his wife, has never told him any of it and that has been a constant itch he’s waited years to scratch. Then one day at a restaurant he sees a man that reminds him of one of his friends damaged by the mysterious occult rite and Lee’s curiosity itch finally gets the better of him. He begins to interview his three secretive friends for a book he’s planning to write about the strange event and even the guru’s old groupie is tracked down and talked to. It is during these extended conversations that A Dark Matter really shines. Every one of the ritual’s surviving participants remembers things differently from that night. Lee must piece together the sometimes contradictory clues to get the merest semblance of a picture of what happened. Mr. Straub has great fun teasing the reader with possibilities and expertly handles these subjective, “eye of the beholder” type tales. Even Lee’s own perception of the interviewees sometimes subtly changes as he listens to them tell their amazing stories.
Lastly there is Lee’s wife, who despite being blind offers the clearest, most comprehensive view of what happened in that lonely meadow so many years ago. When her terrific and tragic tale is finished, she and the three friends still tortured by ritual’s events receive some measure of relief. As for author Lee, he gets a glimpse of the secret side to the woman he married and a deeper understand of many things, not all of which are welcome.
At its heart, A Dark Matter is a story about evil. It asks the question; is evil something innately human or does it come from an external source? Peter Straub wisely lets the reader chew on that over the length of the novel and at the book’s end it is still ultimately left up to the reader to decide. Mr. Straub once again has shown why he’s a master of not only horror, but of storytelling in general. I highly enjoyed this book and I’m certain you will too.
--Brian M. Sammons
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