I really wanted to like this book. I haven’t read a good horror book in a long time so I was very excited by the book’s premise: children have disappeared and otherworldly mayhem is about to descend on the town of St. Marys.
It may have been the book’s translation that depleted the writing style and made it hard to immerse myself in the story. Reading it in its original French may have proved a completely different experience.
Many thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this advance copy in return for an honest review.

I was really looking forward to reading this one, however, I think it’s just a bit too...unpolished (?) for me. I do feel the translation from French to English was well done.

The Essence of Darkness starts off with an FBI agent investigating 5 missing children in a small rural area. I don’t like to give spoilers, so I’m just going to say that once he goes off searching in the woods alone, the story takes on a more sci fi/paranormal-ish type of turn, with romance thrown in there as well.

I think this story has a ton of potential. I’m a huge fan of H.P Lovecraft, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, etc. I’m also a huge sci fi fan. This book should have been right up my alley. I truly believe that if the author took time to refine the story, this would be a 4-5 star read for me. He’s a very descriptive and “technical” writer, which remined me a lot of Dean Koontz. However, Dean Koontz does a TON of research and I felt as though more research needed to be done for a quite a few areas of this book.

I also had a very hard time connecting to the characters. There was just too much filler content that I feel could have been used for character development instead.

I think some people might really love this book, it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Moonlight for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Essence of Darkness by Tom Clearlake 2 Stars
Publisher: Moonlight
ISBN: 9782956131649

I read 56% of this book and could not get any further. It started with an interesting case of missing children then kept becoming more and more convoluted. The descriptions of the Adepts and their technology were slow and did not make much sense. I labored through those parts hoping to get back to faster paced events only to once again get lost in lengthy boring narrative. I had enough.

Reviewer: Nancy

I found “The Essence of Darkness” an extremely difficult book to read. The dialogue is unrealistic (no one talks like this) and the lack of research on the subject matter is shocking. I was barely through this novel and the amount of errors was on its way to becoming a mountain.

The book is translated from the French, but I don’t think that is the problem. Author Thomas Clearlake loves a lot of description, but when it is allowed into the dialogue, the characters quickly become unrealistic. With the lack of credible dialogue, the author loses chances to flesh out Agents Cooper and Chambers. This leaves the reader with poorly drawn characters that prevent one from getting deeply involved with the story.

What we learn about the characters is a series of contradictions (and at times, simply not true). Agent Cooper is described as someone who has complete trust from the FBI, and can do whatever he wants when on a case. A conversation with his boss shows this is not true, although he is allowed to be on a case and living in a forest for weeks, which is an unorthodox procedure when you are searching for missing children. The descriptions of FBI procedures are more fancy than fact, reminiscent of a poor made-for-TV movie. One should not write about federal agencies, their procedures, and weapons (“She cocked her automatic…”) without performing at least a minimum of proper research.

There are numerous passages where the description repeats itself by using different words. Perhaps the author is trying to emphasize different aspects of the scene, and by describing something in different forms he hoped to achieve greater comprehension. When used constantly in every chapter, the word count rises unnecessarily, and we no longer need to wonder why the book is a massive 447 pages. In its present form, this book is a good first draft.

A shining note is that Mr. Clearlake does have a talent for writing horrific scenes. These are emotionally wrenching, stomach-turning moments that stand out. Unfortunately, you can’t write an entire book with only these passages, and so the best parts get lost in the mix.

Overall, this is a disappointing offering. Two stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Moonlight for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.

Oh wow this book! Edge of my seat thriller that had my heart racing! I couldn't put it down! I binge read this all day!
If you're looking for a good thriller to read I highly suggest this one!

The Essence of Darkness by Tom Clearlake
I really am kind of at a loss of words to describe this book, it is so different than what I was thinking....it is a mystery, it is sci-fi'ish, a touch of horror and a hint of romance, interesting premise with interesting characters, I know I know I am not really telling you what this book is about...I can tell you if you want a different read this may be the one for you, give it a try. This is my first from this author and I will be reading more. Thank you Netgalley and the Publishers for allowing me to read this ARC and giving you my opinion. 3.5 stars if it were possible

What starts off as a FBI police procedural suddenly plunges into a mystical thriller. In small town St Marys , Pennsylvania 5 small children have mysteriously disappeared without an apparent clue. Special agent Scott Cooper is sent to investigate the suspected kidnappings. Instead of uncovering a heinous crime, he stumbles upon a diabolical ritual involving 3 mystical women (witches?) and a child sacrifice.. He intervenes by unloading his gun into the apparent high priestess, only to have her dissipate into a cloud of swirling black particles which then envelops and consumes his body. The narrative then is woven into a supernatural dilemma involving leather bound grimoire of evil origins that allows entry into a diabolical dimension. Scott's person progressively metamorphoses into the ethereal entity of The Sentinel ... a flesh eating beast. The main plot involves an ancient culture .. Hominum Primus ... they are considered the progenitors of the human race ... and, refer to themselves as The Elders. To regenerate and return to their "rightful" position, they plunge the world into chaos ... unleashing a viral pandemic ( sound familiar?) with ensuing world wide economic collapse.
While the premise appears very interesting and compelling the actual book falls far short ... the characters are inadequately developed an appear uni-dimensional. I really had to push on to finish ... I suspect many readers will give-up on this 3 Star novel. Basically, some good ideas and concepts but not developed properly.
Thanks to NetGalley and Moonlight Books for providing an electronic uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review. ( at readersremains.com )

I was excited to read this book as the synopsis made the book sound like it would be my type of read.
Unfortunately the book did not live up to my expectations and I stopped reading after 2 chapters.

This book was a convoluted mess. There were parts that were good but the story is a mishmash of other stories, there is too much going on and in places I thought, the author was just attempting to shock the reader. The story has potential but needs to be more organized. I know this is a translation from French, maybe it is better in the original form.

This book wasn't quite what I was expecting honestly. It started off really slow and I kept thinking more would happen soon but nothing did. It's very technical too.

I was so looking forward to reading The Essence of Darkness by Tom Clearlake, but it just did not do it for me. I was looking for a story about missing kids, and this was so far from what the book is really about. I found it moved extremely slow, to the point I would skip several chapters at a time and not miss anything. The book is also full of lackluster characters. This book was originally released in French and translated, but I do not feel that the translation was to blame.

Thank you to Netgallery for the free digital copy in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. All opinions are my own.

Review will be posted to Amazon when allowed.

The Essence of Darkness is a Horror/Mystery/Thriller. I love mysteries and thrillers and am working on getting a better grip on horror. This novel was translated from French and I think that the translation was a good one. 

Still, I had trouble liking the main character at all. He's described as handsome without being aware of it, a man that almost all women are attracted to, a great lover, great at his job with the FBI, but his aloofness, even when we are seeing the story through his eyes, made it hard for me to care about the character. I really could have done without the descriptions of his sex life, some of which came from his soul mate, sometimes hook up, FBI co-worker. I just couldn't really care about this hunk of a sexually awesome man. 

All of the above made the story less than entertaining to follow but I may not be the right audience for the book. I think I was expecting more about the 5 missing children when this book is really about something else. Thank you to Moonlight and NetGalley for this ARC.

I tried really hard to get into this book, but it just didn’t work for me. I normally don’t like stopping books and don’t like giving negative reviews but it just wasn’t my thing I guess.

I really wanted to like this book. I mean, I tried to finish it but at the 54% point it was getting difficult to carry on. The concept of the story might have been a good idea -- to mix mystery with horror, science fiction, and add some romance. Somehow, however, everything got disconnected. The story became "choppy" and at that point, all fluidity was lost.

There were some good points. The horror part of the story was horrific, and there were enough graphic details to make the story gory.

I wish that I could have enjoyed the book. It seemed as though it had promise. Unfortunately, this novel did not click with me. Rating it one star -- I didn't like it.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately, I really could not get into this book. I found the book very dry and it did not hold my attention. I did not find myself attaching with any of the characters.

I could not get into this book, but might be able to at a later date. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to try it.

Even if I found the plot interesting and entertaining I couldn't connect to the characters and found hard to finish it.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Did not make past 25% of this book. To many glaring errors from musical passages misnamed to an FBI agent buying syringes off a shelf in Walmart. Story was just ok. Ideas borrowed from other better written books. Sorry, this just didnt cut it. Too many other books to read.

This was a fantasy novel which is not my genre however I couldn’t put it down. An FBI agent, Elliott is investigating the disappearance of 5 young children and comes upon what looks like witchcraft. When he goes to intervene he is enveloped by a black cloud and becomes a monster. He calls Lauren a fellow FBI agent with whom he had a previous relationship. She goes to help him and gets caught up in the mystery. The story is about their pursuit of the monsters who are trying to take over the world. There are some interesting characters along the way. Eventually they along with some resistance fighters eradicate most of the monsters and earth becomes a better place. There is suspense and fantasy in this novel, but it is mostly about how earth has become infected by plague and misunderstandings.

The book cover and the description made this book seem really interesting, so I was looking forward to reading it. I tried so many times to get into this story but it just couldn't hold my interest. I am sure some others will enjoy this story, but it wasn't for me. I feel really bad when I don't finish a book because it rarely happens and it feels rude to the author, but I just couldn't force myself to keep trying to read this. The translation was fine.