Black Out by Tim Curran : Review

In the midst of a beautiful summer, in a perfectly American suburban middle-class neighborhood, a faraway evil is lurking, waiting to strike the unsuspecting residents.

First come the flashing lights, then the heavy rains, high winds, and finally a total blackout. But that’s only the beginning…

When the whipping black tentacles fall from the sky and begin snatching people at random, the denizens of Piccamore Way must discover the terrifying truth of what these beings have planned for the human race.

Blackout by Tim Curran is one of the newest stories in DarkFuse’s popular novella line and so far my favorite out of those I have read. With it Tim Curran tells the story of what happens when the power goes out and does not come back on again, of what happens when the stars vanish from the sky and a darkness so thick and menacing you can almost feel it descends upon the world. It asks the question of what do you do when the people around you start vanishing one by one, and those you would hope to rely on in such a situation are no where to be found. Blackout tells the story of one middle aged man and his attempt to survive what he believes to be the end of humanity.

Jon believes he lives the perfect middle-American life in the perfectly middle-class and perfectly dull neighborhood of Piccamore Way and he is completely fine with that. He is past the age of wanting excitement in his life and is content with the predictable lifestyle he now shared with his wife Kathy. That all changes when Jon wakes up one night to an almost unnaturally severe thunderstorm to find his wife missing and his neighborhood in the middle of a blackout. While searching for his wife Jon soon finds himself trying to survive with a small band of survivors who are desperately trying to evade the horrifying tentacles that have dropped from the inky blackness above and started yanking them into an unknown fate into the sky. Throughout all this Jon keeps asking himself just one question, will he ever see his wife again?

With Blackout Tim Curran wrote the perfect horror novella for me, it was just the right length to leave me feeling satisfied and while it kept you guessing at what was really going on the entire time, the conclusion was more than satisfying. It just left me with only one question, and that was why had I never heard of this author before? I would recommend this book to just about anyone who is a fan of the horror genre, and suggest to people that Tim Curran is an author to check out. You will not be disappointed!

Blackout by Tim Curran is set to be released August 19th by DarkFuse.

I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.