Hold the Dark

Hold the Dark

Looking around the shelves at work for something new to read I happened upon Hold the Dark by William Giraldi. Described as “A terrifying literary thriller set on the Alaskan tundra, about the mystery of evil and mankind’s losing battle with nature.”.

It started out with some potential, and for a bit I was interested in seeing where it was going. But I soon found myself feeling irritated by the one dimensional characters, along with minor characters who were nothing more than carbon copies of one another. In the end, the potential this story showed was lost.

It was a quick read filled with repetitiveness, nonsense, bad characters, and a poor story with an ending that didn’t offer closure, or make me want more. The “mystery” felt contrived, and nothing in this story made any sense. I felt it was meant to be a bit supernatural, dark and mysterious, but it didn’t really pull it off. At least not well.

One of the reasons I read it was because on a quick google search I saw it received good reviews, and that it is being made into a film. After reading it I can’t figure out how anyone gave this more than a 2 star review (I give it a 1), or why anyone would want to make a film based on it. I’ve read various kinds of stories, and this one was one of the most disappointing.

hold the dark book