Darkness

For horror fans of all ages, a twisted tale of what happens in a town plagued by darkness. If you're not afraid of the dark . . . you should be. In a town which is plunged into darkness without warning, strange things rise when no one else can see . . . and the source of the darkness may be the scariest thing of all.

Spanning the icy streets of Reykjavik, the Icelandic highlands and cold, isolated fjords, The Darkness is an atmospheric thriller from Ragnar Jónasson, one of the most exciting names in Nordic Noir. The body of a young Russian woman washes up on an Icelandic shore. After a cursory investigation, the death is declared a suicide and the case is quietly closed. Over a year later Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir of the Reykjavík police is forced into early retirement at 64. She dreads the loneliness, and the memories of her dark past that threaten to come back to haunt her. But before she leaves she is given two weeks to solve a single cold case of her choice. She knows which one: the Russian woman whose hope for asylum ended on the dark, cold shore of an unfamiliar country. Soon Hulda discovers that another young woman vanished at the same time, and that no one is telling her the whole story. Even her colleagues in the police seem determined to put the brakes on her investigation. Meanwhile the clock is ticking. Hulda will find the killer, even if it means putting her own life in danger.

“A luminous, moving and visual record of fleeting moments of connection.” —New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice A visionary work of radical empathy. Known for immersion journalism that is more immersed than most people are willing to go, and for a prose style that is somehow both fierce and soulful, Jeff Sharlet dives deep into the darkness around us and awaiting us. This work began when his father had a heart attack; two years later, Jeff, still in his forties, had a heart attack of his own. In the grip of writerly self-doubt, Jeff turned to images, taking snapshots and posting them on Instagram, writing short, true stories that bloomed into documentary. During those two years, he spent a lot of time on the road: meeting strangers working night shifts as he drove through the mountains to see his father; exploring the life and death of Charley Keunang, a once-aspiring actor shot by the police on LA’s Skid Row; documenting gay pride amidst the violent homophobia of Putin’s Russia; passing time with homeless teen addicts in Dublin; and accompanying a lonely woman, whose only friend was a houseplant, on shopping trips. Early readers have called this book “incantatory,” the voice “prophetic,” in “James Agee’s tradition of looking at the reality of American lives.” Defined by insomnia and late-night driving and the companionship of other darkness-dwellers—night bakers and last-call drinkers, frightened people and frightening people, the homeless, the lost (or merely disoriented), and other people on the margins—This Brilliant Darkness erases the boundaries between author, subject, and reader to ask: how do people live with suffering?

This ambitious study explores how important darkness--artificial darkness--was, as an actual technology, in producing not just photographs but visual novelties and experiments in cinema in the nineteenth century. The study plays out against a backdrop of urban history, where most scholars have focused on the growth of artificial light and the electrification of cities. Elcott’s study challenges that approach. In considering zones of darkness, it ranges from the sites of production (darkrooms, studios) to those of reception (theaters/cinemas/arcades) that shaped modern media and perceptions. He argues that, in the nineteenth century, the avant-garde was often less interested in the filmed image than in everything surrounding it: the screen, the projected light, the darkness, the experience of disembodiment. He argues that darkness has a history separate from night, evil, or the color black, and has a specifically modern manifestation as a media technology. We are all aware of the "velvet light trap” in photography, but at the heart of this book are technologies of darkness crucial to cinema that were commonly known as "the black screen,” but have, over time, faded from the storied discourse.

Darkness divides and enlivens opinion. Some are afraid of the dark, or at least prefer to avoid it, and there are many who dislike what it appears to stand for. Others are drawn to this strange domain, delighting in its uncertainties, lured by all the associations of folklore and legend, by the call of the mysterious and of the unknown. The history of our attitudes toward darkness—toward what we cannot quite make out, in all its physical and metaphorical manifestations—challenges the very notion of a world that we can fully comprehend. In this book, Nina Edwards explores darkness as both a physical feature and cultural image, through themes of sight, blindness, consciousness, dreams, fear of the dark, night blindness, and the in-between states of dusk or fog, twilight and dawn, those points or periods of obscuration and clarification. Taking us across the ages, from the dungeons of Gothic novels to the concrete bunkers of Nordic Noir TV shows, Edwards interrogates the full sweep of humanity’s attempts to harness and suppress the dark first through our ability to control fire and, later, illuminate the world with electricity. She explores how the idea of darkness pervades art, literature, religion, and our everyday language. Ultimately, Edwards reveals how darkness, whether a shifting concept or palpable physical presence, has fed our imaginations.

New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Alexandra Ivy turns up the intrigue, suspense, and romance in her expansive Guardians of Eternity series. In New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Ivy’s mesmerizing new romance, two outcasts are drawn into a dangerous rescue mission—and into the heart of desire . . . Ryshi—half-jinn, half-imp—is the only male who has ever managed to slip through the minotaur labyrinth and lived to tell the tale. He wasn’t so lucky when it came to stealing prized vampire artifacts. Caught and imprisoned, he now has a chance at freedom if he can rescue the gargoyle Levet from that same labyrinth. But he’ll have a minder on his mission in the petite, enticing form of Sofie, the vampire he’s been fantasizing about for a very long time . . . Sofie is shunned and feared for her ability to control others’ minds. She didn’t ask for that gift, and she certainly doesn’t want to use those powers to control this gorgeous, sensual demon. Too bad a request from the Anasso isn’t up for debate. To rescue the gargoyle, she and Ryshi have to work closely together, and Sofie is compelled to lower her defenses around him in every way—though she expects him to disappear the moment their task is complete. But now that Ryshi has glimpsed what his future could be with Sofie, he’s ready to fight for her trust, even against the darkness within . . .

Sit, stay, die. Dogs aren't always man's best friend. When Amy sees a dog stranded on the side of the highway, she knows what she has to do. She tells her dad to stop the car. She can't understand why anyone would abandon a dog in such a way, tied up and blindfolded. Amy's parents say they'll only keep the dog until they can find it a permanent home. Amy's younger sister names the dog Rover.They take Rover into their house, their family. And once he's there . . . he doesn't want to leave.Amy loves dogs. But she starts to worry when strange things start happening in the house.Objects move. Lights go off. Accidents happen.Soon man's best friend has turned into Amy's worst nightmare.The problem isn't Rover's bark or his bite - it's even creepier than that. This dog's purpose is evil . . . and if's waiting to be unleashed.

Read the final book in the DARKNESS series as New York Times bestselling author Katie Reus wraps up this action-packed series with Darkness Rising, a National Readers Choice Award winner (paranormal category)! When a bringer of death… Awakened after millennia, dragon warrior Reaper is ready to fulfill his destiny…until he sees Greer. With one glimpse, everything Reaper has ever known throughout his very long life is irrevocably changed. Greer’s his mate, he feels it in his blood, in his soul—but convincing her is another matter. The dragon clan healer finds him obnoxious and annoying, but he knows a woman’s interest when he smells it. And Greer smells like one word: mine. Meets a giver of life… Greer has spent hundreds of years using her healing abilities for the good of others, making her the polar opposite of Reaper. The ferocious war general may be an ancient, but his arrogance proves he hasn’t spent any of that time learning about women. Greer is displeased when her Alpha sends her to New Orleans with the insufferable warrior—then she sees him in action against a menace threatening to tear the city apart. Fierce, protective, magnificent…mate-worthy. Except he’s hiding something from her. Something dark and devastating that could destroy their newly forged bond. Maybe opposites doattract, but if they want to live long enough to find out, they’ll first have to save the world teetering on the brink of obliteration. Length: NOVEL Author note: This is the final book in the Darkness series and can be read as a stand-alone.