gilda_elise

Isolated on the moors of northern England, the town of Moonwell has remained faithful to their Druid traditions and kept their old rituals alive, where for generations the townspeople have have decorated a cave to appease an ancient druidic custom.

However the village has been taken over by authoritarian fundamentalists, led by right-wing evangelist Godwin Mann, who preaches his intolerant brand of fundamentalism. He converts many of the people and brings a stop to the pagan ceremony. The charismatic leader rallies all but a few into fanatics who hang on his every word. Turns out, there was a good reason for the druidic ceremony of the cave. It kept an ancient, powerful entity from emerging.

But Mann goes too far when he descends into the pit where the ancient being who’s been worshipped by the Druids for centuries is said to dwell. He rouses the Druids' moon god to rise from his cave. What emerges is a demon in Mann’s shape, and the dark entity from the cave rapidly transforms Moonwell into a Hell on Earth. Some of the people are turned into sub-human creatures, and only the town’s outcasts can see that something is horribly wrong. As the evil spreads and heads toward a modern missile base to wreak havoc on the human race, Moonwell becomes cut off from the rest of the world…

One would think that the scariest thing in the novel would be the ancient entity in the cave. It’s scary, but not as scary as the fundamentalists who take over the town of Moonwell. Slowly, they suck in the townspeople, while pushing out the few who defy them. As more and more of the people are taken in, those unaffected must try to figure out what’s really going on and how to stop it.

There are some very interesting characters, though the main focus is on Diana, a teacher in the town’s school, and Nick, a reporter from outside whose interest in Diana pulls him into the darkness taking over the town. Actually, there’s a large cast of characters; perhaps a few too many. Some tended to get lost in the crowd. My biggest problem was with the ending. It felt rushed, and the resolution was anticlimactic, a deus ex machina that I didn’t care for.

But I’m glad I read the book. But there are some truly terrifying scenes in it, which more than make up for any problems the book might have had.