"Born to the Dark" by Ramsey Campbell is a chilling and atmospheric tale that delves deep into the realm of psychological horror. With its haunting narrative and expertly crafted suspense, this novel is a must-read for fans of the genre.

Campbell's writing style is nothing short of masterful. He weaves a dark and intricate narrative that draws readers into a world where the line between reality and nightmare blurs. The author's ability to create an oppressive atmosphere is exceptional, and his descriptions of the eerie and unsettling are vivid, to say the least.

Fantastic, atmospheric horror from the master. Another classic Campbell scenario; the chills build slowly but relentlessly until a truly creepy conclusion.

The second of the trilogy featuring Dominic, Jim and Roberta plus of course the Noble family. About 30 years have passed since the adventures began with a new teacher at the school but now Dom has a son of his own and is worried. Ramsey Campbell can definitely make things creepy, very creepy indeed and there’s always a feeling of dread in his tales. Conversations did feel older than the 80’s and there were some moments of tedium. All in all, well worth the read but probably during daylight hours as the book is dark enough!

It's been a bit more than thirty years since the events of the first book in Ramsey Campbell's The Three Births of Daoloth series (this is the second book in the series). Dominic Sheldrake is now married and has a son of his own and he's hoping he can finally put the incidents with Christian Noble behind him. But his son, Toby, is having nighttime seizures and nightmares, bringing back some terrifying memories.

Dominic and his wife Claudine have found a clinic that addresses the issues which Toby suffers from and it seems his symptoms are becoming more common. Are these shared visions? Is Christian Noble somehow behind this and is he taking aim at the world?

Dominic will need the help of some old friends to confront a familiar, growing evil.

Ramsey Campbell is a powerhouse in the world of horror literature but if you are looking for horror that is aggressive, slasher, or splatter, then you might be disappointed. Campbell's horror is slow and methodical. Think Lovecraft, not King.

Campbell's horror is based on character - on people - and Campbell really understands what makes people tick, what drives them, and what terrifies them, and then he builds on to intensify each aspect.

What works especially well here is the history. Knowing that Dominic has survived a rough youth and his experiences with the betrayal of a trusted guardian, a teacher, puts the reader on edge immediately, and Campbell plays with this, making Dominic and Claudine's life seem somehow idyllic. But we know the kind of book we're getting in to and we can watch the horror build up, almost painfully slowly. But that in itself builds anxiety.

I wasn't a big fan of Christian Noble in the first book, but here it's Noble's daughter who has taken up her father's mantle and she makes a great foil in the story.

I did find the book a bit slow, but overall I enjoy this 'slow-boil' sort of psychological horror.

Looking for a good book? Born to the Dark is the second book in a trilogy by Ramsey Campbell. It is methodical psychological horror, which definitely isn't for everybody, but fans of the genre will want to dig in.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

BORN TO THE DARK, Book Two in The Three Births Of Daoloth Trilogy – by Ramsey Campbell

I love the story's premise, wherein Campbell creates some spectacular creepy imagery in scenes aligned with dialogue that made me cringe.

Where the novel fell flat was in the slow burn, a few moments that felt monumental to me—thus escalating the tension (Yes!)—was followed by day-to-day nonchalance, as if what we just witnessed never happened, and what felt like too much time in Dominic’s head as he examines/overanalyzes other characters' perceived intentions and actions, though some appear seemingly mundane to this reader.

As a parent, however, it’s easy to empathize with Dominic as he battles internal and external foes in pursuit of saving his marriage whilst protecting his son…

‘[J]ust then I believed that Christian Noble was no longer our concern. I suppose that was a kind of faith. I might as well have put my trust in the neon signs that lit up the streets – in imagining they had done away with the infinite darkness that surrounded us when they couldn’t even hold it back.’

Thank you, NetGalley and Flame Tree Press, for providing with an eGalley of BORN TO THE DARK at the request of an honest review.

Unfortunately, I just didn't along with this story. It had potential to start with but I found it very slow going and it just didn't have that hook for me. I couldn't really appreciate the characters, they were both annoying and they grated on me a little. I would also like to point out that the author didn't write female characters in a very favorable light. Overall, not a story for me but I appreciate the publishers providing me with a review copy.

Born to the dark is the second book in the Three Births of Daoloth trilogy, though I think you could read this as a stand alone. The events in the first book were discussed in enough detail that you could follow along easily. However, I do suggest reading it because it was as good as the second one was!

This book has fast forwarded 30 years after The Searching Dead and we have our same narrater Dominic Sheldrake, who is an adult now married with a young boy named Toby. Toby has been diagnosed with sleep seizures and they (well Dom's wife Lesley) decides to enroll him in an institution by the name of Safe to Sleep. They were referred to this place and Dom decides to do some investigation and uncovers something quite shocking. I loved the way that the story unfolds at Safe to Sleep and it becomes very frustrating as a reader that no one believes Dominic. In true Ramsey Campbell style, this atmosphere is unsettling and has that hint of weirdness. I really enjoyed the mixture of the dreams as part of the horror factor and it ties quite well with a few events of the first book. It certainly makes you feel like you shouldn't fall asleep because who knows what nightmares you might have?! The last couple chapters were pretty trippy with feelings of claustrophobia and things unknown in the dark. I also really liked how they set up the third book, The Way of the Worm. Very excited to pick it up!

Thank you to Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ramsey Campbell is a master of horror and this book kept me on the edge in a sort of lisergic and slow burning trip.
His imagery, the plot development and the storytelling are masterful. You feel the dread and you are terrified by what you are reading. It starts with the sweet image of a happy family and then drives you into madness
I loved the first book in this series, The Searching Dead, but this is better.
I can't wait to read the last part of this trilogy (The Three Births of Daoloth)
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I was approved to receive an e-Galley ARC of Born to the Dark (Bk 2 of the Brichester Mythos Trilogy), authored by Ramsey Campbell from Flame Tree Press and NetGalley, for review consideration. What follows below is my honest review freely given.

I rated this novel 3 stars. We now see the Tremendous Three as adults and grown distant from one another.

I have no problem with slow burn novels, but here I think the difference is that the locations are limited so some of it felt repetitive, which in turn made the length feel somewhat excessive. I’m not sure that it would fit wholly into a novella, but a shorter middle volume feels like it might flow better as part of the series. Will have to read the last book to be able to form my opinion, which that’s all it is, my opinion. As other reviews have said, it can stand alone and if read by itself the length and pace hits different to me. As the second in a series I think it could be tighter. But I still enjoyed it, and Campbell still made me fear the dark and shadows and mirrors and a whole slew of things I know I’m forgetting until I try to lay down tonight and sleep. He is a master of the quiet horror, the kind attached to the real or fantastical; either way it’s building until you are quivering mass on the floor unable to move.

I do wonder what the third volume will bring, how far in the future will the time jump be this time? Will we still be seeing things from Dominic’s point of view? The Noble family has been able to do what they will in a world without modern technology, it would be interesting/horrifying to see what they would be able to do with it. They seem to fear the things they search for, I’m curious if they are fully in control of the endeavor to release them on the world? Bad people can be pawns too, right?

The second part of Campbell's Lovecraftian trilogy The Three Deaths of Daoloth (after The Searching Dead) takes us to 1980s Liverpool, a city in the midst of political turmoil and confrontation with the London government. But film studies lecturer Dominic Sheldrake is involved in a more personal struggle, as shadows from the past seem to be reaching out for his adored son, Toby. In a story that very much continues from the earlier book, Campbell injects a sense of unease from the off: returning from a meet-up with old friends in London, Sheldrake seems inordinately concerned over a dropped phone call and the fact that, when he rushes into the house, he can't immediately find the boy. We might wonder why.

It's only partially explained when we learn about the seizures and sleep problems that have afflicted the boy since childhood - there does still seem to be a vein of over-protectiveness in Sheldrake who's suspicious even of the treatment that his wife Lesley seems, after endless medical consultations, to have found. That seeds an unease between the parents, something that will only grow as Sheldrake delves into his own history and begins to see echoes of events that he experienced in his childhood, events involving a sinister cult.

I adore Campbell's finely-crafted horror, which relies less on shock and gore than on cultivating a nagging unease as his protagonists explore their, often urban, landscapes. Born to the Dark is a fine example, exploiting the unsaid, the misunderstandnings, the awkward frictions in daily conversations to suggest that all may not be well. Without at all needing to invoke the uncanny, almost all the interactions here are difficult, cross-purposed and, ultimately, lacking in a full sense of communication. Sometimes Sheldrake shares in this view, pointing out things that were missed or sidelines, sometimes we're left to draw our own conclusions. Staying on top of life is, Campbell shows us, hard work, with a constant risk of going off the rails (or even falling off the ferry, given Liverpool's geography).

That's pressed home by the conflict in all areas of Sheldrake's life - the increasingly acrimonious exchanges with Lesley are matched by interventions from the irritating figure of the university vice-chancellor, Dominic's boss, who's hyper-sensitive to complaints from the students about the content of his film-studies course. The root of the trouble seems to be the response of religious members of the class to Dominic's instinctive scepticism, which is ironic given his past encounters with the occult might give him grounds for belief in something, if not anything orthodox. But it does mean he is continually harassed and nagged, in a context where he might otherwise have some respite from the difficulties in his marriage. Instead, we see a portrayal of a man pushed from all directions, increasingly believing that he and his family are being targeted by unseen forces but - in trying to explain his fears - only making himself seem obsessed or even deranged.

It's all done very slowly and gradually and, in having an innocent boy at its centre, one for whom there seems no help, seems deeply, deeply sinister - an impression only magnified by a somewhat comic pair of policemen (if they really are) who take to harassing Dominic. They present as both funny and deeply creepy, suggesting that the forces at work here are active not just in dark backstreets and remote isolated mansions but in brightly lit corridors and streets of the city. Indeed, the rough ride that Dominic gets from officialdom in general backs that up and suggests a connection between him and his city, both estranged from the powers and principalities that given them.

All in all, a disturbing and suggestive read, one that achieves its effects by hinting at a taint in everyday life rather than through setpiece supernatural theatrics, and is all the more effective for that.

I'd recommend.

It's a rare treat reading a book series, isn't it? It's interesting to sit back with the characters and see what's been going on since the last book. Dominic Sheldrake is definitely someone I wanted to check back in on, so here we are!

It's been 30 years since Dominic encountered his former school teacher Christian and his daughter Tina. Encountering them and what they had brewing is something Dom was all too happy to forget. He's gotten a job teaching film and he's married with a young boy named Toby. When Toby begins having seizures in his sleep, cracks start appearing in this happy family's life. When Dom's wife Lesley, begins a new treatment for Toby without even consulting Dom, things get a bit tense. Even more tension builds as Dom discovers who it is that's administering these treatments. You guessed it! Christian and Tina. Will Dom be able to extricate his son from their evil clutches? Will Dom be able to get anyone to pay attention to their evil doings? Will Dom's marriage survive all this? You'll have to read it to find out!

This book was an experience in frustration for me because I was yelling at Dom the whole time. Every time he tries to warn people about Christian and Tina's practices no one believes him, including his own wife. When he goes about trying to get proof, he's deemed obsessed. Even his old schoolmates don't believe him, until one of them finally offers to help. It's all so tension filled and frustrating. I just wanted to yell at all of them, "Don't you see? Don't you see what he's doing?" I felt Dom's pain and anger through and through.

Then comes the scary bits. Unlike the first book this has more serious cosmic horror leanings and that is my favorite sub-genre of horror. That endless darkness, those stars that look so plentiful in our sky are actually light years away from each other. What could be sleeping out there in the darkness? Some kind of God with moons for eyes? Biding its time. Waiting.

Just like me: waiting for the last book of this series! Highly recommended and bring on the third!

*Thank you to Flame Tree Press for the paperback ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*

**BORN TO THE DARK is another fabulous entry in the Flame Tree Press line. This is a line that features renowned authors like Ramsey Campbell, as well as excellent but lesser known talents on the horror scene like Jonathan Janz, Hunter Shea, and John Everson. If you like horror and dark fiction, you should check them out!**

This story takes place in the year 1985 Dominic Sheldrake and his wife Lesley have a five year old son (Toby) of superior intellect but has suffered nocturnal seizures from almost his birth. They have tried everything to help Toby with his condition but nothing has worked until Tony's pediatrician recommends a center called "Safe To Sleep" where other children with his same disorder are being successfully helped. Lesley wants to enroll Toby immediately since his doctor also has her infant son enrolled as well. Dominic has reservations because he wants to research the center more but Lesley has already made the commitment without discussing it with him and this becomes a huge point of contention between the couple. As time goes on, Toby seems to be doing better yet he tells these frightening stories and draws pictures which scare other children about what he sees when he's asleep. Dom becomes nervous and somewhat paranoid because some of these stories are nightmarish reminders of some horrific things he was witnessed and became involved in when he was only thirteen years old at a supposedly Christian school and no-one believed what he claimed to see and hear except his two friends at the time with whom he stays in touch. He wants to take Toby out of the center but Lesley fights him tooth and nail saying Dom doesn't want the best for their son. Lesley thinks there is something mentally wrong with her husband and wants a separation. (What the heck is wrong with this woman). Dominic keeps digging and finds out who the pediatrician really is along with her devil of a father and there is something very wrong and creepy about her infant son Toph (Christopher). The more Dominic digs and the subtofuge he discovers may not leave much time if any to bring his son back from the developing evil that is taking place within the sinister yet small group that have control over the minds of many children along with his wife who appears to have fallen under their spell. Strange and eerie sights and sounds begin to take hold of Dom every day so he now must rely on his friends Bobby (Roberta), a journalist and Jim, a police officer to help save the young children, especially his son before it's too late because pervading evil is residing in their small town and it wants to devour everything and everyone in ITS GRASP.

I really enjoyed this slow-burn horror story which starts out nice and easy with a loving family who are well liked and respected in their community while slowly and eerily building with the feeling of horror just slightly out of sight and reach. The word and world building was very special in creating a sense of creepiness and impending doom within my imagination. The women in this story were completely unlike able for me, I found many very dispicable and obnoxious in their mannerisms. Lesley (I couldn't stand her), she was a terrible mate (imo), she seemed to undermine everything Dominic would say or do especially concerning Toby and she was completely unsupportive and lacked any affection even when he was injured and completely vulnerable. She took advantage of the situation and kept Toby in the program against all of Dom's pleas and then, even contacted a lawyer about divorce! (What a wacko and a cold fish.) It seemed all the women were this way. Lesley was a mess in every way to me and I don't know why he wanted to keep this farce of a marriage together. Lesley seemed to hold all the power and didn't seem to love Dominic (imo, again). So, I guess this made the story all the more intriguing to have all these unlikeable, irritating and strong characters that didn't seem to care about anyone's opinions or feelings except their own. With all that said, the story was atmospheric, psychological eerie, intense, creepy and imaginative. All the spookiness simmers below the surface waiting for your own imagination to take hold of the horrors that lie underneath. This was a 2nd book in a trilogy which I didn't realize at first yet definitely can be read as a stand-alone and I plan to read the first book and can't wait to read the third book in this series. There isn't any fast action until the last 20% of the book and then you won't want to out the book down even for a second. If you enjoy slow-burn horror or just a good horror story without all the bloody gore and slashing that is written in other stories then please, Pick Up This Book!

Warning: There is a character who does exude racism at times so this could be found offensive to some readers but it is only from one character and sadly this was a true fact of life for many people to express themselves openly back in (1985).

I want to thank the writer "Ramsey Campbell", the publisher "Flame Tree Press" and Netgalley for the plot to read this wonderful novel and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given this book a rating of 4 SINISTER AND INTRIGUING 🌟🌟🌟🌟 STARS!!

This the review that appears at https://www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk/ramsey-campbell/born-to-the-dark-the-three-births-of-daoloth-2/

Born To The Dark (The Three Births of Daoloth #2)
David Allkins picks up Born to the Dark, the second in Ramsey Campbell’s Three Births of Daoloth trilogy, full of subtle cosmic terror, which demonstrates ‘skill gained from decades of writing’.
It is over thirty years since the events in the first book in the Three Births of Daoloth trilogy (The Searching Dead), with Christian Noble having vanished and the cast of characters having got on with their lives. In 1985, Bobby has become a right-wing journalist; Jim is a police inspector; Dominic Sheldrake has married and become a film lecturer. His five-year-old son Toby is suffering from nocturnal seizures, and is admitted to a clinic (‘Safe To Sleep’) for children with similar problems. The syndrome is spreading across the country under the name of ‘nocturnal absence’. But Toby starts to talk about shared dreams of a face in the dark; Dominic begins to worry that the legacy of Christian Noble lives on, and is working towards some longer-term aim.

While this is the second book in a trilogy, it can also be read as a solo volume: it covers all the need-to-know parts quickly in the first chapter. The main fact the reader needs to know is that Noble is dangerous, Dominic has had experience of this, and then the narrative starts to build.

While the first book was about a child facing supernatural evil, this story is about a parent becoming afraid for their child. Dominic’s concerns for Toby begin with the ordinary moment when a child says something strange – something that could be read as anything – until he realises how it relates to Noble’s writings. Of course, as his fears grow, Dominic’s relationship with his wife becomes strained, leading to the risk that he could lose his family even if he saves his son: another very real adult fear.

The Lovecraftian cosmic terror which began in the first book continues here with the protagonist’s dreams and visions. Campbell moves into a wider-ranging exploration of horror at the vast scope of the universe and its unknowable, vast, uncaring forces. The themes of cosmic horror are contrasted with the book’s references to Christian faith: Dominic is running a course on the Christ-figure in film. It can be argued that while religion is about forming a connection with god, cosmic horror is about the possibility that if a god existed, it would be beyond the cares or the comprehension of humans.

Of course, this fits into the way Campbell’s prose renders the world: the everyday becomes a source of paranoia and fearful implications through a slow and carefully managed build-up. Not just in situations such as being confronted by the police, this paranoia can be found in the mentions of disturbances ascribed to rats, or in a field that appears to have gained a sense of wrongness just by being near the ‘Safe To Sleep’ Clinic:

‘Hoping I hadn’t much further to tramp through the oppressive vegetation – the swollen stalks that kept nodding closer, the smell that reminded me more of mold than grass, the omnipresent barley greenish pallor that made the field look like a faded representation of itself.’

This book treats the 1980s with no shiny nostalgia for fashion and the culture. It’s an era of casual racism, social unrest, and the demonisation of people who need social security. There’s also a reference to the ‘Satanic Panic’. Bobby’s book ‘The Entitlement Trap’ – arguing that people were tougher and better at coping when they were young – is linked to the aims of the clinic’s management:

‘The world isn’t ready for the truth yet, but the children will be. Anybody who’s involved will. We can’t stop what’s coming, we can only prepare and they’ll be more prepared than most.’

This idea is made even more disturbing with what Toby and the other children refer to in their drawings and stories. But – as this extract shows – the antagonists do not drop into rants; they conduct themselves with a calmness and self-assurance which makes their actions even more disturbing. There may also be a link to another aspect of 1980s culture: the fear of possible nuclear war. Do they think they are shaping children to survive the end of the world? Is that what is planned for the final book? While Ramsey Campbell has previously explored experimentation with dreams (in his 1983 novel Incarnate), the use of children here may be inspired by The Damned (UK, Joseph Losey, 1962) where radioactive children were created to survive a nuclear war.

Born To The Dark demonstrates how Campbell has risen to a level of skill gained from decades of writing. It takes cosmic horror, removes all traces of slimy tentacles, and turns it into something that asks if the human mind could stand contact with the face of god. This is combined with Campbell’s knack of giving the reader just enough information to understand that something is wrong – and making everyday things sinister. The final volume in this series looks to be spectacular. But for now, this is a great story that can be enjoyed on its own, and one which is highly recommended for all fans of British horror novels.

Born to the Dark by Ramsey Campbell is the second book in The Three Births of Daoloth trilogy. It picks up thirty years from the events in The Searching Dead. Dominic Sheldrake is all grown up and is now a professor married to another professor. They have a precocious five year old son named Toby. Life seems great except for the fact that Toby suffers from nocturnal epilepsy. Toby begins treatment for his condition at the Safe to Sleep facility, but Dominic has some concerns once he realizes that his former teacher/ nemesis Christian Noble and his daughter are involved. He attempts to thwart Christian Noble and all of his nefarious plans, but of course no one really believes that the Nobles have a plan to help summon the entity Daoloth.
Ramsey Campbell continues to be a master of horror. This is a fun story that combines religious horror with a dash of Lovecraft. I look forward to seeing what happens next in the final installment.

My thanks to Flame Tree Press for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Born to the Dark’ by Ramsey Campbell in exchange for an honest review.

This is Book 2 in Campbell’s The Three Births of Daoloth trilogy. It is now 1985 and over thirty years have passed since the events of ‘The Searching Dead’. While background is provided, this is a trilogy with a continuing story told over its three volumes and so best read in order.

Dominic Sheldrake is now a university lecturer on cinema and is married with a five-year-old son. At at the opening of the novel Dominic has traveled to London to reunite with his childhood friends Jim and Roberta (Bobbie), who is now a journalist. Naturally this meeting stirs memories of Christian Noble and his sinister cult.

We learn that Dominic and his wife, Lesley, have been concerned about their son, Toby, who has been experiencing strange nocturnal seizures that his doctor is unable to treat. However, while Dominic was away in London, Lesley had met another paediatrician, who told her that there were other children with the same condition and that they have been successfully treated at the Safe to Sleep centre. Lesley had already visited the centre and signed Toby up. Dominic is a little concerned that the decision was made without him but wants help for his son.

Yet when Toby starts to report unusual dreams, Dominic becomes concerned that Christian Noble’s influence has returned in a new and insidious form. He seeks Bobbie’s assistance in investigating Safe to Sleep….

I was very impressed by this novel and was quickly swept up in Dominic’s narrative. His descriptions of encounters with people, places, and eldritch things of various types were vivid and infused with a sense of creeping dread inherent in the cosmic horror of the Lovecraftian mythos.

The narrative builds to a powerful climax that sets the stage for the final book, ‘The Way of the Worm’, that is due to be published by Flame Tree Press in March 2022. I can hardly wait.

About thirty-five years ago Ramsey Campbell walked into a cinema I owned for a press screening. We got chatting and he presented me with a copy of a novel he'd just had published - The Hungry Moon. It introduced me to his writing and his dark worlds. Over the years Ramsey's books have given me more sleepless nights than any other living writer.
The chill factor of Born To The Dark creeps up on one with Ramsey's trademark suggestiveness and surreal imagery. It becomes threatening and weird as darkness permeates the pages and one glimpses the evil lurking in the shadows.
This is Lovecraftian mythos writing at its very best from the Grand Master of Horror himself.

After years of reading experience, I approach any Ramsey Campbell production clothed in trepidatious awe, rather as one would tiptoe into the nave of a temple, trembling in approach to an idol. I only have this reaction in approaching a very few authors: in writing, there are good, there are great, then there are Masters [either gender applies]. I am thinking right now of 3 authors [2 in the U.K., one in the U.S.], each a Master, each highly prolific, each of whose writing changes me with every title--no, with every page. Of course Ramsey Campbell is one of the 3.


BORN IN THE DARK is the second in Mr. Campbell's new THE THREE BIRTHS OF DAOLOTH Trilogy. Set 3 decades after Book 1, THE SEARCHING DEAD, the novel focuses on children again, this time through the lens of the young son of Dominic, THE SEARCHING DEAD'S protagonist. BORN TO THE DARK can be read as a standalone; but do yourself a favor and read both, in consecutive order: you'll be glad you did!

Thirty years after the events in The Searching Dead, forty-year-old Dominic Sheldrake has long put the days of his childhood investigation of Christian Noble and his practice of spiritualism behind him. Now a husband and father, as well as a university film professor, Dominic is worried about his son Toby’s nocturnal seizure disorder and finding a treatment that will cure him. When Dominic’s wife Lesley learns of the Safe to Sleep program from a pediatrician that will cure Toby of his seizures, they are elated.
Almost immediately after sending Toby to Safe to Sleep, Dominic overhears him and another child playing strange games and learns that Toby has been telling outlandish stories in school. Stories that Toby has learned by reading Dominic’s old copies of Christian Noble’s journals. Toby begins to tell his parents about dreams of traveling the universe and drawing pictures that remind Dominic of Christian Noble’s sermons from his church. Trying to learn more about the Safe to Sleep program’s mysterious origins and the widespread seizure disorder affecting numerous children in the area, Dominic begins to wonder what became of Christian Noble and his precocious daughter Tina. With the help of his old friends Jim and Roberta, Dominic seeks answers to not only the motives of the Nobles, but also to save his family.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to read the first book in The Daoloth Trilogy, The Searching Dead thanks to Flame Tree Press. I wasn’t initially sold on the first book, but Ramsey won me over with his world-building and fleshed-out characters. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this book since I finished the first in March, and I wasn’t disappointed. If it at possible, I think I enjoyed Born to the Dark more than The Searching Dead. Just as in the first book, Ramsey nailed the character development. Grown-up Dominic was just as compelling as he was a kid. I loved seeing the nods to his past in his relationship with his father and seeing his friends Roberta and Jim again. Yes, The Tremendous Three are still friends! Most of all, I loved the character of Toby, Dominic’s young son. I cannot wait to see what happens in book 3 when I get it.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #FlameTreeBooks for providing me with the eARCs to both this novel and its predecessor in exchange for my honest reviews. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Another great book by a Master of Horror.
30 years after the first book takes place history may be trying to repeat itself.
Looking forward to book 3.

This book is the second in the series and follows Dom, Jim and Bobby as adults.

Well who should pop up again? Christian Noble and his “all grown up” daughter Tina. And they are up to no good….again. This time they are using children instead of the dead. Dom’s own child, Toby is caught up in their newest cosmic plot.

I didn’t like the Tremendous Three (Dom, Jim and Bobby) as much as adults. Jim was the same; very much a rule follower and hyper religious, Bobby, now a journalist called Bob, is pretty naive for for an investigative journalist and Dom who unfortunately picked the most unsupportive partner. Dom’s wife, Lesley, was my least favorite character. She was stubborn to the point of me throwing the book across the room.

I did love the setting as always. Dreary and dismal atmosphere that fit perfect with the Nobles and all their creepy rituals. Probably the most terrifying thing for me was their attachment to the children and the strange sleep therapy they had developed. And the end left the reader on a cliff, dangling. I need to know what happens next!