Lockdown has certainly changed our lives; whether it has been for the better or for the worse is up to you to decide. However, for me at least, staying at home has enabled me to prioritise other tasks that I would usually leave for later (including writing this article!). I have rediscovered a passion for reading, and one of the first books that I began to read was “The Eyes of Darkness” by Dean Koontz, as recommended by a friend. If you have read this book, you may start to realise why I have especially chosen this book to review and well, if you haven’t, read on.
This story was written in 1981 and is set in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Christina Evans, more commonly known as Tina, is recovering from the trauma of losing her son, Danny, in a fatal bus explosion in the Sierra mountains, who had been trekking with other boys his age and two of the best wildlife experts in the country. She is given the opportunity to direct a show at a renowned hotel in Vegas, and having spent almost a year on the show, the New Year’s Eve premiere is a huge and delightful success. Having divorced her husband shortly before Danny’s death, Tina starts afresh and meets Elliot Stryker, who too had lost his wife to cancer.
However, Tina’s return to normal life is momentarily halted, for she begins to encounter nightmares involving her son as well as mysterious indications of trouble, one of which are the two words: NOT DEAD. Assuming that someone has been playing a cruel and devilish prank on her, a sadist perhaps, she consults Elliot, who happens to be an attorney, and he requests a known judge to grant him permission for exhumation. Little did they know that the judge, also an ex-intelligence officer, was part of a secret organisation who were trying to cover up the lie of an unexpected bus explosion, and after Tina and Elliot realised that they had been betrayed, they discover that Danny was not dead after all and subsequently escape Vegas to rescue the endangered boy.
Aided by Danny’s ability to perform telekinesis, they locate the secret laboratory in the Sierra mountains, where they learn that a deadly virus was being tried and tested on the boy, who had so far been the only person to survive the man-made bioweapon, known as Wuhan-400. Despite being written in 1981, almost 39 years before coronavirus became a global pandemic, the name of the virus has some scary similarities which cause us to reflect on what we know so far. After all, Wuhan is in fact the epicentre of the coronavirus, and 400 is also quite an unsettling number, for 20 lots of 20 is 400 and we are currently in 2020!
I would like to make it clear that I am not supporting this conspiracy theory in any way; I believe it was merely an unlikely coincidence by Koontz, who had included it in his novel for the purpose of entertainment. However, it does certainly cause us to reflect upon our knowledge of the virus so far, as there have been certain theories that the virus escaped the Wuhan Institute of Virology, hinting that the virus may in fact be man-made and potentially a bio-weapon for the future. Regardless of what you believe, I still feel that this book is an incredible novel- full of action, adventure, romance and elements of the supernatural, and certainly one to read during this lockdown.
The link to Amazon’s Kindle website, who are currently selling this book for only £2.99, can be found below:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eyes-Darkness-terrifying-unrelenting-suspense-ebook/dp/B009W32Z1I/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
By Aaron Sanjeevan, Saint Olave's Grammar School
