The Black Lord by Colin Hinckley | Book Review

The Black Lord is a grief-fueled tale of terror centered around how far a family can go after a devastating event that’s only going to get worse before it can get better.

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on The Black Lord –

After their youngest son has gone missing, this family struggles to wrap themselves around the grief and the unanswered questions of what happened and whether or not the toddler was still alive.

One night, a creature appears and the older son’s window. It terrifies the boy, but he knows what he saw. Later, when his father sits him down to tell him about his family, the young boy knows who he saw was the same person in the story.

Can the family all be the bravest that they have ever been together and trick their way into saving their youngest?

This story is unputdownable for two main reasons, one of course is the content itself, but the second is that the story is organized in a way where each chapter is from a different perspective, overlapping perfectly to give more detail until they all come together for the big ending.

I picked this up one afternoon and read straight through. I couldn’t set it down for a second, antsy to see how it would all play out.

With how fast-paced this story is, I really appreciated how each person involved just went with what was going on. There wasn’t any long drawn-out denial or questioning of every little thing. They all understood the danger and that time wasn’t on their side.

One side note; I had no idea that this book had illustrations. When I turned a page and saw the first one, I had quite the jump scare, almost tossing the book away from me in fright. I would add that here, but I don’t want to spoil the graphic itself. Needless to say, Echo Echo crushed it.

My Favorite Passages from The Black Lord –

The air around the thing’s mouth vibrates, then turns black, as if the sound is darkness, leeching from deep inside its stinking gullet. It fills everything, turning every shadow into a bottomless pit, his normal, familiar things – his bureau, his bookcase, the picture of his family, still intact- winking out like fireflies yanked into a toad’s mouth.

The weight of her missing son is a suit made of sandbags and she knows dwelling on the details of the night before will make the bags swell. She’s not sure she can handle the extra weight.

Before he could lose his nerve, he’d stormed out the back door and gone to Eddie’s window. There was nothing there, of course. But the woods behind the house seemed darker than they should have been, and the crickets’ song was tepid and uncertain, as if they had just started up again after a long silence.

“I wish I had answers to give, I do. But if there are answers, they’re not accessible to me. And part of me feels that I don’t want to know what’s truly happening. I’m not sure our brains are built to know.”

He sways and the world sways with him. The moon fills its own corner of the sky and grins with chalky teeth upon the screaming black river below.

My Final Thoughts on The Black Lord –

A tale that runs full petal to the medal, prepare to have your blood pressure jump up and stay up throughout this read. Each step of the way, more terrors and anxious dread are introduced.

Horror fans who love tales centered around family and terrifying things that scream in the night, this is a book for you!

Purchase your copy of The Black Lord