I would like to thank Francesca from Luna Press Publishing for an advance copy of this novella in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Luna Press Publishing

Published - 7/2

Price - £8.99 paperback £3.99 kindle ebook

Freshman, Darcy Mills, wants nothing more than to repair a strained relationship with her mother. When Darcy receives a letter from Althea asking for help with a downsizing move to Dallas, she is excited at the prospect of reconnecting. 

Facing the frightening memories trapped in the walls of her childhood home, is daunting, but Darcy is determined to have Althea back. 

Unfortunately, the past isn't the only thing to haunt Darcy. An evil lurks in the nearby woods, and It has noted her arrival. 

A story of family rituals, southern folklore, and magic set in rural Texas.

The phrase you can never go home again is always about how when we see a place or situation as a child when you come back to it as an adult we will never look at it in the same way. Our understanding of people and ourselves has changed sometimes for the better or worse. Going home again can be a chance for reconciliation or a reckoning with the past. In Abigail F Taylor’s atmospheric horror novella The Night Begins s young woman travels back home to see her estranged mother and finds many family secrets are now unburied.

Darcy left her family home when it appeared that her mother killed her father with an axe. Although her mother was not charged enough suspicion fell that Darcy went to live with her Aunt. Now a college student Darcy has decided to travel to the Texan backroads to visit for her mother and just possibly get some answers. But she soon finds her Mother is not looking for reconciliation; that her Dad’s stories about the world outside her home may have been warnings and soon Darcy finds the woods are calling her name.

This is a very enjoyable quick paced horror tale that works because Taylor makes Darcy a sympathetic narrator and it is a tale filled with atmosphere. Initially apart from the tantalising possible axe murder its simply us travelling with Darcy in her car among dusty backroads. We get to see her as a smart young woman but clearly trouble by her childhood that sounds like there was a lot more leading to her father’s disappearance. Darcy is trying to get answers and we can feel her anxiety. A little gentle flirting with an old childhood friend she lives brings a last glance of light into the tale before we get to the childhood home.

Darcy’s mother and her home are immediately getting us on guard. Her continual smoking; the nicotine stained and decrepit house and her less than loving response all get us immediately suspicious about what his woman is like. There is little warmth here; Darcy finds herself back in her old childhood bed (last slept in as a ten year old) and we are in a home with little light, power and no phone signal. Then we move into the latter half of the tale and we realise something is outside. I’m not going to spoil the tale too much but I really liked how this tale moves from dangerous family pyschodrama into a pure horror movie and Taylor writes how Darcy gets scared and tries to escape with pace; emotion and a very tangible sense of terror that makes you both want to understand the pursuer and also keep well away. My only slight reservation is the last chapter perhaps goes for the too obvious resolution to end things - effective but could have continued to explore the themes earlier explored a bit more strongly.

The Night Begins is great for our still cold long evenings. Creepy houses, family and spooky woods are always a pull for me and this did not disappoint. Well worth a look!