The Dark Net

The Dark Net is real. An anonymous and often criminal arena that exists in the secret far reaches of the Web, some use it to manage Bitcoins, pirate movies and music, or traffic in drugs and stolen goods. And now an ancient darkness is gathering there as well. This force is threatening to spread virally into the real world unless it can be stopped by members of a ragtag crew: Twelve-year-old Hannah, who has been fitted with the Mirage, a high-tech visual prosthetic to combat her blindness, wonders why she sees shadows surrounding some people. Lela, a technophobic journalist, has stumbled upon a story nobody wants her to uncover. Mike Juniper, a one-time child evangelist who suffers from personal and literal demons, has an arsenal of weapons stored in the basement of the homeless shelter he runs. And Derek, a hacker with a cause, believes himself a soldier of the Internet, part of a cyber army akin to Anonymous. They have no idea what the Dark Net really contains. Set in present-day Portland, The Dark Net is a cracked-mirror version of the digital nightmare we already live in, a timely and wildly imaginative techno-thriller about the evil that lurks in real and virtual spaces, and the power of a united few to fight back. What happens when evil decides to take advantage of humanity's dependence upon electronics and the Internet? When demons use servers to take over Portland, Oregon? In The Dark Net, we find out. It's a hell of a ride, and not a comfortable one. The book is intense, and verges on straight-up horror with a side of supernatural thrown in for good measure. Only the horror is less the monsters and more the consequences of our screen-addicted society. Once the story gets moving - and that doesn't take long - it moves at a fairly constant clip. The characters are a diverse lot. A man who used to be famous for what he "saw" in the afterlife. A journalist who wrote about a serial killer and goes back to the scene of his crimes. A young girl, niece to the journalist, who is blind but was recently fitted with new technology to allow her to see - and who sees more than anyone would have guessed. And a paranoid, self-proclaimed "geek". There are a few other characters that come and go, but these are the most constant throughout the story. They are well-written and even though the story is not long and moves fast, there is enough of the characters to have the reader rooting for them. I loved the changing POVs and the characterization of the characters. The writing style does well to establish a dark atmosphere, and I’d love to see this adapted as a horror movie. I recommend this book for readers who love Black Mirror and the Japanese horror movie Kairo or its American remake Pulse.