Blog Tour Review – Born To The Dark by Ramsey Campbell

Welcome to Dark Reads & Deck Reviews! Today I’m bringing you a book review of Born To The Dark by Ramsey Campbell as part of the Random Things Blog Tour. Many thanks to Anne and Flame Tree Press for inviting me to take part!

About the Book

1985. Dominic Sheldrake is now a lecturer on cinema. His and Lesley’s small son Toby has begun to experience strange nocturnal seizures that no medical help seems to be able to treat. 

Meanwhile Dominic assumes the occultist Christian Noble is out of his life, but his influence on the world is more insidious than ever. 

Roberta Parkin has become a journalist and infiltrates the new version of the Nobles’ cult, but are the experiences it offers too powerful for her to control?

In order to rescue his son from the cult, if he can, Dominic must undergo them too…

• Paperback: 288 Pages
• Publisher: Flame Tree Press
• ISBN: 178758562X

You can order a copy direct from Flame Tree Press or via Amazon

Dark Reads Review

Born to the dark is the second book in the Three Births of Daoloth Trilogy. Even if you haven’t read the first book in the series this reads perfectly as a stand alone.

This book picks up with the characters 30 years on from book one.

I don’t want to talk too much about the plot as I don’t want to spoil anything but Born To The Dark is an atmospheric slow burn following Dom’s investigation of the safe to sleep institution where his son is enrolled for treatment for a sleep condition.

His investigation takes you on an ominous ride steeped in mystery with plenty of twists and turns. As things become increasingly sinister Dom’s murky past comes into play.

Born To The Dark is beautifully written as you would expect from Ramsey Campbell, he really is excellent at building that slow dread to the point you suddenly realise you are actually holding your breath. He really is a master of modern Horror.

This is a must read for any Horror Lit fans, creepy institute, sinister sleep conditions, cosmic horror, need I go on?!

This is page turning, brilliantly written, atmospheric horror and I loved every little bit.

About The Author

Ramsey Campbell was born in Liverpool in 1946 and still lives on Merseyside.

The Oxford Companion to English Literature describes him as “Britain’s most respected living horror writer”. He has been given more awards than any other writer in the field, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association, the Living Legend Award of the International Horror Guild and the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2015 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University for outstanding services to literature. Among his novels are The Face That Must Die, Incarnate, Midnight Sun, The Count of Eleven, Silent Children, The Darkest Part of the Woods, The Overnight, Secret Story, The Grin of the Dark, Thieving Fear, Creatures of the Pool, The Seven Days of Cain, Ghosts Know, The Kind Folk, Think Yourself Lucky and Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach. Needing Ghosts, The Last Revelation of Gla’aki, The Pretence and The Booking are novellas.

His collections include Waking Nightmares, Alone with the Horrors, Ghosts and Grisly Things, Told by the Dead, Just Behind You and Holes for Faces,and his non-fiction is collected as Ramsey Campbell, Probably. Limericks of the Alarming and Phantasmalare what they sound like.

His novels The Nameless, Pact of the Fathers and The Influence have been filmed in Spain. He is the President of the Society of Fantastic Films.

Don’t forget to check out the other fabulous bloggers and reviews on the Tour!