Blog Tour: The Dark Game by Jonathan Janz

Hello and welcome to the blog tour for The Dark Game by Jonathan Janz.

• Fiction: Contemporary horror
• Product format: Paperback
• Price: £9.95; $14.95
• ISBN: 978-1-78758-186-9
• Pages: 304

About The Book

“Ten writers are selected for a summer-long writing retreat with the most celebrated and reclusive author in the world. Their host is the legendary Roderick Wells. Handsome, enigmatic, and fiendishly talented, Wells promises to teach his pupils about writing, about magic, about the untapped potential that each of them possesses. Most of all, he plans to teach them about the darkness in their hearts. The writers think they are signing up for a chance at riches and literary prestige. But they are really entering the twisted imagination of a deranged genius, a lethal contest pitting them against one another in a struggle for their sanity and their lives. They have entered into Roderick Wells’s most brilliant and horrible creation. The Dark Game.”

About The Author

Jonathan Janz is the author of more than a dozen novels and numerous short stories. His work has been championed by authors like Joe R. Lansdale, Jack Ketchum, and Brian Keene; he has also been lauded by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and School Library Journal. His ghost story The Siren and the Specter was selected as a Goodreads Choice nominee for Best Horror. Additionally, his novel Children of the Dark was chosen by Book list as a Top Ten Horror Book of the Year. Jonathan’s main interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children.

What I Thought

I say it all the time but honestly Jonathan Janz is one of my favourite authors especially for horror. He just does it so well and he’s not afraid to go there. Every bit of gore and sex fits perfectly into the story, it’s not there just for the sake of it or for shock value and that’s why his stories work so well.

The Dark Game is such an enjoyable read, I love when writers write about writers writing (try saying that 3 times fast!) and Jonathan takes it a step further by providing us with excerpts of their writing. The nod to his own work, The Siren and the Specter one of my faves, is also a really nice touch. We don’t just get one writer but 10, each selected to take part in a writing retreat at the end of which 1 will win a prize to launch their writing success. It all sounds great until they arrive blindfolded with no phones in the middle of nowhere and a big old creepy house. I mean alarm bells would be ringing if that was me!

Each one of the writers has a story to tell and a story to hide and their creepy yet legendary host Roderick Wells seems to know more about them than they care to share. Finding out everyone’s back story and reading their Works In Progress was what I really loved about this book. And of course all of the creepy horror that you would expect from a Janz book just added to the reading experience.

A thoroughly blood pumping read that will leave you craving more, you’ll want to sink your teeth into it.

Many thanks to Anne from RandomThingsTours and FlameTreePress for having me on this tour, all opinions are my own and I am not paid to give them.