The Words

Dark Coming of Age #2

by Douglas Clegg

Never speak them.

Never whisper them.

The Words.

The Words is a novella of otherworldly terror and madness from Douglas Clegg, the award-winning author of The Priest of Blood, Isis, Purity, The Hour Before Dark and many others.

The two teenagers invoke the words -- the names of those who walk beyond the veil, in the dark of the Nowhere...

When Mark befriends outsider Dash, he believes his new friend to be an outcast rebel. But a dark mystery unfolds as Dash leads Mark into dangerous games and rituals involving stories of the occult and a strange drug that allows Dash to see into another world -- a world of absolute darkness and terror.

“Your flesh will remember the words even if your mind forgets."

One summer night, on their way with friends to a party, they make a fateful detour to a place where the words of Dash's secret ceremonies will bring a new terror into the world...and where Mark will face unspeakable horror as it comes to monstrous life.

A tale of teen alienation at the crossroads of darkness and absolute brotherhood, The Words will get under your skin...and stay with you long after the lights go out.

Genres: Horror

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 8, 2009

Reviews

[Mulkurul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Segunda novela corta y cuento de madurez, sin relación con “Purity” donde una ambigua relación de amistad entre chicos marginados degenera en horror cósmico con cultos ancestrales y otras dimensiones de por medio. Muy buena, como la anterior.

['Nathan Burgoine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because Lee Thomas told me to. Well, it's more complicated than that - he did this meme thing where anyone who "liked" his status would thereafter get an author, and you were supposed to post a book by that author that (a) you'd read, or (b) you found most intriguing.

Being me, I couldn't then help but buy the book, download it to my Kobo, and then curl up and whimper.

Did I mention I don't generally read horror? It's not that I don't find it clever or interesting, it's that for whatever reason, the imagery gets stuck in my subconscious more than any bit of food ever got stuck in the reconstruction wires in my lower jaw. If I read horror or watch horror before bed, I'm doomed to a night-long variety show of horror dreams. So, usually, I avoid.

But when you're offered a recommendation by Lee Thomas, well... You take it.

The story kernel of this novella is pretty straightforward - a young man befriends another misfit, and they have a relationship that is definitely a bit unhealthy (though close). While Mark tries to turn a blind eye to some of Dash's worse habits (including his self-medication injections of something or other), together they're tight. Dash's love of a particular writer's short stories (horror short stories) and his claim that they're all more-or-less real is quirky, right?

Until one night, on a dark road, "real" starts to take on a whole new idea.

The idea that there are words with true power to change reality is not new, but it is used to creepy effect here, and the gore factor (as well as the dark-light/seen-unseen trick) is played to a high standard. It's freaking disturbing.

I imagine I've got a week or two of bad dreams ahead. Thanks a lot, Lee Thomas.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first started reading this book, I assumed that the narrator could not find the words he needed because of his own condition of panic. As the book progressed, however, I came to understand that the words had their own, not living but still mutable, nature. It is in their nature that the words of summoning are distinct from the words of dismissal. And it makes sense. It should be easier to call to you a thing that wants to be there than it is to send it away, just as it is easy to get an ardent admirer to your home but quite difficult to get that admirer to leave unsatisfied. The power of the thing summoned would enhance the disparity in difficulty; a god has a greater will than any mortal being. The words of summoning, once learned, etch themselves into your flesh, to stay with you always; a hungry god is always willing to come to the feeding grounds. The words of dismissal fly from your mind at the moment that you form the desire to use them. That is the action of the will of a god.

I always thought that Lovecraft's stories would be really scary if the guy could only write. This book gives you an almost direct look at the slithery things of olde, and it's every bit as full of dread as I had hoped. Douglas Clegg can write, and this is a very creepy story.

[D. Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short novella is something of a marriage of Lovecraftian tone and teen slasher flick. Though I'm not big into the entire cast of a book being angst-filled teenagers (which is the case here) the book grabbed me pretty well in the beginning with the mystery and ambiguity surrounding 'the Words.' As I read through, I was able to look past the occasional groan-inducing behavior and dialog of some of the characters (quite appropriate for their age, no doubt.) Clegg, who is an accomplished horror novelist if ever there was one, kept me turning the pages and kept me interested. The way he wraps up this horror-cult story is sufficiently sinister enough for my blood. Overall, I found this a brief and pleasant read.

[Suzanne]

on wl

[Brandee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This creepy little story gets under your skin and stays with you. It also introduced me to a new favorite word "screamlets"!