House of Dark Shadows

by Marilyn Ross, W.E.D. Ross (AKA)

This is a Special Edition tie in to Dark Shadows Tv show with sixteen pages of B/W pictures.

Genres: Horror, Vampires, Gothic, Fiction, Paranormal, Mystery

157 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1970

About the author

William Edward Daniel Ross, W. E. Daniel "Dan" Ross (born 1912) is a bestselling Canadian novelist from Saint John, New Brunswick who wrote over 300 books in a variety of genres and under a variety of mostly female pseudonyms such as Laura Frances Brooks, Lydia Colby, Rose Dana, Jan Daniels, Olin Ross, Diane Randall, Clarissa Ross, Leslie Ames, Ruth Dorset, Ann Gilmer, Jane Rossiter, Dan Ross, Dana Ross, Marilyn Ross, Dan Roberts, and W.E.D. Ross. As Marilyn Ross he wrote popular Gothic fiction including a series of novels about the vampire Barnabas Collins based on the American TV series Dark Shadows (1966-71).

Reviews

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the novelization of the 1970 film, House of Dark Shadows. For fans of the franchise, they’ll already know how it goes, but for others this does make a passable stand-alone novel. I was still pretty young in 1970 and didn’t know about the movie or the novelization. I tend to steer away from the latter since I prefer movies based on novels and not the other way around, but this is Dark Shadows, so I was willing to make an exception. If you’re not familiar with the movie, there will be spoilers here.

Barnabas Collins, the family vampire, is resurrected accidentally by housekeeper Willie. He meets Roger Collins, Elizabeth Stoddard, and family, for the first time. Having trouble controlling his vampire urges, he ends up killing Carolyn, Roger, and several family friends before Maggie Evans’ boyfriend Jeff finally kills Barnabas. Of course, this doesn’t fit in with the series, where Roger and Carolyn, as well as the friends, survive to wonder about Barnabas. The movie’s not consistent with that narrative.

As I discuss in my blog post about the book (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World), the writing for this novelization is a bit better than the standard fare for the novels in the series written by Marilyn Ross. It’s been some time since I’ve seen the movie, so the reading experience was pretty good—a cut above some of the others. While not belles-lettres, it is fine escapism. Especially for those who never get enough of Collinwood.

[Richard Tolleson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm reading the Dark Shadows books in order, and this is the best one so far. That's probably because author "Marilyn" Ross had a screenplay to work off of. Let's face it, if you've read one of his masterpieces, you know that writing dialogue isn't his strong suit. Characters will have circular conversations that never seem to get anywhere, and the characters seem just a little off--because Ross never watched the show. House of Dark Shadows contains at least one scene that was cut out of the movie, so it will be interesting to watch the film again and see how it differs from the book. This novelization came out in October 1970, at roughly the same time as the movie, and contains 16 pages of photos from the film in glorious black-and-white. Paperback Library Publishing made sure to take advantage of the readers who probably couldn't wait to read this: they upped the price to a whopping 75 cents--15 cents more than "Barnabas, Quentin and the Scorpio Curse", which was released just a few weeks before. One more thing: Look at that photo montage on the cover. Is that not an example of crazy photo composition?

[E. D. Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad adaptation. A little different from Marilyn Ross' usual, since he was working from the script, but still. I think there were moments that I'm sure were clearly his. I did like how in some places it departed from the way the scenes were done in the film, but other times I liked the film's versions better. Not bad, entertaining.

[John Hardin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could've used more backstory concerning Barnabas, but the author (and the film's producers) probably assumed that the readers and viewers knew it already. This was a condensed version of the original Barnabas story line, but with more carnage that Barnabas leaves in his wake.

[Terry Fetzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well I am a big fan of dark shadows, and of both movies House of and Night of dark shadows..to me I wish that they would redo the soap opera..especially the phonex series.or Laura series.....this book was number one to me, I loved it......thank u very much....you all have a great day.

[Michelle Cohen-Kissel]

Does anyone have this book to share? I really would like to read it and it is available nowhere except Amazon for $65.