After the Darkness in Aussie Readers

Sep 08, 2012 Brenda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aussie-authors, 2012-release

After a wonderful weekend of relaxing together on their little holiday, Trudy and Bruce Harrison were meandering their way back home along the Great Ocean Road, when they spied a small sign advertising an art gallery with ocean views. Trudy’s Mum had agreed to have the kids (teens) another night, so they didn’t have to rush home, and they decided a coffee break would be lovely. Trudy was unsettled though, and tried to persuade Bruce to continue on, but he wanted to check it out, which was probab ...more

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Dec 04, 2011 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it it was amazing

Shelves: provided-by-publisher, aussie-author

I'd been wanting to read After The Darkness for months and Thrill Week finally provided the perfect opportunity. I picked it up to read a few chapters before bedtime and found myself, at 3am, turning the final page.

In After the Darkness, Trudy and Bruce Harrison are on their way home after a relaxing week away when a sign for the Ocean View Gallery captures their attention. Stepping inside the unusual building they are confronted by a maze of rooms and disquieting sculptures of glass, wood and s
I'd been wanting to read After The Darkness for months and Thrill Week finally provided the perfect opportunity. I picked it up to read a few chapters before bedtime and found myself, at 3am, turning the final page.

In After the Darkness, Trudy and Bruce Harrison are on their way home after a relaxing week away when a sign for the Ocean View Gallery captures their attention. Stepping inside the unusual building they are confronted by a maze of rooms and disquieting sculptures of glass, wood and stone. They dismiss their feelings of unease, admiring the breathtaking vista of the ocean, and accept the gallery owner's offer of coffee. Just minutes later, Bruce is unconscious and as Trudy fights to rouse her husband she is blinded with chemical spray and then bound. Disorientated and terrified the couple are at the mercy of their sadistic captor but with strength born from abject fear they manage to kill the man and escape. In shock, Bruce and Trudy return home, collect their children and try to piece their lives back together but they are haunted by those few hours in the house on the hill and their once charmed lives begin to spiral out of control.

The opening chapters of After the Darkness are gripping. Lulled into complacency by the pleasure of a leisurely drive along The Great Ocean Road and the normality of browsing an art gallery on a warm, sunny day the terror Bruce and Trudy encounter is a sharp, shocking contrast. The first person point of view includes the reader in the journey, I know my own heart began to race as the the drug began to take effect and Trudy's confusion turned to desperate panic. Brown captures the psychological horror of being powerless, facing seemingly certain torture and death at the hands of a mad man. I breathed a sigh of relief at their escape but as the title suggests, it is what comes after that is the focus of this novel.

"I think a part of me knew even then we weren't leaving, not really. Some things you don't escape from."p50

As their bruises ripen and the immediate shock fades the horror does not recede as they hoped and the Harrisons' struggle with the facade of ordinary life. Reaching out to the police results in their claims being summarily dismissed. That leaves the Harrison's with few options and Brown allows us to witness the couple's slow disintegration from post traumatic stress. Both of them operate in a kind of fog, going through the motions but crippled by flashbacks and paranoia. They make poor decisions that exacerbate their feelings of loss of control. Trudy is led astray by a new tenant in one of their properties, Bruce thinks only of making someone pay. Normality blurs - truth and lies, right and wrong, everything tainted by frustrated fear and anger until Trudy and Bruce spiral into the darkness they so desperately tries to escape. This novel reveals it is not enough to just survive a terrible event, it must be overcome.

It should be noted that in an unusual move it is Bruce, not Trudy, who is the target of their sexually predatory captor, allowing Brown to explore a type of victimology rarely featured in fiction. It is Bruce's shame that drives his reaction to the incident, a desperate need to deny what had happened to him coupled with the eventual need to reassert his masculinity with aggression and control. It is his shame that ensures Trudy's silence and her guilt at escaping the worst of the abuse in the gallery.

Once begun, I couldn't put After The Darkness down, caught up in the story of the Harrison's inexorable slide towards destruction. The pacing is compelling, the creeping tension superb and the journey unpredictable. After the Darkness is a stunning psychological thriller that examines the stain on the soul true terror leaves behind.
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Feb 04, 2012 Danielle rated it it was amazing

I've been a fan of Honey Brown's writing since Red Queen, which was a fantastic thriller, and After the Darkness is another winner. It has the hallmarks of Honey Brown's writing - highly visual, perfectly paced, full of tension and her deep understanding, and compassion for, the Australian male psyche. What was new for me in this book is the deep sense of discomfort I felt while reading. It's not just the psychological tension, which is razor wire sharp, but also witnessing the character's attem ...more

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Jan 18, 2014 Vicki Tyley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: australian-author

“‘I’m torn,’ he said. ‘I want people to come, but I don’t want people to come. I always enjoy having them, but once they’re gone I tell myself – I can’t do that again.’” – After the Darkness

I’ve just discovered a new favourite author. I only wish I’d come across Honey Brown's books sooner. Her style is spare yet evocative. Tensions run high in After the Darkness, an unnerving sense of menace propelling the story forward. I literally couldn’t put the book down and read it in one sitting.

The only ...more

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Oct 06, 2017 Kathryn rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-stars, fiction, kathryns-aty-2017, australian-authors, bookclub, reading-list-2017, related-to-time

This was my second Honey Brown book, and I approached it with ambivalence, because I was in 2 minds about the first book I’d read of hers. But I only had one opinion about this one (mostly) - it was suspenseful from the beginning, gripping, and by the time I was half-way through, I just had to keep going!

I did feel like the ending was a little anti-climactic, but I’m not sure how else I expected it to end.

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Mar 16, 2012 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian, crime, thriller, library-reads, aww2012, suspense, mystery

Trudy and her husband Bruce are returning home from a holiday down the Great Ocean Road when they see a sign for an isolated ocean view gallery. On a whim they decide to stop in and see it, finding only a man named Reuben who gives them carte blanche to explore the very unusual house and its strange artworks. Trudy and Bruce are a little uneasy and decide that it might be time to hit the road again and remove themselves from this weird house and its even weirder occupant.

A decision to have a cup Trudy and her husband Bruce are returning home from a holiday down the Great Ocean Road when they see a sign for an isolated ocean view gallery. On a whim they decide to stop in and see it, finding only a man named Reuben who gives them carte blanche to explore the very unusual house and its strange artworks. Trudy and Bruce are a little uneasy and decide that it might be time to hit the road again and remove themselves from this weird house and its even weirder occupant.

A decision to have a cup of coffee before leaving is a big mistake. When Trudy and Bruce escape some hours later they are battered and bruised, barely conscious (Bruce) and almost blind (Trudy) and Reuben is dead. They struggle with what they should do – go to the police or keep it quiet? They go home to their three children, trying to keep themselves together but the cracks are showing early. They try to go about their normal lives but the events of the clifftop house are creeping into their everyday routines. When someone new inserts himself into their world, Bruce is immediately suspicious. Before too long Trudy and Bruce can no longer tell if their memories of what happened that day are true or distorted, nor can they know who they can trust. Suspicion is everywhere, danger lurks around every corner, exposure threatens every minute.

Bruce decides to take drastic action, to not be a victim any longer. To hunt down those he believes are posing a threat to him and his family and eradicate them forever. Trudy wants to know the truth, she wants to remove herself from a bad situation but she’s a little worried about Bruce’s state of mind. What happens will change their lives once again and further push the boundaries for how far two people are prepared to go to protect themselves and those around them once a line has been crossed that can never be taken back.

After The Darkness is an interesting read. The first part of the book packs an immediate punch with Trudy and Bruce visiting the strange house/gallery on a clifftop and remarking on the oddness of the layout and the weirdness of the man in residence. They find themselves in a worst nightmare type scenario, drugged and assaulted and looking like they’re going to be murdered whenever Reuben is finished doing…whatever it is he’s going to do with them. Desperation helps them escape and I think the novel steps up a gear here, not action-wise, but psychologically. The deconstruction of both Bruce and Trudy’s state of mind in different ways due to the trauma and some of the difficulties and mind-games they face after, is exquisite. They attempt to keep up appearances for the sake of their children but their attempt is shaky at best, the children easily seeing through the facade and struggling to try and understand just exactly what is wrong with their parents.

There is so much to like about this psychological thriller. Bruce and Trudy are Joe And Jane Average Australian Couple, middle aged-ish in their 40s with three children. They’ve worked hard to build a property development business and even with the downturning market they’re doing quite well. They’ve taken a holiday to relax and enjoy themselves away from their children, some ‘couple time’ and connect. I enjoyed their teasing dynamic, their light-hearted happiness and the way they used the strength they had as a pair to escape their horrific situation. I thought the portrayal of them as a couple and also as individuals after the event, when they are back at home was also spot on. Their kids are typical teenagers, the family dynamic as a whole very believable and realistic. The kids know the parents are keeping secrets from them but they don’t know why and there’s resentment.

The slow sliding mental stability of both Bruce and Trudy is likewise well done without being overly dramatic or hysterical. The trauma manifests in different ways – Trudy becomes claustrophobic, wanting, needing doors and windows open, feeling like things are closing in around her. Bruce becomes aggressive, pro-active, determined not to be a victim. Given what happened to him in the house, that definitely rang true as a really realistic way in which someone like Bruce would deal with that sort of episode. A reassertion of his masculinity, his ability to protect himself and his family, a determination to never be seen as weak again, to never be weak again.

Then this book takes a bit of a turn. It becomes darker, seedier, the actions not justifiable like the ones at the beginning of the book. I went from liking Bruce and Trudy, from sympathizing with them to viewing them warily. The actions left a sour taste in my mouth and an icky feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was definitely not the way I expected this book to go and I think the shock helped contribute to the way I felt about it. It’s very well written, very well paced and extremely well thought out even if it became distasteful and uncomfortable for me to read. That may have been the point, to push the boundaries for what the reader felt comfortable with, what they experienced throughout reading this, to see just how far sympathy could go for two people that had been through something utterly horrific.

I think this book would make a really amazing movie – I could see it all in my head when I was reading it. ...more

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Nov 05, 2013 Lauredhel rated it liked it

Shelves: australian-women-writers-challenge, australian, crime, aww2013, thriller

This psychological thriller was beautifully written. I admire Honey Brown's fluid, transparent prose. Dark Horse, which was amazing, was the book that really got me back into reading thrillers after nearly 20 years of mostly not touching them.

In this book, however, I just found it very difficult to get past (view spoiler) ...more

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