A Light in the Black

A Light In The Black is the first novel by Chris Westwood, a British author of children's and young adult fiction. It was first published in the UK in 1989 by Viking Kestrel (part of the Penguin Group) and in the US in 1991 by HarperCollins Children's Books.

Reviews

Michael Baldwin, The Guardian: In Chris Westwood's A Light In The Black (Kestrel) a hypnotic stranger drops into town and the locals begin to drop out. Is Mr Stands a zombie, an alien, or just extremely odd? The plot may be as old as the Pied Piper of Hamelin, but the writer is extraordinarily — no, paranormally — compelling, and gives off a very sinister glitter.

Kirkus Reviews: Ragged, grinning Mr. Stands knows your deepest wishes and — horribly — wants to grant them. Jules Dwyer, 15, has been as gloomy as everyone else in Eastfield since the colliery closed. Now Mr. Stands arrives and turns things around: dingy houses look brighter, new bikes, cars, and appliances appear as if by magic, and Jules meets beautiful, mysterious new classmate Rachel. Stands, saying he's just beginning, promises a Big Day soon.

Haunted by terrifying dreams, Jules and Rachel rightly suspect that a malign force lies behind the town's sudden good fortune. When Jules's sister Laurie disappears, his search for her takes him into an old mine that Stands — feeding in some eldritch way on the little girl's hyperactive imagination — plans to reopen with the resurrected bodies of miners who have died there. Westwood uses every tool in the horror novelist's kit: atmospheric language, forebodings, sinister toys, marching zombies, and a Bad Guy who explodes at the climax into a cloud of loathsome, batlike creatures. A macabre story (this British author's first YA book) with a memorable title character and a riveting first chapter.