Review of A Love in Darkness by Dean Henryson

This is a horror gothic novel with an underlying meaning: how to defend our children from evil.  Dean Henryson, the author of this book, has worked for many years as a foster care social worker and witnessed many stories about abandoned children who have also endured abuse and violence from their parents. Sharon, the main character of A Love in Darkness, during her teenage, has risked to be raped by the new partner of her mother.   Sharon works as a social worker at a foster home and takes care of an eight year old girl who risks to be entrusted back to her insane, perverse and disturbed family: The Brewsters. Her mother beat Cindy with a hammer and continued beating the poor girl until when the little girl was entrusted to the foster home where Sharon works. In our society, it is always hard to prove the truth and other social workers and the county Court try to send Cindy away with their parents. Sharon is shocked and desperate, when one night she meets Laif, a strange and sensitive man capable to change the mind of people with the power of his same mind, but with a paradoxical phobia: he fears rain! Between Sharon and Laif, frequentation becomes more and more addictive and the two find themselves to discover that Cindy's family has malevolent powers used to drive people to commit evil. At a certain stage of the story, with the only purpose to take Cindy away from her family, to save her, Sharon and Laif sneak in the home of Brewesters and make impressive discoveries . From then on, the story evolves into a very gripping horror tale, with an always dark sky and thunders roaring and dropping on the roof of a decaying house (Brewsters' home) which smells of moldy dust. Step by step, Sharon also finds out Laif has the power to stop the people who commit evil and save Cindy, but also Cindy has a gift: the one to save the world from evil. Even though the book can appear strange and hard to follow, initially at least, after a few chapters, it reveals its meaning and its message against all violence that every day affects weaker people, especially women and children. During their talks, Sharon and Laif face many burning and current problems, such as adoption, relationship among people, bad emotions and the eternal fight between good and evil. Leaf also explains to Sharon the causes of evil in the mind of modern people and the need to be saved from the bad emotions that take us away from the truth about ourselves and the whole world. When I read about talks between Sharon and Laif, I also thought that the author could also write essays on the good and the evil. But Dean Henryson has poured out his believes inside this horror gothic novel. I believe this is a novel to be read up to the end, in order to understand what is the experience of this writer and the kind of writing he used to make this book what it is really is: a horror with an underlying meaning, namely, how to defend ourselves and our children from evil.