The Dark IS Rising

The book I am reading now, as you may have guessed by the title, is called The Dark Is Rising.  It's the first book (excluding the prequel) in a series with a few more books in it, and there is a movie for the first book (NOT the prequel).  I started the book a few days ago, so I haven't gotten the chance to understand much yet.

What I DO understand is that the story is about an 11 year old kid named Will who has a special power he knows little of so far, and so I also know little of so far.  I also know that there are two sides, one is the Dark, one is the Light, and Will must fight against the Dark.  So, that's a little sum-up of what I know so far, and you can learn a thing or two from it.

From what I read on the back of the book, apparently Will also has to go on a quest.  This is one of my favorite types of books; the ones where people go on quests in.  A lot of people hate these kinds of books, for some reason.  I guess because it gets boring after so many books go that way.

Lately, most of the books I've been reading have been similar to my writing.  And it's really just by coincidence; I'm not specifically trying to choose books that will be written in a similar way that my books are.  This is one of those books.  In fact, it is one of the most similar to one of my books that I wrote last year ("Don't Fear The Reaper"), as far as I can tell from the blurb.  I'll tell you some ways in which the book is similar.  First, it's about a character who goes on a quest, and who needs to find several different things that are hidden that are all types of things on earth (ex. iron, wood, bronze, etc.).  Also, there is a character sent out by the, let's just say "bad side" who is constantly on the main character's trail.

But none of this is really what I wanted to say about this book.  In this book, I realized why it was titled "The Dark Is Rising".  The phrase is repeated throughout the story.  "The Dark Is Rising" this, "The Dark Is Rising" that, and so on.  This doesn't really make the book easier to understand.  It just makes it easier to understand why the book was titled "The Dark Is Rising".  However, I was able to understand a thing or two about this phrase.  It must be used, I thought, because the Dark IS rising.  The Dark, or the evil side, is starting to gain power, which is allowing it to "rise".  So, in other words, the Dark is rising.

In the real world, there must be a connection to this, I thought to myself when seeing this phrase repeated constantly.  My guess, and it is not necessarily fact because it is what it is: a GUESS, is that it is because there is dark rising wherever you may look.  The dark can be seen in anything: in physically dark places, in evil places, in places where bad things are happening, in death, and there is at least a little bit of dark inside everyone, and I can't deny that there is no dark in me, either.  

So, overall, two big things happened when I started reading the book and continued: I realized, or guessed, what the story was REALLY about, and I learned that there are a great many writers who write in a similar way to me.  But more on this "Dark" thing: try and find darkness.  In most likely seconds, it will be found.  Maybe even the first "dark" you will find will be the dark inside YOU.