Richard Devon apparently has everything he wants, a good college with a high paying job at the end of the educational tunnel, a chick he wants to marry who keeps him on the straight and narrow, and a wider family that has his back. Marring Rick’s life story is his almost obsession with a young girl named Polly who certain needs his help in a backwoods motel. Unfortunately for Richard he is being setup and under demonic influence he murders his girlfriend most heinously. Queue Richard’s brother Connor, a professional wrestler, that needs to get the Devon defence happening in the face of a legal system wanting a few well covered convictions. As Connor’s family comes under attack, the big fella finds himself fighting on a number of fronts along with a rag tag legal team taking on not only the Prosecution but a demonic agenda.  

Okay going to say it up front, Son of the Endless Night is my favourite John Farris novel, and if you don’t agree then you are wrong and should review your life choices. Okay we allow all opinions here, so if you simply must prefer another novel by Farris then that’s your right. But still if you haven’t caught up with Endless Night then you are missing one of the great horror reads. I’m kind of surprised this one hasn’t been made into a movie yet, but Hollywood, weird weird, am I right folks! Arguably this novel was the starting point for Horror meets the court system, with the concept being repeated ever since. No one ever said L.A was original folks. So basically we have a murder case, but as opposed to that genre narrative we already know who the culprit is, wrapped in demonic activity. What’s not to dig, and for sure have never seen this on Suits. So let’s rock the text folks, time to dig into the goodness that Farris lays down in this narrative.

Farris keeps the reader going through his novel as we wait to see how the court case is going to pan out. Spoiler warning kids, the court case isn’t the crux of the book, we get there but fundamentally Farris isn’t writing one of those legal novels that were spectacularly successful in Airport waiting rooms back in the day, what we are covering is a possession and the reason behind that happening. So if after some weird hybrid you are probably going to be disappointed to a certain degree. Hey we’re here for the horror not some Lawyer winning yet another unwinnable case. Shout out to Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens 2018), nope didn’t see that twist coming at me, enjoyed that novel completely.

Anyways as expected John Farris delivers a tome that is well written, paced to perfection, that doesn’t pull its horror punches, and altogether shows how the medium should work to entertain. I don’t think I’ve ever read a Farris tale that doesn’t have a high standard of technical excellence and at no stage of the read was I taken out of the novel by poor wordage, poor scene construction, or scenes inserted just to be inserted, looking at you Jay Anson. It’s always a pleasure to read a classic horror stylist, and I was in my element here. 

While overall Farris is after a foreboding atmosphere here, he doesn’t stint at having the odd light hearted moment or introducing some left of field characters to keep things rocking. I particular enjoyed the Southern Preacher, on his campaign through the North, who could have been discounted as another charlatan, but who comes into his own when faced with the denizens of hell. It’s almost like a Stephen King technique in use, add some flavour and colour via side characters to keep things rocking along. Maybe King learnt the approach from Farris, hey not saying that’s what happened, just a random thought people.

For those wondering about the possession angle, Farris taps that in about acceptable fashion, don’t expect anything entirely new besides a demonic plan that by now has been banning tourists from visiting the last few years. We get radically changed personality traits, paranormal happenings, and for sure bystanders being influenced; if you understand possession movies then you’ll get this aspect, if demonic intrusion isn’t your thing then the primary victim here isn’t meant to be the possessed. Not saying anymore folks, The Exorcist (novel not movie) spelt this out back in the day. While we don’t get an actual exorcism, if for the moment we avoid the court shenanigans at the end of the novel, we get enough satanic panic to have our horror buzz on.

As stated above Son of the Endless Night is pretty much my favourite John Farris novel, so am slightly biased here. I reckon if you pick up the novel you will be entertained, there’s enough left field happenings to keep the reader turning pages. I’m giving a recommendation, but am slightly concerned my bias might be in play here, so take that how you want. For sure I would love to see a movie adaptation, hello Netflix, but by now guess we have moved along with the concept of scary movies, whether that is a good or bad thing is your call. Anyways I was having fun times when I revisited the novel, got my horror value, and am now itching to read something else from Farris’ bibliography. Give this book a try folks, I can pretty much guarantee you will have a good time if you dig solid traditional horror, and hey at least it will get you off the computer for five minutes or until our next article.