By Jim Mcleod 
Going Home in the Dark by Dean Koontz , A Haunting Return to Childhood Horrors
Dean Koontz, the #1 New York Times bestselling author known for his mastery of suspense and genre-blending narratives, delivers another chilling tale with Going Home in the Dark (Thomas & Mercer, 2025).
The story centres on four childhood friends—Rebecca, Bobby, Spencer, and Ernie—who bonded as misfits in the seemingly idyllic town of Maple Grove. Decades later, three have achieved success far from their hometown, while Ernie remains trapped in Maple Grove’s stagnation. When Ernie falls into a mysterious coma, the trio feels an inexplicable pull to return, despite their shared, half-forgotten traumas. Koontz crafts an eerie premise: Maple Grove’s residents once slipped into comas frequently, only to awaken altered, or not at all. Now, as Ernie’s condition worsens, his friends confront fragmented memories of a hulking, murderous figure and a town that weaponises forgetfulness.
Koontz layers the narrative with claustrophobic tension. The town itself becomes a character, unchanged over 20 years, yet dripping with menace. Ernie’s domineering mother, a relic of their childhood, amplifies the dread, while the friends’ gradual recollection of suppressed horrors drives the plot toward a crescendo of supernatural and psychological terror.
At its core, Going Home in the Dark explores memory’s duality as a shield and weapon. The protagonists’ return to Maple Grove forces them to reconcile their idealised past with the grim reality of what they endured. Koontz deftly interrogates how trauma shapes identity: the friends’ adult achievements (Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer’s “lofty dreams”) are juxtaposed against Ernie’s stagnation, suggesting that escape from Maple Grove came at the cost of self-deception.
The novel also critiques the myth of small-town innocence. Maple Grove, with its manicured lawns and veneer of normalcy, hides a rot that preys on vulnerability. This aligns with Koontz’s recurring fascination with hidden evils, as seen in works like Watchers and Phantoms1618. Here, the horror is both visceral (a murderous figure) and existential (the erasure of truth), creating a dual-layered threat that keeps readers on edge.
Koontz’s characterization shines in the interplay between the protagonists. Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer are flawed but relatable, their guilt over abandoning Ernie and their fear of confronting the past humanize their journey. Ernie, though comatose for much of the narrative, looms large as a symbol of unresolved trauma. His mother, a grotesque yet pitiable figure, embodies Maple Grove’s toxic grip on its residents.
Koontz’s prose here is leaner than in earlier works, favoring atmospheric brevity over prolonged exposition. Descriptions of Maple Grove’s autumnal decay (“weirdness piled on mystery”) evoke a Shirley Jackson-esque unease, while action sequences—particularly a late-night confrontation in Ernie’s childhood home,are pulse-pounding. The pacing accelerates deftly, though some may critique the final act’s reliance on supernatural elements as a departure from the grounded psychological horror of the first half.
Fans of Koontz’s recent collaborations with Amazon Publishing (e.g., The Bad Weather Friend) will appreciate the narrative efficiency, while longtime readers might miss the sprawling complexity of classics like Strangers or Lightning. Still, the novel’s 395-page length feels purposeful, avoiding the bloat that occasionally mars Koontz’s doorstopper titles.
Going Home in the Dark continues Koontz’s exploration of faith and redemption, which is one of the reasons why I stopped reading him almost 20 years. When this theme took over from the story telling and his books began to feel like lectures. However he seems to have reigned it in here with Going Home in the Dark.
Going Home in the Dark is a compelling addition to Koontz’s library, blending small-town horror with meditations on memory and guilt. While it may not surpass genre-defining works like Watchers or Intensity, it reaffirms Koontz’s knack for crafting interseting narratives
Going Home in the Dark by Dean Koontz
When hometown horrors come back to haunt, friendship is salvation in a novel about childhood fears and buried secrets by #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense Dean Koontz.
As kids, outcasts Rebecca, Bobby, Spencer, and Ernie were inseparable friends in the idyllic town of Maple Grove. Three left to pursue lofty dreams—and achieved them. Only Ernie never left. When he falls into a coma, his three amigos feel an urgent need to return home. Don’t they remember people lapsing into comas back then? And those people always awoke…didn’t they?
After two decades, not a lot has changed in Maple Grove, especially Ernie’s obnoxious, scary mother. But Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer begin to remember a hulking, murderous figure and weirdness piled on mystery that they were made to forget. As Ernie sinks deeper into darkness, something strange awaits any friend who tries to save him.
For Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer, time is running out to remember the terrors of the past in a perfect town where nothing is what it seems. For Maple Grove, it’s a chance to have the “four amigos,” as they once called themselves, back in its grasp.
Further Reading
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