Horror Book Review: The Book of David – Chapter Four (Robert Kent)

Robert Kent is the author of the horror novels The Book of David and All Together Now: A Zombie Story. The former a series of five lengthy chapters telling the story of David Walters. An atheist man who was brought up by his minister father to believe that Satan would one day deceive all mankind by pretending his demons were extra-terrestrials.

You can read our review of Chapter One here, Chapter Two here and Chapter Three here.

This review of part four will include spoilers for part one, two and three!

“Do you believe? Do you have faith?”
“We believe!”

David Walters has embraced his calling and is preaching again under the instructions of the Lord. Or in this case, Sexy Jesus. The end times are coming & while David can’t do much to stop it (according to Sexy Jesus) he can save souls. So that is what he is doing, no matter the cost.

Chapter Four drops a bomb within the first few pages as we see David & Miriam’s marriage begin to falter. What is initially shocking begins to make more sense as the chapter plays out. You see Miriam is struggling to embrace her husband’s new attitude & his promise to leave 1112 N Torrance Avenue has been broken. Her hatred of the house sees her finally having enough & moving out. While they’re not split up, the house, the miscarriage & David’s calling has driven a wedge between them.

This is the chapter that deals with some of the heaviest subjects so far & is by far the best of the bunch. Here we really go on a journey with Miriam as we see her turn to drug addiction to cope with the miscarriage that she believes is the houses fault.

The usual jumps in time occur here but really create anticipation for the full picture being revealed. One moment we’re reading about David & Miriam’s marriage failing then the next we’re back with the couple happy in 1112 Torrance Avenue & Miriam has embraced religion too! What could have been a jarring read is expertly played out, you become desperate to understand how they got to this stage.

“Time you wicked thing, you move too fast”

As the chapter moves on we see David’s rise to success as a respected minister & his fall as his tales of demons in alien forms controlling all aspects of the world is met with mockery.

We even get focus on Young Peter Walters as we see his struggle at school because of his parents’ strict religious views (for example: no sex-education classes). These often result in some of the tensest moments but are so good.

As the chapter reaches its conclusion a sense of foreboding begins to settle on the mind. The story takes a dark turn & the lengths David will go to uncover the hellish truth is revealed. The man seems to know what he is doing but as the reader, you can’t help but wonder if his sanity is slipping.

Utterly brilliant.

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