Disappointing.

This is the story of a Boy on the run from his home, the Castle, on the night of his fourteenth birthday. He soon becomes tired and hungry, and led across a lake by a pack of hounds, he meets a couple of anthropomorphic beasts, a Goat and a Hyena, who take him to their Underground Kingdom to their ghastly sovereign, the Blind Lamb.

Although no names are ever mentioned, for those familiar with Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy, it is quite clear right from the start that the Boy is in fact none other than Titus, the seventy-seventh Earl of Groan, shunning the immemorial, oppressive Ritual. And indeed (and from the book cover too) I was expecting, and looking forward to, more exploration of the labyrinthine fortress. I was disappointed though, as Boy in Darkness is just a dream-like, surrealist fable with little in common with the trilogy. It is short, and can be read as a stand-alone, but I strongly recommend reading the Gormenghast trilogy too (or instead).

6/10