The Darkness of the Womb

BLUF: This book contains well-built characters and a walk through a fantasy world consisting of characters that represent the embodiments of human characteristics. It is bit gloomy at times, but I enjoyed this book.

The Darkness of the Womb weaves our reality with the Internal Landscape, the reality we enter before and after life. In our reality, Marigold and Jeff are down on their luck. Actually, they are barely scraping by on Jeff's salary. Jeff tries hard at work, but his supervisors are out to make the lives of their subordinates miserable. Marigold is unfortunately unemployed and very fortunately pregnant. Jeff and her have been trying, unsuccessfully, for children for a while now. Little do they know, their son wants to be miscarried. It is up to them to venture in the Internal Landscape to save him from himself and bring him into their world.

The Reality
My complaint about the day-to-day portion of this story is that it is filled with negative emotions/occurrences. These correspond with the story and are absolutely supposed to be there, but, as a reader, I don't like to feel depressed by reality. Let's just say that I prefer my reality to be written a little less realistically.

Putting that aside, I enjoyed the main characters here. The more the story uncovers about the lives and characteristics that create the characters, the more you enjoy them. They were real people (well built) and I connected with them quickly. Steve becomes the main character in this realm. He's an odd duck, but very likable.

The Internal Landscape
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the fantasy portion. (Fantasy is far from my preferred genre.) Knight's personification of instinct, logic, purpose, love, and lust is brilliant. The conflicts and confusion between these characters will keep you entertained and intrigued.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It leaves you wondering, “What's next?” without feeling robbed of an ending. (AKA, It's tied up nicely, but leaves room for a sequel.)