How can the color white be dark? That’s the question I often got when I released this book back in 2017. I would often answer quite simply, “If there’s enough absence of color, can’t even that be enough to overwhelm one with darkness of a sort?”
First edition cover (2017). Artwork by Tally Marinelli. Cover design by Domenic Marinelli.
I was trying to be funny, throwing that line out to readers at signings and readings, but really if you’ve ever lived in places where the snow can be plentiful in desolate areas, you know just how dark the white snow can be…how dark and oppressive.
I’ve lived in Montreal all my life and the snow can be decimating. Really make you feel closed off from other parts of the world, especially during a whiteout storm.
I’ve read many great books set in the snow and always wanted to tackle that backdrop in a novel, and what better genre to tackle that backdrop in other than horror?
Painting by Tally Marinelli
My relationship with both horror films and books goes back a long way, and I always loved when whatever the horror the characters were dealing with was made that much worse with the added element of bad weather.
I wanted to be able to tackle that feeling and I do now feel that I did a pretty good job with this book…a book that still terrifies me when I think back on it, and is still terrifying readers; they tell me so when the mention this book to me.
Some out there don’t like to talk about it too much and all because of the dark subject matter this book covers, but there’s that word again…dark.
If there’s enough darkness surrounding or even maybe present somewhere behind the light, doesn’t said light darken as well?
Does a white pure soul innocent at birth darken over time, whether that soul goes good or bad…? And what about what’s beneath all that white…cannot something surface from beneath all that pure white? Something…dark?
The white represents the snow in the book, but it also represents the good clean soul we’re all given when we land here on earth. Sometimes it’s what’s beneath that soul, that clean, new soul, that can in the end destroy and darken the whole works and subsequently our entire lives. The book deals with that literally and even metaphorically.
Painting by Tally Marinelli
It was the largest book I had written by that time in my career and I really enjoyed delving into the story…. What came along with it, that darkness, was another matter altogether, but the relics writers find in the recesses of their own minds are something they have to deal with, and boy did I have some darkness to deal with here…
The research involved was some of the darkest findings I’d yet unearthed—research into actual tales of possession and the Roman Catholic Church’s dealings in that field…some pretty spooky stuff, believe me, dear readers.
I pored over videos, stories and research in the field; interviewed members of the clergy, and all that led to many a sleepless night for yours truly.
In the end, that made the whole experience of writing that much more of a true, real and tangible experience, which doesn’t always happen when one is coming up with something fictional and fantastical, which horror often is.
I can still remember writing certain sequences…looking over my shoulder every so once and again as my wife slept in the other room so late at night.
That’s an example of the power and hold this story had on me. Again, I wrote staring at a blank white wall back then, but it wasn’t white was it? No, as I thought these dark thoughts and occurrences, as the characters and what they did revealed themselves to me—every dark and depraved thing—that wall was black, wasn’t it dear readers?
Indeed it was.
You’re leaning.
Very good.
Second edition cover (2023). Artwork by Tally Marinelli. Cover design by Domenic Marinelli
Official synopsis for Beneath The White Darkness, by Domenic Marinelli (2017)
Gates Monroe, an English language teacher from Montréal, Québec, Canada, has been sent to teach a group of scientists who have set up a meteorite dig and makeshift research facility within a snowy and forgotten valley near The Richardson Mountains in Northern Canada.
Things start off well enough—especially after he meets Vicky, a beautiful waitress, and some friendly townsfolk—but what happens when Gates discovers that his students are in the process of unearthing not meteorites, but a demonic force that is ages old? Join him as he faces the harsh climate and whatever perils come forth from… Beneath The White Darkness.
The novel reads like Jack London meets the masters of modern horror and beyond. In this digital age, Domenic Marinelli is slowly and surely becoming a writer you most definitely need to take a look at and be a part of his rise amongst the ranks.
The author uses his recognizable and vintage style, weaving a tale that can be funny at times, emotional, adventurous, and gut-wrenchingly terrifying. If you’re in the mood for horror that’ll keep you up reading well into the night, look no further, because you’ve hit the mark. Beneath The White Darkness is sure to become a classic of the genre for years to come.
Beneath The White Darkness was originally published in 2017. The 2nd Edition was released in November of 2023.
Domenic Marinelli is the author of multiple books including Across a Dark River in Palermo, Generic V, Miles In The Dark, The Mannaro Motel, Ancient Credos In Sanskrit Moderna, and so many others. Some of his work has appeared at The Recipe, Babbletop.com, Steel Notes Magazine, Thirsty For News, the MTL Times, Guilty Eats, Slam Wrestling, Show Snob Magazine, Lombardi Ave, CFL News Hub, Daily DDT and at other print and online publications. He lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.