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The Dark Dark by Samantha Hunt is an Example of How Some Authors get Away with Horrible Titles.

Book Club book Dark Dark Cover
Cover provided for marketing and fair use.

Author of Mr. Splitfoot does a lot of work on that cover.

Samantha Hunt’s branding is better than yours.

I know this is true because her work was recommended to me by Allison Barrett. (And she’s never told me to read any of your work. 🙀)

After reading this excellent collection of female-centered short stories, we decided to name it as the first book of our new book club, Detention. This essay is a small taste of the kinds of discussions we will be having about the book in our Discord community and during the live show.

Samantha Hunt can get away with abstract titles you and I would struggle with. 

She published through a traditional model and they promoted her work. Helped her get press, sign her up to interviews, wrote press releases and pushed the book to literary contests and campaigned for her. She has several well-regarded novels under her belt, so her works are assigned in college. She has a Wikipedia page. She won the St. Francis College Literary Prize. (Full disclosure, I had to look it up, but it comes with a cool $50k.) 

These bonafides allow her to market to her base. It meant, when someone came across her work, they came across education about the book. On the flip side, if you’re walking through a bookstore looking at spines, why would you ever pick up The Dark Dark?

If it was erroneously placed in the non-fiction section would you know it’s supposed to be in fiction? What genre would you guess? From the title alone would you guess it’s a novel or a short story collection,* or maybe something else?

These questions aren’t rhetorical. I want you to answer them. Rhetorically, do you think you could get away with a confusing and abstract title? Or should you let readers who’ve never come across you know exactly what they are getting so they make informed decisions on whether to check the back cover and search up reviews?

When you have great stories and good personal branding you can get away with sophisticated titles. 

*Some online sources note the official title is The Dark Dark: Stories (Which helps clear up some confusion.)

Peeling the Layers: Samantha Hunt’s Title Illuminates Hidden Truths.

The cover is abstract and not immediately obvious.

Looking at a black Rorschach-looking ribcage thing, I thought… what is this? What am I getting into?

But a good testimonial got me to crack through the first story. And as the main character contemplated murder, I was left saying, “Oh! That was dark.”

The Dark Dark had me raring to have conversations with my friends and loved ones about an inner darkness women struggle with I was unaware of. Finishing the book I was left thinking, “I didn’t know how many shades of darkness exist. The ability to bear children, whether availed of or not, leads to inner dialogues unshared with me.”

I write from a male perspective. My work is full of the dreaded male gaze. I’m sympathetic, I’m interested in the women in my stories. But when I think about women as characters I tend to think of women as men. We’re all just human. I try to faithfully render what I hear and what I see. I try to have real discussions, deep and interesting.

This collection of short stories had me wrestling with how different the gendered human experience is.

A framing that kept having me going back to the title. The Dark Dark. The darker place, the deeper darkness, the hidden side of our psyche, one which emanates from the belly. The conversations I’m not privy to because I didn’t have the imagination to ask, because how would I ever understand? 

As close as my female friends are, these characters let me in to sides of my best girl friends I’d not seen. Ones that felt as scary as they felt emotionally true.

There are trade-offs in how we conjure titles.

For my reading, the Dark Dark became more resonant as I pushed further into the collection. Was the darkness loneliness and a lack of love like in the story about the dude who built a robot woman? Was the darkness jealousy the envy induced when looking at people who bear children when you cannot? Was the darkness cheating like in the story about the deer? This constant pulling back to the title and reframing of the stories in its context wouldn’t have happened with a more traditional catchy title. 
For all this title lost in clarity it gained in subjective magic.

3 teachers
Photo shared via Story Luck CCA

Our Book Club is the Smartest Kind of Detention.

The analysis you’ve just read is just a taste of the rich, insightful discussions awaiting you in the Detention Book Club. Our community of passionate readers delves into the nuances of each text, uncovering layers of meaning that often go unnoticed in solitary reading.

As Allison Barrett, one of our expert hosts, notes: “‘The Dark Dark’ is a perfect example of how a book can challenge our perspectives and spark meaningful conversations. In Detention, we create a space where these revelations can be shared and explored further.”

But ‘The Dark Dark’ is just the beginning. In the coming months, we’ll also be tackling ‘Doppelganger’ by Naomi Klein, a thought-provoking exploration of identity in our digital age, and ‘Exhalation’ by Ted Chiang, a collection of sci-fi stories that will stretch your imagination and challenge your perceptions of reality.

Whether you’re drawn to the haunting darkness of Hunt’s stories, the political commentary of Klein, or the mind-bending concepts of Chiang, Detention Book Club offers a unique opportunity to engage with literature on a deeper level.

Don’t miss out on this chance to expand your literary horizons and connect with fellow book lovers. Join Detention Book Club today and turn your reading experience into a journey of discovery and growth.

Detention Book Club runs in three Month Cycles.

Monday January 13th we will be meeting virtually to discuss Doppelganger by Naomi Klein. For those of you who like facebook invites here’s a link. For everyone else sign up here.

Permanent link to this article: https://storyluck.org/the-dark-dark-by-samantha-hunt-is-an-example-of-how-some-authors-get-away-with-horrible-titles/

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