#110 in Classics
The Dark Is Rising
- 256
- Pages
- about 4.5 h
- Reading time
- Film 2007
- On screen
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Our view
“The Dark Is Rising” is a children’s fantasy steeped in old folklore, with an English boy caught up in a war between light and darkness. Many readers remember it fondly from childhood, and for some its mythic atmosphere still holds. Others now find it thin on excitement, and some feel Will is carried by events instead of making choices. It is the second book in a sequence of five.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Dark Is Rising is a 1973 children's fantasy novel by Susan Cooper. The second in The Dark Is Rising Sequence, the book won a Newbery Honor. It has been described as a "folkloric tale of an English boy caught in a battle between light and dark".
Reading order · The Dark Is Rising Sequence
Full order & progress →- Over Sea, Under StoneStart here
7.57.5 / 10 - The Dark Is RisingThis book
7.97.9 / 10 - Greenwitch
7.87.8 / 10 - The Grey King
–Not ranked yet - Silver on the Tree
8.08.0 / 10
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- FilmThe SeekerIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.9 across 205 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 58% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Classics average of 7.7. That is how 7.9 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.0 | 20 | 10% |
| Hardcover | 7.9 | 185 | 90% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Dark Is Rising?
It has 256 pages — shorter than 97% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Classics — with scores between 7.8 and 8.0, closest to this book.
