You Like It Darker

Content Warning: This section reflects the book’s depictions of or references to alcohol addiction, death by suicide, child violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and police violence. The book also contains offensive language that is biased against gay people, Asians, unhoused people, and people with disabilities.

In 2021, a journalist named Ruth Crawford goes to Maine to write a profile on two small-town friends who became successful artists in their middle age: Laird Carmody, a writer, and David “Butch” LaVerdiere, a painter who passed away in 2019. Ruth requests an interview with Laird through his son, Mark. Laird declines, but the request makes Mark curious about Laird and Butch’s coinciding success.

Ruth interviews relevant figures in the Carmodys’ hometown of Harlow to build her profile. Dissatisfied with their answers, Ruth approaches Mark at a café to talk off the record. She shares what she learned about Laird and Butch, which speaks to their character but doesn’t explain the secret of their sudden midlife success.

Mark doesn’t tell her that while he was attending a university in 1978, he received a call from his mother, who was alarmed about Laird and Butch having experienced something strange on a hunting trip. Soon after this, they broke out into successful respective careers. Mark never learned the truth about what happened to them but suspects something terrible.

Ruth visits the Carmody household to request an interview. When she compliments their flowerbed, which was planted by the late Mrs. Carmody, Laird allows her to ask him three questions. Under pressure, she asks Laird what he liked most about Butch. She also asks about his favorite and least favorite memories of their friendship. Laird cites Butch’s loyalty and then talks about how he hated seeing Butch’s coffin. He says he cherishes his memories of their hunting trips. Ruth asks what turned them into men of prominence. Laird answers that they were simply talented. Ruth leaves town and publishes her profile.

Mark’s curiosity persists. In his father’s old notebooks, he finds an early draft of Laird’s first novel, The Lightning Storm, which he heavily annotated in frustration. Mark compares the draft to the published novel, observing a wide gap in quality. Two years later, Laird breaks his hip due to osteoporosis. He soon dies but first instructs Mark to open his locked desk drawer, promising that it will explain everything. Mark obeys Laird’s wishes and finds several articles reporting sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Underneath the clippings is a notebook, which contains an account of the 1978 hunting trip.

In November 1978, Laird was an early-career writer who had secured his first book deal, while Butch was a comic book illustrator. Both were frustrated by their self-perceived lack of talent. They drove to a forest known as 30-Mile Wood and crossed a fragile bridge to reach Laird’s cabin. After two days, they failed to shoot any deer on their hunting trip. Laird noticed the unnerving total silence of the wildlife in the forest. Butch joked that aliens had scared off the animals.

That afternoon, Butch and Laird saw circles of light floating above a nearby clearing. They dismissed the possibility that the lights were manmade because of their size. More time passed without any game, so Butch proposed returning to the cabin empty-handed. The next night, while looking for lights in the clearing, they saw an unconscious woman on the bridge. They carried her out of danger but soon noticed that their fingers sunk into her body as if she were made of clay. The woman regained consciousness but struggled to breathe. Butch performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and observed that the woman’s mouth felt like plastic. Laird administered an EpiPen from their first aid kit, and Butch gave the woman an oxygen mask. They agreed that the woman was an alien.

The woman’s form became more human as her breathing stabilized. Butch and Laird took her to the cabin to administer first aid again if necessary. While they discussed what to do, a light suddenly flashed through the window. Laird saw the woman’s nervous system but remembered nothing else. When the light disappeared, a man replaced the woman and told Butch and Laird that they had saved the life of Ylla, his female companion, by giving her oxygen. He explained that their species was defined by their deep interest in primal thinking. When the man asked for a souvenir, Laird and Butch gave him a beer can. He said that the aliens visited endangered planets to collect mementos of their civilizations. As a token of his gratitude, the man gifted a gray case to his hosts and instructed them to breathe from it to access their primal thoughts, though he emphasized, “Nothing can give you what isn’t already there” (49).

After the man left, Laird and Butch activated the case. They agreed not to reveal their alien encounters to anyone. Later, Laird had a vivid dream related to the novel he eventually wrote. Butch quickly drew a good sketch of the male visitor. They left the case in the cabin and were both inspired to create new art. Laird was haunted by whether his talent was natural or a gift from the alien.

Mark believes that because of the account’s speculative elements, it must be a metafictional retelling of Laird’s experience. While considering the possibility that the story may be true, Mark finds a receipt showing that Laird and Butch paid property taxes for the cabin through 2050. The thought of finding the gray case inspires Mark to visit the cabin. At the cabin, Mark finds the case on the mantel. He wonders if it will work for him as Laird’s son.

Mark ends the story by noting that he always aspired to be a successful writer like his father and dreamed of being a talented pianist, often fantasizing about joining a nightclub band. When Mark breathes from the case, it briefly activates but refuses to open. He leaves the cabin, resigned to his fate.