The Absence of Light is a dark prose novel written by 25-year-old J. Daniel Stone. Stone's debut is a juggernaut of strength and passion that has brought literary prose back to the spotlight. With a natural ability for mapping out interesting characters and setting, Stone's work will resonate long after the last word on the page. He is a valuable addition not only to the horror genre and the indie publishing community, but to the writing world in general. The reader will become drunk on his words.Stone takes his readers through the problems that everyday people face within the boondocks via a small Pennsylvania mining town dusted in anthracite, to the frightening throes of the ever-changing face of New York City with an authenticity that is rarely found in first novels. Nothing in his prose is forced; none of the words on his pages are self-absorbed.The Absence of Light is a tome of passion, a tour-de-force of angry youth scarred by lost pasts, the yearning to understand the hateful world around them, and the forever need to create. Stone's characters are a dying breed of art junkies dressed in black who are inspired by night. But that's what brings out the genius in their mediums be it music, writing, photography and more. The Absence of Light is a realistic insight into the minds of angst-ridden youth from the mind of a writer with first hand experience. Where there was first Joyce, Burroughs, Rice, Skipp, Koja and Kiernan, now there is Stone.