CIAO - reviewed by various

This book is amazingly well put together, just like all of Darren Shan's work though. He conveys the emotions and feelings of all characters towards their situations and each other superbly and it is a book you finish and want to read again just to check you got the story right and just because it was that good.

It has turns and twists which are almost undiscoverable until it is too late for you and the characters to apprehend leaving you needing to know what happens next. This book is unputdownable and you would rather finish that page your on, 'then the chapter, then the book!' than go out...

The plot lets you follow Bec, a baby brought up in a fort not her own, as a priestess without much experience, she longs to find out who her mother was and where she came from. When one day the town is attacked by the Demons, she leaves with a band of followers one being a boy only known as "run fast" on a journey to help a follow clan but yet none of them could have ever anticipated what follows...

The only thing about the book could be seen as bad, is the fact it is a different time period completely to the Demonata Series this is in which throws you slightly and the language used hss irish dialect but this is covered in a "Dictionary" at the back of the book explaining how names and things are pronounced.

Overall this is a great book, and you dont have to have read the other books in the series (1,2,3) before this one.

Enjoy!

REVIEW BY: Michael

Bec. Screams in the dark. The fourth book in the Demonata series and although in my opinion very different from its predecessors it is still an enthralling read. Having said that I would rate it as the slightly weaker of the four.

The plot is set around Bec a priestess who believes she must find her real people, opportunity lets her set out in search of them but along the way she finds herseself on what could be a one way trip to a demonata tunnel, that is to say an entrance from the demon world into ours.

A brief overview of the the story. The story opens with a woman running through the land searching for something unknown perhaps even to her. A brief pause, she gives birth to her child, a girl though she does not name her. After this the mysterious woman presses on and on until she can run no more, she collapses newborn clutched to her breast she dies outside the rath of the McConn. The babe is found and accepted by the clan to be raised as a priestess and so begins the story of Bec. Bec is a young girl alienated from people her own age and desperate for something more, some means of escape, one day this means presents itself but will she take it?

What ensues is an action packed adventure about the most unlikely union of people travelling towards the unknown, towards the source of all the evil in the land. Will they win, can they turn the tide and break the invaders, or will they perish in the struggle. One thing is certain not one of these people will give up without a fight, not even Connla or so it seems.......

This book WILL leave you wanting more I guarantee it

A great book with many twists and an unexpected ending. A thrilling read, I would read it again and again, it’s a good value book and an easy read. The storyline is not to hard to believe I mean if you can take into account the book is based on demons and magic, I believe however that this book is so far apart from the others that until a sequel is released their are lots of aspects that I cannot understand. There are links that I can’t quite make between this book and the other three demonata books. In some places yes I find it confusing and sometimes even aggravating for example how do the werewolf people turn out to become the Grady's or Garadexes whatever. There are also some gaps in the plot like when was it set, when Christianity was spreading to new lands i am no great historian TELL ME WHEN THAT WAS. It must have been ages ago as Lord Loss had never experienced chess before but hey I never got bored of the book that’s the important thing writing this review was the second time I have read it all be it quickly and I think I enjoyed it more then the first despite some minor gaps in the plot that i am sure will be filled in. There is one last thing that’s bugging me, who is Bec in relation to the characters in the other books, or is there no relation?

Anyway enough of my rantings and ravings this book lives up to the name of Darren Shan, and the Demonata series. Although I preferred his vampire books to the demonata series it is still a series worthy of Shan and it is just as bloody and gory as ever. If you like books about pain and suffering described in graphic detail this is the book for you lol.