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TEEN FICTION
REVIEWS
- reviewed by
Becky Holland |
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It’s possible to
sum up Darren
Shan’s Demon
Thief, part
of the Demonata
series, in one
quotation from
the novel
itself: ‘the
universe demands
sacrifice and
pain of its
champions.’
Kernel Fleck is
a human boy
whose brother is
stolen by a
demon. When he
sets out through
the gateway to
Demonata - the
world of demons
- he discovers
that he too has
magical powers.
But will those
powers be enough
to defeat the
demons?
I found Demon
Thief a powerful
book, largely
because Shan is
not afraid to
cross the
Political
Correctness
barrier that
worries most
writers of teen
fiction. That
didn’t put me
off though.
Quite the
opposite. Demon
Thief uses some
imaginatively
gruesome
settings -
demon-infested
worlds of magic
- but there’s an
air of raw
truthfulness to
the book which
makes everything
seem more
fragile and
interesting.
Demon Thief is
the tale of a
boy who
discovers that
no one is ever
born a hero
automatically,
but that being
witness to
horrific deeds
can either make
or break you.
Shan employs the
theme of
loneliness to
great effect in
Demon Thief,
asking what
loneliness can
drive you to -
whether that’s
loving a demon
or becoming one
yourself. And he
uses the image
of gateways to
suggest a
balance between
control and fear
of the unknown.
What I liked
best was that he
doesn’t try to
make reality any
‘nicer’;
instead, he
shows what
reality can be
like in a
surreal world,
blurring the
boundaries
between worlds
until even the
characters ask
themselves
‘Surely, even
this warped
universe of
horrors can’t be
that cruel.’ But
it can be
sickening and
twisted, with
Shan describing
everything from
different points
of view in
terrible detail.
By the end of
the book,
though, after
reading this
stomach-churning
tale of horror
and mystery, I
felt that Shan
wanted me to
realise that the
real world can
be like that as
well - that we
have our own
demons in this
world too, even
if they hide
their true
selves,
disguised in
human form.
http://teenfictionreviews.blogspot.com/2006/02/demon-thief-by-darren-shan.html |
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