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KLIATT -
reviewed by
Paula Rohrlick |
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The popularity
of Shan's Cirque
du Freak series
guarantees an
audience for
this creepy
horror story,
first in a new
series. "I've
seen demons rip
my world to
pieces,"
teenager Grubbs
Grady wails, and
he means it
literally—his
parents and
sister are torn
apart by
terrible
creatures from
another
dimension, and
he barely
escapes with his
life. No one
will believe his
story and he
ends up in an
institution,
lost to grief
and fear, until
his Uncle
Dervish appears.
Dervish believes
Grubbs's tale
and takes Grubbs
to live with him
in his huge
stone house in
the English
countryside,
where he reveals
to him more
about Lord Loss,
the demon master
who feeds on
human suffering.
He also tells
Grubbs about the
family curse—a
werewolf gene
runs in the
clan. When
Grubbs's teenage
relative and
close friend
Billy starts to
turn into a
werewolf,
Dervish and
Grubbs must take
on Lord Loss and
his terrible
minions in a
chess battle of
life and death.
The secret
weapon of teens
everywhere,
sullen
indifference, is
the key to
winning, Grubbs
discovers.
Short, staccato
sentences and
the use of the
present tense
help raise the
tension level in
this
supernatural
page-turner.
Lots of gore,
including
dismemberment,
and the
descriptions of
the nightmarish
demons make this
appropriate only
for those with
strong
stomachs—it's
gross as well as
engrossing. The
cover, with a
close-up of a
menacing hand
and a boy in the
background with
his hand to his
throat, conveys
the novel's
sense of menace
nicely. Horror
fans will eat
this up. A
sequel is
promised for
fall 2006. |
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