Grubbs Grady is a normal schoolboy who belongs to what seems to be a normal family with an abnormal obsession with chess. The children are forced to become experts in the game with no explanation as to why. Then Grady encounters the demon Lord Loss, a violent and sadistic creature with an insatiable taste for gore and death. Grady is plunged into a world of werewolves and magic, a world of which he has always been a part but has never known about. His final test relies on his skill in the game of chess, but is he really ready to face the haunting Lord Loss, and win.

Darren Shan's most disturbing novel for young adults to date, it's a harrowing and bleak tale that provides disturbing explanations of the werewolf disease. Definitely scary, and definitely one of a kind.