1st REVIEW FROM SEPTEMBER 7th 2006, BY GREG.

Lord Loss, book 1 in the Demonata series by Darren Shan (author of the popular Cirque Du Freak series), is a great read, but definitely not recommended for anyone with a weak stomach. The title of the first chapter…Rat Guts…makes this fact quite clear to the reader early on.

By the second chapter our unfortunate teenaged protagonist (Grubbs Grady) arrives home to find his father hanging upside down and headless from the ceiling, his sister split in two, and his mother being eaten by a dog-like creature with the head of a crocodile! Before Grubbs can even begin to process the carnage before him, he is confronted by the horrific demon Lord Loss and his vile sidekicks Vein and Artery. After a very narrow escape from the demons, he is sent to a mental hospital to recuperate from his trauma.

Grubbs eventually leaves the hospital and goes to live with his eccentric Uncle Dervish in an ominous castle-like estate in the English countryside. There, Grubbs begins to uncover the mystery behind the murder of his family…a mystery involving werewolves, magic, and a deadly game of chess.

I enjoyed reading Lord Loss so much that I immediately checked out Demon Thief (Book 2). Slawter (Book 3) is due to be released in November 2006.

2nd REVIEW FROM MAY 28th 2008, BY KRISTIN.

So I'm reading death books for the popular paperbacks committee. Last night I finished reading Lord Loss by Darren Shan.
 

Greg posted about this book in September 2006, so go re-read his post now! Anyway, I have always felt that true horror books are sometimes missing in teen literature. The ones that seem to be coming out most are the supernatural romances instead scary stories.

I've known that Darren Shan's Demonata series was the exception to this, but I still never got around to reading them. Now I had the perfect excuse. The paperback copy has a quote from the SLJ review that says something aobut how this will gross out anyone. It was right! The perfect mixture of horror and gore. Starting with Grubbs prank on his older sister--he put rats guts on her towel while she was in the shower. He thought it was hilarious--no one else did. But the image that stayed with me is when he walked into his parents' bedroom to find them murdered by demons. His father was beheaded and blood draining from his body. His sister sawed in half and made into a puppet for the demons' amusement. Perfection.

But Shan doesn't stop there. His first person, present tense writing makes the story have more anticipation and excitement. Shan makes Grubbs into a realistic character when he breaksdown and is placed in a mental institution. His fear is tangible throughout the novel. And even at the end I still wanted to read more. So now, I think I'll be bringing them with me on my vacation this summer!