Book seven of the Demonata series, Death's Shadow, by Darren Shan, leaves nothing to the imagination when it comes to gore, but it lacks just a tiny bit on plot. Shan brings back characters from other novels: Sharmilla and Kernel from book two, Juni from book three, Bec from book four (in fact Bec tells the story), and introduces a new entity...a.k.a. "The Shadow." I think Demonata readers will agree with me, however, that Grubbs, (who makes a cameo) is our favorite character and he's just not in this novel enough for my taste. The Shadow wasn't nearly interesting enough to make up for the fact that Grubbs isn't a central character. And Bec, while a slightly interesting new voice--doesn't quite come through as an individual so much as a channel to relay the narration. Hard-core Shan fans will stick it out because the novel is sort of a transitional one--a bridge between one novel and another (or at least it reads that way), but new readers should start with book one, Lord Loss.