THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE MANGA

Limerick's Darren Shan doesn't leave much to the imagination at the best or worse of times, so the idea of having his bloodthirsty vampire saga presented in graphic manga form might be less than appealling to all except pre-teen boys. However, given that his characters now inflict pain and suffering on one another in Japanese cartoon speech bubbles, courtesy of Takahiro Arai, the violence actually appears LESS graphic than when readers had to picture the images for themselves. This instalment sees Darren return to the place of his rebirth as a child of the night, to find a few changes and several home truths await him. And plenty of blood.