However, Kernel saw that their struggle seemed to be a weak facade and believes that Bec has made an alliance with Lord Loss.

Darren Shan is the number-one best-selling author of the series THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN, the DEMONATA and more recently the SAGA OF LARTEN CREPSLEY and ZOM-B. I had no idea what to expect and that's part of the fun, so I won't enlighten you about what this book is about. What was my surprise when i realized i read 80 pages non-stop and was actually enjoying this frikkin story! Although not the most frightening of books it was certainly spine tingling, I'm not easily scared but the book managed to create such realistic visions of the demons in my mind, even the finest of details being given to us by the narator - Grubitsch 'Grubbs' Grady. When he opts out of a family weekend trip, he never guesses that he is about to take a terrifying journey into darkness.

The novel is set in Ireland and is told in present tense first person through Grubbs Grady, a child whose family are all chess players. He leads her through his castle and encourages her, showing her torture rooms and the contained victims, whom he tortures with great care and affection. The book repeats the formula of The Saga of Darren Shan and will no doubt be loved by Shan's many fans. Lord Loss kills people in the cruelest ways he can think of; in Bec he has the zombies of Orna's own children eat her alive all for his entertainment. Everyone is tense and he realises they made up a story to remove him from home for a night for whatever reason.

When he mentally heals enough to cope, he finds himself sheltered by his long-lost uncle, a man who knows more than he's telling, but who is willing to tell it as soon as Grubbs wants to listen. He has also released the stand-alone novel, The Thin Executioner, and the stand-alone short novels, Koyasan, and Hagurosan.

It was originally serialized in Japan, but English-language omnibus volumes are now on sale in the USA and UK. Lord Loss makes no apperance, he is only mentioned, this is the only one where he does not show up at all, though he does send Juni Swan.

He is just so much fun and while possibly by 2019 could be some super sensitive PC crap like many other authors (I don't know), at the point when he wrote this he was just unashamed awesome.His books have been read by millions of people around the world and translated into more than 25 languages. While at times the first book was more focused on horror the series gradually moves more towards epic fantasy, however Shan maintains his famously brutal style throughout.