Lord Loss by Darren Shan

Lord Loss by Darren Shan

Release Date : June 12th 2005

Publisher : Little Brown

Pages : 224

Series : The Demonata Book One

Rating : 4.5

"The door feels red hot, as though a fire is burning behind it.  I press an ear to the wood - but there's no crackle.  No smoke.  Just deep, heavy breathing...and a curious dripping sound.  My hand's on the doorknob.  Inside the room, somebody giggles - low, throaty, sadistic.  There's a ripping sound, followed by snaps and crunches.  My hand turns.  The door opens.  Hell is revealed.

Grubbs Grady is about to learn three things: The world is vicious.  Magic is possible.  Demons are real.  A horrifying new adventure begins with this first book in the spine-chilling Demonata series."

Darren Shan is one of my favorite authors.  You may know him by his best selling series Cirque Du Freak.  They made a horrible movie out of it and the ending was a little disappointing but that is a different post.  This post is about his series titled The Demonata.  I started this series a couple years ago but only got about three books in.  I have no idea why I stopped because I did really like the books.  I’ve recently decided to pick up the series again and try to read through the ten book series.

Lord Loss is the first book in the Demonata series.  Grubbs, after being left at his grandmother’s house, sneaks back home only to discover that his parents and sister have been murdered by demons.  He is instantly whisked away to a mental institution where he constantly falls into horrible nightmares about the demons.  One day a man named Devrish, his uncle, visits and claims he knows all about the demons.  Grubbs goes to live with his uncle and is learns about his family history with magic and demons.

This book is definitely gruesome with a lot of blood and gore.  I would recommend this book not to be read by anyone under the age of eight or nine. 

My favorite parts of the book were at the end.  The final showdown between Grubbs and Lord Loss was captivating.  I loved how it was as much psychological as it was physical.  I also loved the very last couple pages of the book.  They were hilarious.

If you like Darren Shan’s Cirque Du Freaks series and want to read something darker, or if you’re looking for a good horror story definitely try Lord Loss or, actually, anything by Darren Shan.