Archibald Lox and the Empress of Saunpan (Archibald Lox Series, book 2)

By Darren Shan

Blurb: 
Archie thought he was finished with the Merge, but he was wrong.

Teaming up again with Inez, they must pit their wits against the infamous Empress of Suanpan.

In a city of gamblers, Archie must stake everything he owns, even his freedom...

Book two of the Archibald Lox series by Darren Shan, the New York Times bestselling author of Cirque Du Freak and Lord Loss.

Review: 
I really wish these books were just all one book, I feel like they are far too short and they are just over as the action starts.

The reason why I've rated this book 4 stars and not 5 is for the same reasons as the first book. I feel like there's not much of a background to the story, there's no side stories, no plot twists, no real story development and no answers to my questions just yet. All those back points to one side, it's still a great read, it's so fast paced, characters are all lovable and the story is flowing. 

I'm loving Archie as he discovers more about his abilities as a locksmith, how he can control different things. He was such a nervous character to start of with but now I feel he is coming more out of his shell and having confidence in his ability.

The sense of humour throughout this book was what stood out the most. I feel like it was well suited to the characters that were using it, as it felt that we were a part of the book and actually there picturing the scenes. So being able to picture the scenes also means that the amount of detail into each aspect of the new scenery was spot on.

Reading this book also gives me a sort of sci-fi feeling too especially with some of the different realms and all these portals we have to adventure through. I do realise that it is also very much a fantasy aspect but for some reason it just gives me this feeling. That's possibly why I'm enjoying this series a lot from Darren Shan because I'm a huge sci-fi fan.

In this book we can tell that the friendship between the two main characters has developed quite a lot for the first book to the end of the second book, because there has been a lot of truthful moments and they've actually came out the other side of the problems still friends.

Another thing that I like within this book is that we are starting to meet different people within the different realms and we are learning how each one runs and more about the people that are on that realm. So I'm enjoying this aspect of the book. I just feel like we should know why she is being chased by the submerged, what her plan is and what she hopes to get out of it. Maybe book 3 will give me this closure but then I don't feel like it real. 

Favourite Character: Archie

Read: 09/04/20 - 10/04/20

4 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie

Archibald Lox and the Empress of Saunpan (Archibald Lox Series, book 2)

By Darren Shan

Blurb: 
Archie thought he was finished with the Merge, but he was wrong.

Teaming up again with Inez, they must pit their wits against the infamous Empress of Suanpan.

In a city of gamblers, Archie must stake everything he owns, even his freedom...

Book two of the Archibald Lox series by Darren Shan, the New York Times bestselling author of Cirque Du Freak and Lord Loss.

Review: 
I really wish these books were just all one book, I feel like they are far too short and they are just over as the action starts.

The reason why I've rated this book 4 stars and not 5 is for the same reasons as the first book. I feel like there's not much of a background to the story, there's no side stories, no plot twists, no real story development and no answers to my questions just yet. All those back points to one side, it's still a great read, it's so fast paced, characters are all lovable and the story is flowing. 

I'm loving Archie as he discovers more about his abilities as a locksmith, how he can control different things. He was such a nervous character to start of with but now I feel he is coming more out of his shell and having confidence in his ability.

The sense of humour throughout this book was what stood out the most. I feel like it was well suited to the characters that were using it, as it felt that we were a part of the book and actually there picturing the scenes. So being able to picture the scenes also means that the amount of detail into each aspect of the new scenery was spot on.

Reading this book also gives me a sort of sci-fi feeling too especially with some of the different realms and all these portals we have to adventure through. I do realise that it is also very much a fantasy aspect but for some reason it just gives me this feeling. That's possibly why I'm enjoying this series a lot from Darren Shan because I'm a huge sci-fi fan.

In this book we can tell that the friendship between the two main characters has developed quite a lot for the first book to the end of the second book, because there has been a lot of truthful moments and they've actually came out the other side of the problems still friends.

Another thing that I like within this book is that we are starting to meet different people within the different realms and we are learning how each one runs and more about the people that are on that realm. So I'm enjoying this aspect of the book. I just feel like we should know why she is being chased by the submerged, what her plan is and what she hopes to get out of it. Maybe book 3 will give me this closure but then I don't feel like it real. 

Favourite Character: Archie

Read: 09/04/20 - 10/04/20

4 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie

Archibald Lox and the Bridge Between Worlds (Archibald Lox Series, book 1)

By Darren Shan

Blurb: 
There is a universe beyond our own, known as the Merge.

A young locksmith called Archibald Lox is about to cross worlds and explore it.

As he learns about these lands of wonders, he will have to face cold-blooded killers, rivers of blood, hell jackals and more...

Book one of the Archibald Lox series, a new YA fantasy series by Darren Shan, the New York Times bestselling author of Cirque Du Freak and Lord Loss.

Review: 
This is the first Darren Shan book that I've ever truly finished! So it must be worth the read if I've finished it. I buddy read this book with my friend Laura who is a die hard fan of Darren Shan, so it was another different experience. 

According to Laura, this book follows all of his key parts if that makes sense. So the first chapter is crazy, has some twists, has some made sense moments and a cliff hanger. 

This book is about a boy (Archie) who has just lost someone and is suffering from grief, he feels that he is invisible. He sets off to school one morning; earlier than usual because the atmosphere in the house is all doom and gloom. He then gets onto one of the bridges in London when this girl randomly appears and then opens up  a borehole with her facial expressions. She is being chased by two submerged people who have a knife and an axe.

Archie then follows the girl (Inez) into the merge and discovers a whole new world and a whole new part of his life. This new world is great and reading about the different zones and realms within the world is amazing. How it links back to the human world is crazy. 

I feel that the characters did develop a bit throughout the book, they started to trust each other more and talked about their pasts with one another. So I do feel that there is a strong friendship developing already.

What made me rate it 4 stars rather than 5 even though I did really enjoy it and it was fast paced, is purely because I didn't feel the story developed much. I didn't know the ins and outs of Archie's friend/relative dying, I don't know why Inez is being hunted. I think the whole point of this first book is to develop the world and the friendships that he is wanting throughout the series. 

Favourite Character: Archie

Read: 03/04/20 - 05/04/20

4 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie

Check out Sammie's review of book 2: Archibald Lox and the Empress of Saunpan

Archibald Lox and the Bridge Between Worlds (Archibald Lox Series, book 1)

By Darren Shan

Blurb: 
There is a universe beyond our own, known as the Merge.

A young locksmith called Archibald Lox is about to cross worlds and explore it.

As he learns about these lands of wonders, he will have to face cold-blooded killers, rivers of blood, hell jackals and more...

Book one of the Archibald Lox series, a new YA fantasy series by Darren Shan, the New York Times bestselling author of Cirque Du Freak and Lord Loss.

Review: 
This is the first Darren Shan book that I've ever truly finished! So it must be worth the read if I've finished it. I buddy read this book with my friend Laura who is a die hard fan of Darren Shan, so it was another different experience. 

According to Laura, this book follows all of his key parts if that makes sense. So the first chapter is crazy, has some twists, has some made sense moments and a cliff hanger. 

This book is about a boy (Archie) who has just lost someone and is suffering from grief, he feels that he is invisible. He sets off to school one morning; earlier than usual because the atmosphere in the house is all doom and gloom. He then gets onto one of the bridges in London when this girl randomly appears and then opens up  a borehole with her facial expressions. She is being chased by two submerged people who have a knife and an axe.

Archie then follows the girl (Inez) into the merge and discovers a whole new world and a whole new part of his life. This new world is great and reading about the different zones and realms within the world is amazing. How it links back to the human world is crazy. 

I feel that the characters did develop a bit throughout the book, they started to trust each other more and talked about their pasts with one another. So I do feel that there is a strong friendship developing already.

What made me rate it 4 stars rather than 5 even though I did really enjoy it and it was fast paced, is purely because I didn't feel the story developed much. I didn't know the ins and outs of Archie's friend/relative dying, I don't know why Inez is being hunted. I think the whole point of this first book is to develop the world and the friendships that he is wanting throughout the series. 

Favourite Character: Archie

Read: 03/04/20 - 05/04/20

4 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie

Check out Sammie's review of book 2: Archibald Lox and the Empress of Saunpan

Lord Loss (The Demonata, book 1)

By Darren Shan

Blurb: 
Grubbs Grady has stiff red hair and is a little big for his age, which means he can get into R-rated movies. He hates history and loves bacon, rats, and playing tricks on his squeamish older sister. When he opts out of a family weekend trip, he never guesses that he is about to take a terrifying journey into darkness. Hungry demons and howling werewolves haunt his waking nightmares... and threaten his life.

Review: 
After loving The Darren Shan Saga by Darren Shan, I decided to explore his other series, next on my list was The Demonata. This series is 10 books long but it’s a bit different to the usual series. Each book is one of three perspectives: Grubbs, Kernal and Bec. They are all separate timelines and stories that somewhat come together. It certainly sounds interesting. 

The first book in the series is Lord Loss, with the perspective being Grubbs Grady. The first thing I noticed with this book compared to The Darren Shan Saga was that the chapters were longer. I do prefer shorter chapters, however still not as long as some other books I read. 

I am aware the books are for a younger audience and you can tell. This made it sometimes a struggle to enjoy as it was quite childish, especially at the beginning. Also the character names. However, as the book went on it did get more interesting and more mature. I know plenty of older people who have read the series and loved it. So it’s probably just a matter of getting use to the language style. 

Now I admit despite the names being quite childish, Ma Spleen is a great name. Made me giggle every time I read it. 

Everyone seems to really really love Bec, so that’s the book I’m looking forward to the most I must say. Darren Shan books from what I’ve seen usually get better as the series goes on. Maybe with some poorer middle books but the endings are always worth it. So I’m not too concerned that I was too in love with this one. I will see the series through to the end.

*SPOILERS*

The book starts out with Grubbs pulling a prank on his sister with a dead animal. Which I can understand the reaction. It's quite brutal. But all of the sudden everyone starts being really nice to him which makes him quite suspicious. One night they send him to his aunties but he sneaks back home and discovers his home infested by demons and his parents and sister are dead. I think Darren Shan does a good job to describe this scene as it is quite horrifying and disgusting. His horror elements are always older than the book’s target audience. Which is why older people like me end up reading them.

Usually, in books you don’t really see a breakdown. The characters just sort of move on and deal with the task at hand. But what was really interesting about this book was Grubbs did breakdown. He had a mental breakdown after seeing a bunch of demons kill his family and rightly so. Grubbs ends up in a mental hospital for a while to deal with it. I really enjoyed this part and I think it’s really good to expose kids to mental health and how it’s okay to not cope with everything instantly.

Eventually, Grubbs gets let out to go live with his Uncle Dervish. An odd man that lives in a mansion alone. Grubbs starts to get suspicious with Dervish of being a werewolf because his suspected cousin Bill-E Spleen puts that thought in his head. Grubbs investigates Dervish and in the madness discovers it’s actually Bill-E who is the werewolf. I was expecting a twist, maybe Grubbs being the werewolf but no it was unexpectedly Bill-E. I love a good twist.

At that point all of the mystery and unanswered questions just start coming together. We find out his sister had the same curse and his parents took on a head demon named Lord Loss in a game of chess in the hope to get him to remove the curse. However, they failed which is why they were killed. I didn’t think Dervish was Bill-E’s father and was correct but I didn’t expect Grubbs father to have had an affair and ended up being Bill-E’s father. That was mad, did not expect that at all. 

Then Grubbs had to help Dervish fight demons and play chess to relieve Bill-E of his curse. They succeeded. But Lord Loss set a target on Grubbs. Good ending. However, the very end of the book is what I loved. Everything was back to normal but Grubbs still could turn into a werewolf. Dervish was still in the demon world fighting the demons, so his body was in a weird coma like state. Grubbs was basically living by himself checking each morning for blood in his fingernails to make sure he isn’t a werewolf. Then one morning, he wakes up and sees the blood. You’d think the book was going to end there but no another twist. Dervish is out of his coma state holding red paint. He just did the prank of a lifetime. I liked that light-hearted funny panicky twist. 

Overall, I did enjoy the book but I struggled with the lower target audience of the book causing the writing style to not be a favourite of mine. For this I’ll give it 3.5 stars. I do suspect the other books getting higher ratings though.

Rating: 3.5 runes out of 5

written by Lauren

Lord Loss (The Demonata, book 1)

By Darren Shan

Blurb: 
Grubbs Grady has stiff red hair and is a little big for his age, which means he can get into R-rated movies. He hates history and loves bacon, rats, and playing tricks on his squeamish older sister. When he opts out of a family weekend trip, he never guesses that he is about to take a terrifying journey into darkness. Hungry demons and howling werewolves haunt his waking nightmares... and threaten his life.

Review: 
After loving The Darren Shan Saga by Darren Shan, I decided to explore his other series, next on my list was The Demonata. This series is 10 books long but it’s a bit different to the usual series. Each book is one of three perspectives: Grubbs, Kernal and Bec. They are all separate timelines and stories that somewhat come together. It certainly sounds interesting. 

The first book in the series is Lord Loss, with the perspective being Grubbs Grady. The first thing I noticed with this book compared to The Darren Shan Saga was that the chapters were longer. I do prefer shorter chapters, however still not as long as some other books I read. 

I am aware the books are for a younger audience and you can tell. This made it sometimes a struggle to enjoy as it was quite childish, especially at the beginning. Also the character names. However, as the book went on it did get more interesting and more mature. I know plenty of older people who have read the series and loved it. So it’s probably just a matter of getting use to the language style. 

Now I admit despite the names being quite childish, Ma Spleen is a great name. Made me giggle every time I read it. 

Everyone seems to really really love Bec, so that’s the book I’m looking forward to the most I must say. Darren Shan books from what I’ve seen usually get better as the series goes on. Maybe with some poorer middle books but the endings are always worth it. So I’m not too concerned that I was too in love with this one. I will see the series through to the end.

*SPOILERS*

The book starts out with Grubbs pulling a prank on his sister with a dead animal. Which I can understand the reaction. It's quite brutal. But all of the sudden everyone starts being really nice to him which makes him quite suspicious. One night they send him to his aunties but he sneaks back home and discovers his home infested by demons and his parents and sister are dead. I think Darren Shan does a good job to describe this scene as it is quite horrifying and disgusting. His horror elements are always older than the book’s target audience. Which is why older people like me end up reading them.

Usually, in books you don’t really see a breakdown. The characters just sort of move on and deal with the task at hand. But what was really interesting about this book was Grubbs did breakdown. He had a mental breakdown after seeing a bunch of demons kill his family and rightly so. Grubbs ends up in a mental hospital for a while to deal with it. I really enjoyed this part and I think it’s really good to expose kids to mental health and how it’s okay to not cope with everything instantly.

Eventually, Grubbs gets let out to go live with his Uncle Dervish. An odd man that lives in a mansion alone. Grubbs starts to get suspicious with Dervish of being a werewolf because his suspected cousin Bill-E Spleen puts that thought in his head. Grubbs investigates Dervish and in the madness discovers it’s actually Bill-E who is the werewolf. I was expecting a twist, maybe Grubbs being the werewolf but no it was unexpectedly Bill-E. I love a good twist.

At that point all of the mystery and unanswered questions just start coming together. We find out his sister had the same curse and his parents took on a head demon named Lord Loss in a game of chess in the hope to get him to remove the curse. However, they failed which is why they were killed. I didn’t think Dervish was Bill-E’s father and was correct but I didn’t expect Grubbs father to have had an affair and ended up being Bill-E’s father. That was mad, did not expect that at all. 

Then Grubbs had to help Dervish fight demons and play chess to relieve Bill-E of his curse. They succeeded. But Lord Loss set a target on Grubbs. Good ending. However, the very end of the book is what I loved. Everything was back to normal but Grubbs still could turn into a werewolf. Dervish was still in the demon world fighting the demons, so his body was in a weird coma like state. Grubbs was basically living by himself checking each morning for blood in his fingernails to make sure he isn’t a werewolf. Then one morning, he wakes up and sees the blood. You’d think the book was going to end there but no another twist. Dervish is out of his coma state holding red paint. He just did the prank of a lifetime. I liked that light-hearted funny panicky twist. 

Overall, I did enjoy the book but I struggled with the lower target audience of the book causing the writing style to not be a favourite of mine. For this I’ll give it 3.5 stars. I do suspect the other books getting higher ratings though.

Rating: 3.5 runes out of 5

written by Lauren

Molls Like It Hot 

By Darren Dash

Blurb: 
Evie Brown used to serve in the Army, until a tragic loss forced him to return to civilian life earlier than planned. Now he drives one of London's iconic black cabs. On a dark, wet night, he gives a lift to a wounded gangster, and everything changes from that point on.

When the gangster gets in touch some time later, offering Eyrie a small fortune if he will take care of a mysterious young woman for a few nights, Eyrie is suspicious and hesitant. He can see trouble ahead, but the money will change his life for the better, so he reluctantly agrees to become a temporary guardian. But some deals should never be struck, and his charge turns out to be far more of a handful than he had ever anticipated. As twist follows twist and the bodies start to mount, Eyrie gets backed into a blood-soaked corner and must resort to desperate, inventive measures if he is to stand any chance of seeing his mission through and making it out of the weekend alive.

Fast-paced, action-packed, gritty London-based noir, inspired by the likes of Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, with a large tip of the hat to the Billy Wilder movie Some Like It Hot.

Review: 
I received this as an arc a few weeks back. I've ashamedly haven't read any of Darren Dash adults books before this one. I definitely plan to read more of them. I have read a few of his children books under the name Darren Shan.

I've not read a gangster story before, but I do appreciate gangster movies and TV Shows so when I read the blurb I instantly agreed to the arc with no doubts that it wouldn't good.

Darren Dash is a great writer but seeing it in an adult book, you can see how amazing his writing truly is. The writing in this book had a great flow, very descriptive and really natural dialogue. The characters all had their unique personalities and that really came through in the book.

When I began reading the book, I knew instantly that I liked the writing style as the book starts out with a description of a taxi driver sitting looking out at a wet cold London and then jumped straight into the action. 6 pages in I was hooked.

The book was very fast paced and I was really happy with the length of it. Any longer and it wouldn't have been very good. The snappiness of it was what kept the nice flow of the plot. Now I'm not going to say it was perfect. It did have some slow scenes, some were more dialogue than the continuation of the plot. But in some cases these scenes were good and needed as it showed us more of the main character.

If you looking into this and think that because it's a gangster story it's going to be all doom and gloom. Yes there is plenty of that but there is also really funny scenes and funny things said by characters. Such as a joke about Jesus riding a canoe. The imagery of that made me have a little giggle.

The main character is Eyrie Brown a taxi driver with a darker past. The book was written in his perspective as he deals with the task from gangster boss Lewis Brue to look after a woman named Toni. Eyrie is a really interesting character, and we find out so much about him as the story goes on. I loved his character development. We also see another side of Toni as the book progresses and I really appreciate that character development too.

Although I do admit, I did feel there was too many characters at one point being thrown about. Lewis lists all of his friends in one chapter and just seemed a bit too much for the most part. Some of them were mentioned again later on a bit more but the rest were barely mentioned probably could have been left out.

The part I loved the most in this book was the ending, I could not predict it. There was so many twists straight after the other I couldn't put the book down. It was a great conclusion to this book. I really enjoyed the book and if Darren Dash was planning to make anymore books in this universe, I'd recommend a prequel about Lewis Brue. Love to know how he became a gang boss.

I highly recommend this book. It was something a bit different to what I'm use to, something not fantasy for change. But a welcomed change, I'm glad I read it.

Rating: 4 runes out of 5

written by Lauren

Molls Like It Hot 

By Darren Dash

Blurb: 
Evie Brown used to serve in the Army, until a tragic loss forced him to return to civilian life earlier than planned. Now he drives one of London's iconic black cabs. On a dark, wet night, he gives a lift to a wounded gangster, and everything changes from that point on.

When the gangster gets in touch some time later, offering Eyrie a small fortune if he will take care of a mysterious young woman for a few nights, Eyrie is suspicious and hesitant. He can see trouble ahead, but the money will change his life for the better, so he reluctantly agrees to become a temporary guardian. But some deals should never be struck, and his charge turns out to be far more of a handful than he had ever anticipated. As twist follows twist and the bodies start to mount, Eyrie gets backed into a blood-soaked corner and must resort to desperate, inventive measures if he is to stand any chance of seeing his mission through and making it out of the weekend alive.

Fast-paced, action-packed, gritty London-based noir, inspired by the likes of Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, with a large tip of the hat to the Billy Wilder movie Some Like It Hot.

Review: 
I received this as an arc a few weeks back. I've ashamedly haven't read any of Darren Dash adults books before this one. I definitely plan to read more of them. I have read a few of his children books under the name Darren Shan.

I've not read a gangster story before, but I do appreciate gangster movies and TV Shows so when I read the blurb I instantly agreed to the arc with no doubts that it wouldn't good.

Darren Dash is a great writer but seeing it in an adult book, you can see how amazing his writing truly is. The writing in this book had a great flow, very descriptive and really natural dialogue. The characters all had their unique personalities and that really came through in the book.

When I began reading the book, I knew instantly that I liked the writing style as the book starts out with a description of a taxi driver sitting looking out at a wet cold London and then jumped straight into the action. 6 pages in I was hooked.

The book was very fast paced and I was really happy with the length of it. Any longer and it wouldn't have been very good. The snappiness of it was what kept the nice flow of the plot. Now I'm not going to say it was perfect. It did have some slow scenes, some were more dialogue than the continuation of the plot. But in some cases these scenes were good and needed as it showed us more of the main character.

If you looking into this and think that because it's a gangster story it's going to be all doom and gloom. Yes there is plenty of that but there is also really funny scenes and funny things said by characters. Such as a joke about Jesus riding a canoe. The imagery of that made me have a little giggle.

The main character is Eyrie Brown a taxi driver with a darker past. The book was written in his perspective as he deals with the task from gangster boss Lewis Brue to look after a woman named Toni. Eyrie is a really interesting character, and we find out so much about him as the story goes on. I loved his character development. We also see another side of Toni as the book progresses and I really appreciate that character development too.

Although I do admit, I did feel there was too many characters at one point being thrown about. Lewis lists all of his friends in one chapter and just seemed a bit too much for the most part. Some of them were mentioned again later on a bit more but the rest were barely mentioned probably could have been left out.

The part I loved the most in this book was the ending, I could not predict it. There was so many twists straight after the other I couldn't put the book down. It was a great conclusion to this book. I really enjoyed the book and if Darren Dash was planning to make anymore books in this universe, I'd recommend a prequel about Lewis Brue. Love to know how he became a gang boss.

I highly recommend this book. It was something a bit different to what I'm use to, something not fantasy for change. But a welcomed change, I'm glad I read it.

Rating: 4 runes out of 5

written by Lauren

Brothers to Death (Saga of Larten Crepsley, book 4)

By Darren Shan

Blurb: 
After years of wandering, Larten has finally found his way back to his vampire family and resumed the vigorous, brutal training to become a General. But there are vampires determined to pull Larten into starting a war that could have global implications and casualties. Vampires who will stop at nothing. Vampires who would betray Larten in the most cutting way.

Review: 
This was the last book of the Larten Crepsley Saga, I’m sad in a way to finish it. However this will mean I won’t be long from reading the Demonata Series which is apparently better than the Darren Shan Saga. so I have that to look forward to.

The book starts with Larten alive, obviously Gavner didn’t choose to kill Larten to revenge his parents. Instead Larten takes Gavner in as his student as he teaches his General ways. Being a General, this leads him to having the task to dealing with the Nazi’s. The Nazi’s see the Vampies as a great potential ally and want their help in the war that's brewing. Larten sense evil among them and believes this war to come will be the worst one yet and decided it’s best for the clan to not be involved. What I love about this book was all the WWII references throughout the book including the bombing of Hiroshima. I love this because I’m such a history nerd myself and really appreciate a book set in the past and this book out of the 4 just hit me so much more with the time period. 

There’s not many flaws in this book or even the series for that matter. One thing I will critique is the book is rather slow. It takes a while for things to build up and go horribly wrong but when they do go horribly wrong it does make up for it in a way. I know I can’t expect none stop adventure but I just sometimes lose interest at some points in the book and I think that's the only thing holding me back from rewarding 5 stars.

*SPOILERS*
Larten had managed to gain a friendship with Alicia, even though he wanted more. This friendship allowed him to see Alicia age and her child grow, so I suspected she would die but of old age. But of course there's a twist and Alicia is in fact murdered and you believe it to be by a Vampaneze known as Randel Chayne who was the Vampaneze tormenting Tanish Eurl in the previous book. 

However the twists continue because it turned out he was long dead, killed by Wester as a scapegoat for him so he could kill Alicia to give Larten the motivation he needed to support the Vampire vs Vampaneze war. I never expected this till the end of the last few chapters when Slyva (Alicia's daughter) said she had seen her mother's killer during one of Larten’s performances at the Cirque Du Freak. Then it suddenly clicked in my brain and it all made sense that Wester did it to get Larten’s support as suggested from Mr Tiny. I was made a fool up and till that point, well done Darren Shan. 

Shan doesn’t stop there with the story obviously, as Larten promised to kill Alicia’s killer and this betrayal wasn’t going to stop him. Wester and Larten fought on top of a skyscraper till eventually Wester had his throat sliced and his end came to him. I knew Wester would die, just based on the title of the book and the fact he wasn’t mentioned in the next series, I just didn’t expect it to be from the hands of Larten Crepsley.

I really felt for Larten, as he had his love killed by his best friend, his blood brother. To go through so much betrayal in his life time, it’s no wonder he was often depicted as suicidal. He’s had a hard life but he’s made one hell of a good series. 

One of the scenes I really enjoyed was when Larten had a fight with Vancha. I knew it wouldn’t ruin their friendship due to the Darren Shan series but it was a good scene. It all starts because Larten is trying to convince Vampires to push for war against the Vampaneze, as we earlier discovered was because of Wester. Vancha is against the war but more importantly against a man following false beliefs. When Vancha discovers this is what Larten is doing, he decides to go tell him off and eventually this leads to a fight. It was a good fight and Larten wasn’t far off from winning, it also increased Larten’s reputation among the clan. I just found this scene fun and I can’t fully explain why because these two friends are fighting, and yet I enjoyed it.

In the same night as the fight, Arra Sails makes a reappearance and comes to ask Larten to be her mate now. After discussion, he accepts and they get married in their Vampire ways. I was so happy to finally get to this part of the series but sadly that didn’t last long as their marriage wasn’t as happy as I thought it would be. I was disappointed as Larten was still thinking about getting Randel rather than enjoying his time with Arra. This upset me.

Darren Shan made up for it though by developing a backstory for a character I never expect to get one: Truska. Truska is a bearded woman from the Darren Shan saga who is part of the Cirque Du Freak. Her backstory was that she was a creature known as a Skelk which are hairy creatures of the sea. They can grow their anywhere on demand which explains how Truska does her act. I looked up Skelks to see if they were made up by Darren Shan and I believe they were or at least his description of a Skelk as I did find a game that has creatures of the same name but different traits. I found this really creative of Shan as it’s a whole new creature with a unique traits and language. It's amazing that his mind has came up with something like that, as it’s one thing to talk about Vampires and expand their stereotypes and create the Vampaneze but it’s a whole other task to create a completely new creature. 

There was something in this book that caught my attention. When Larten returns to the Cirque, he increases the danger of his act by adding falling onto stakes, but getting away at the right time. I think this to be a reference/foreshadow for his death as that's how he died. It was very subtle and I hope it did have that intention and not just a coincidence. 

As Larten’s story starts to catch up with the Darren Shan books he still makes one unexpected trip before heading to the Cirque once more. Crepsley ends up at a monastery which he previously encountered at Truska’s wedding. The monastery provides him peace after killing Wester and most importantly he finally gets Madame Octa, his pet spider from the Darren Shan books. I’ve been waiting a long time for her to make an appearance and she finally did.

In the end he returns to the Cirque to Freak which he stays in till he comes across Steve and Darren one night. The book ends where he sees the boys for the first time and realises they’re significant, he just doesn’t know how yet. I liked the way this ended because if someone decided to read this series before the Darren Shan series they could and it would be a great end of the series to lead them into the next. However I would still advise to read the Darren Shan Saga first because this series contains a lot of significant references and characters that you won’t enjoy as much by reading it first. 

Overall, I would rate this 4 stars because I enjoyed the writing style, short chapters and the horror Larten went through in this book. I would rate the series overall 4 out of 5 as well because it was consistently good but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Darren Shan Saga causing me to hold back to 4 stars. I look forward to reading the Demonata series in the near future.

Rating: 4 runes out of 5 

Series Rating: 4 runes out of 5 

written by Lauren