Darren Shan books, Demonata and The Darren Shan Saga

Darren Shan – Demon Apocalypse (Demonata book 6)

Originally uploaded by silentlybroken_x
Earlier on in the year, one of my friends was poking me to start reading the Darren Shan books. I’m quite the wimp when it comes to horror, and the best I’ve managed is the Point Horror Unleashed series, as Stephen King gave me bad nightmares. He suggested I start on the less “gory” of the two “sagas” that Darren Shan has written.

So I picked up the first trilogy of “the Darren Shan saga” in July. Started reading it on the train home from London and couldn’t put it down. I went onto Amazon when I got home and ordered the rest of the Saga immediately. I was amazed at how beautifully the books were written, and how cleverly the plots were brought about and how much thought had gone into the books themselves.

I decided I was strong enough to read his second series, The Demonata series. These books are a lot more gory than the Darren Shan saga books, but I find that these books are better than the Darren Shan Saga now although I didn’t think so at the start! I was completely lost in the world of the first book when I started reading it and found it impossible to put down. I ended up purchasing the rest of the Demonata series that have been brought out and reading them one by one, discussing the book with my friends and speculating as to what things mean, and what is to come.

I finished Blood Beast about a month ago, and was annoyed by the “to be continued…” ending, as I generally have a hatred of those (I don’t like cliffhangers!). I spent some time speculating what would happen in book 6, which was due to come out October 1st and is shown above in the picture. Darren Shan went to great lengths to hide the cover, the title, and anything about book 6, which I liked, because I enjoyed the speculation and the wild possibilities that we could come up with that might happen in the book.

The title and cover were released on September 29th. I was a bit confused by the title, and intrigued by the cover, the artwork has always amazed me. I pre-ordered the book that same day, in the hope that it would arrive in time for me to read.

Unfortunately the book didn’t arrive at all, and I ended up going out and buying it in person so I could read it yesterday (anyone want the spare one when it arrives?). And I was amazed. I thought the first 5 books were good, but this one blew me away entirely. It was just so beautifully done, the writing and the plots were carried out impeccably. Just when I thought it was about to end, something changed. And it answered so many questions, and a lot of the things that I wanted to happen came to be, along with a few things I wasn’t expecting but were necessary to the series. I’m looking extremely forward to book 7, as I have some idea of what the main area of the storyline will be, but most of all I’m looking forward to spending time speculating with my friends and re-reading to pull out all the information I may have missed in the first read.

I highly recommend these books if you like horror/thrillers. They may say they are children’s books, but I’d say they are teenager’s books at the least. The writing is brilliant and each book is unputdownable until the end, and then you just want to pick up the next book and continue. They draw you into their world, and it feels like you are experiencing it yourself. After reading Demon Apocalypse I had to take my brother to his course, and whilst driving I kept expecting demons to leap at the car!

If you are like me and have read all of the Saga along with The Demonata books so far, there is another book, a short, called Koyasan. You can easily find it on Amazon, and it is another book I thoroughly enjoyed, although it only took around an hour to read!

If you would like more information about the books, and Darren Shan himself, he has his own website here which he keeps updated regularly, and is very informative. It has separate sections for each of the series.

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