Darren Shan’s Lord Loss is a new horror masterpiece that draws in the reader and transports them to a terrifying new world. When teenager Grubbs Grady walks into his parent’s bedroom to find his parents and sister slaughtered by demons he runs and, by extraordinary means, escapes. Grubbs then encounters Lord Loss’ two familiars: Artery a green baby sized demon with fire for eyes, cockroaches for hair, with two mouths in his palms, and Vein a demon with the body of a Rottweiler and the head of a crocodile and women’s hands instead of paws. Grubbs is then institutionalized until his uncle Dervish collects him. He takes Grubbs to his home in Carcerry vale where he tries to get Grubbs to adapt back into normal life. That is however until Grubbs meets Bill-E and discovers that Dervish may be turning into a werewolf. After Grubbs and Bill-E track down Dervish to stop him changing it is revealed that Bill-E is the one who carries the lycanthropic gene. Once Dervish locks Bill-E away he explains to Grubbs that the family line is cursed and around puberty random members of the bloodline will turn; unless they can defeat Lord Loss in five simultaneous games of chess. After Grubbs beats Lord Loss and the challenge is won Dervish then goes into the Demonata’s universe to fight Lord Loss.

Darren Shan is able to so masterfully create a world that is both fantastic and terrifying at the same time, yet he is able to relate to problems faced by many teenagers today; such as losing their parents. He accepts and carries gracefully the burden of writing a book that takes the reader on a magical and terrible journey, while keeping it at a point where it does not ramble or drag on. He uses his command over the written word to make the scenes jump off the page, and makes the reader feel as if they truly are in the room watching Grubbs lose his parents.

I found the book, and the many sequels to be extremely entertaining. I found his use of blood and gore was just on the verge of becoming overwhelming, but it was not too much. I would highly recommend any of Darren Shan’s works to anyone who loves to be horrified, grossed out, or merely entertained.