Darren Shan has written many books, including the well known Cirque Du Freak series and the Demonata series. I found myself reading the first book of the Demonata in my English class when my friend recommended it to me. I was hesitant at first. Fantasy books usually grab me, and this wasn’t fantasy.  I had never read a horror-fiction book before, so I had no idea what I was missing.

Lord Loss follows the life of a teenager named Grubbitch (Grubbs) Grady and his ordeals with Lord Loss. It starts off with a kid who plays pranks of his family, and goes to school. Suddenly it goes into his parents being brutally murdered by demons.  The images the book paints aren’t for the faint of heart. Grubbs is put into a mental hospital because no one believes that demons killed his family. He had lost all hope when his uncle Dervish showed up, and this is where the story turned around.

I loved this book; it managed to catch my attention where other books fell short. It managed to hook me in the first three pages and I didn’t want to stop reading. It got my attention and kept it. Although there were a few pages that seemed to stray away from the main plot, it went back to an action packed story. 

When I think of magic and demons, I think of the Lord of the Rings, because a lot of things relate to it. Not this one! It was a total surprise to me, because it relates to teenagers as the story follows a teenager and it can attract many different types of people. If you like magic, werewolf’s, demons, boys, girls, basically anything that you can imagine then you will like this book.

It’s not for the faint of heart, because in the first fifty pages Grubbs’ family is killed. Darren Shan created such an image that I found it hard to read myself.  There are many horror movies that would fall short of this book if it became a movie.

There wasn’t much that I didn’t like; there was an occasional drag on after a point of action in the story. I found it hard to believe how this book captured my attention, and with a good amount of pages, a mere two hundred and twenty four, it’s a book you can read if you don’t have a lot of time to read. 

In the end, Lord Loss can spark imaginations, make you sick, and make you want to read again. I thank Darren Shan for capturing my imagination once again.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10