⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author (Platform): Darren Shan (Kindle)
Publisher (Release): HarperCollins (2007)
Length: 277 & 212 pages
Genres: Young Adult; Horror; Fantasy; Action; Adventure
❗️Disclaimers❗️:
contains descriptive scenes of violence and gore
Blood Beast has some underlying grooming themes
this review contains low-level spoilers
recommendation: must read
👍 Pros 👍
I’ll stress this more than once: this could be the triumphant crescendo to an entire series, but, for Darren Shan, it’s one step toward something most can’t even conceive
High stakes, frenetic action, and fearlessly human
Characters new and old collide in a way that puts the Avengers to shame long before their modern assembly
👎 Cons 👎
Shan, you made me wait for months as a child after the cliffhanger between these books…I hold that grudge for warmth
👀 Synopsis 👀
Grubbs Grady has firmly placed his skirmishes with the monstrous Demonata in the past, resolute in his convictions to live out the rest of his very abnormal life as normally as he possibly can. The past, however, is a tricky mistress, and as warring forces tear him apart from the inside for control, Grady’s fear blinds him to the sinister apocalypse on the horizon.
If it’s already too late, what is there to fight for?
🛎️ Introduction 🛎️
Never have a duo of books deserved to share the stage in triumphant glory as these two do. I forgot just how effective a two-parter punch Blood Beast and Demon Apocalypse is, standing strong as individual tales while seamlessly weaving together to create one of the most astounding and electrifying young adult horror stories on a scale most series, regardless of medium, can only dream of.
🧩 Plots 🧩
Both novels come from the perspective of Grubbs Grady, returning from his experiences back in Slawter. While that book’s sequel, Bec, has always frustrated me being fourth instead of third, I get it. If Slawter and Bec were switched then readers would be in for a long run of three books with Grubbs, and, undeniably, the series structure is a deliberate choice by author Darren Shan to keep the plot fresh and building without losing the momentum.
Both novels are smooth as butter, combining magic and metaphor to really push Grubbs’s character into growing up once and for all. Life changes in an instant and, while the series has always depicted this effectively, Blood Beast and Demon Apocalypse have a surprising sense of reality that I’m not sure I could fully appreciate as a child.
World’s collide
One builds, the other executes, with both stories combining to create a bloody collision between, until now, separate characters and stories. Beast and Apocalypse focus the overarching plot of the series, hinting at even bigger things at play across the universes other than demons and devilish designs. A shadow that all feel looms and Shan refuses to hide behind heroic tropes by bringing fear to life. For all its magic and wonder, The Demonata is a series grounded in humanity.
You can’t hide from the end of the world
Blood Beast ends with a cliffhanger, which, under normal circumstances I’d abhor (I hate cliffhangers, largely due to how weak an attempt they are to cover poor plotting), but, here, it just works. It’s a crescendo in its own right, pulling the threads of the story into a twisty turn that shatters everything we’ve come to know. Picking up directly from it, Demon Apocalypse kicks off in spectacularly soaring fashion, letting us think it’ll give us a second to catch our breath before launching into a finale that could finish off a series on the highest of highs…Shan, however, isn’t finished…he’s just getting started.
‘…The Demonata is a series grounded in humanity.’
🎭 Characters 🎭
Both novels feature an ensemble cast, finally, and satisfyingly, bringing together the series’ protagonists from their own individual trials to face their biggest yet. Grubbs remains primary focus, honing in on his more cowardly, childish nature (I mean, he is a child) to confront and try to release its control on him. He embodies the very human nature of sticking our heads in the sand and hoping the hard stuff passes by without much interest. Grubbs, however, much to his chagrin, goes beyond interesting and straight to the spotlight, with everyone and everything unable to ignore him, even if they wanted to.
In its more ornery moments, Shan injects some interesting and simple commentary on cliques and social hierarchy that still stands for youngins even today, casing the plot’s extraordinary elements with a relatable shell.
Good? Evil? What’s the difference?
Kernel Fleck, survivor of Demon Thief, returns alongside mysterious magician Beranabus to help round out the Grady family of Grubbs, Dervish, and Bill-E. 5 or so years have passed for Kernel (30ish in the human world), so he’s quite dramatically different. Naturally, he’s colder, but vastly more capable than he was. Now in his late teens, his training under the brash and often brutal Beranabus has sharpened his skills and shows a very different trajectory to Grubbs. They’re chalk and cheese, and, yet, probably have the most in common out of the entire cast.
We all have to face our fears eventually…
Several other familiar faces return to remind the reader just how wide and wacky the world is, keeping it alive and growing whether we’re conscious of it or not. Some surprises shatter relationships, death flits excitedly in the shadows as its guaranteed victims, and those long thought lost make shocking comebacks.
‘…bringing together the series’ protagonists from their own individual trials to face their biggest yet.’
🧠 Final Thoughts 🧠
Blood Beast and Demon Apocalypse are two exceptional stand-alone stories that combine to form a killer one-two punch. Beast’s cliffhanger had me distraught as a child who had to wait for Apocalypse’s release, but the latter more than makes up for it with a global race against time to save humanity from extinction. Filled with dynamic characters and finger-snapping cameos, readers will be wowed by the sheer size and scale of these novels that could’ve ended a series rather than be just one more step to a near impossibly gargantuan finale. The ramifications, the intrigue, just everything is so pristine and confidently gleeful that even the viscerally violent bloodshed will pose little obstacle between you and the next entry in this fantastical feast of fiction.
The Phoenix Project 
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