Demon Apocalypse by Darren Shan

Demonata, #6
YA / HORROR / FANTASY

Source: Purchased
rating

One boy's life ripped to shreds before his eyes...
One wrathful demon master hell-bent on revenge...
An army of grisly Demonata on the rampage...
It's the end of the world as we know it.

The series continues strong. Again through the point of view of my favorite, Grubbs, it shows the continuation from the cliffhanger left from Blood Beast, where all seems lost as Grubbs discovers a huge betrayal and finds himself with no escape on a plane with Lord Loss and his hellious sidekicks. These monsters bring the stories up to adult level when it comes to violence, gore, and shock effect - from the opening paragraph where the scorpion familiar dives into a person's face to pop out their eyes with it's tail and then implant maggots to eat through the brain (yes, really), the another familiar turning around and killing a baby - these young adults are not for the light at heart of the young.

This is the book that serves as a bridgeway to finally connect so many stray characters. Kernel from the second book, Demon Thief, makes several appearances and we see what's happened with him. Dervish, a series regular, stays around with the beloved Bill-E from previous books. Bec, the random girl set back in time for book four, gets a strong mention and nod. We also see random, stray Demonata that joined before with a certain leader. This is a book fans of the series definitely shouldn't miss since it ties so many dangling threads together.

There is a sad ending in this one, which Shan doesn't shy from - I still remembering sobbing at a major character death in his Cirque Du Freak series. I had a spoiler about this death coming, so it softened the blow a bit, but the way it was handled made sense and a type of peace even though it was tragic and that character will remain missed.

The stakes in this book are literally apocalyptic, and the story not only remains tense and interesting, but makes a big step in the future of Grubbs and the rest of the gang. We learn a few secrets about familiar characters as well.

With creative plot maneuvering, tense action scenes, and a return to all the series favorites, this may be the best of the bunch so far. Here's hoping that it just keeps getting stronger.


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From author's website: A demon by Any Other Name!....

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