This was a pretty explosive book. Darren sees someone again for the first time since he was a child, since actually book 1…and he’ll encounter them in the final book. Steve, being the villain of course, is a murderous lunatic who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, and to torment Darren. Steve has always been evil, but there’s something in particular he does in this book that is even worse than anything he’s done so far. It’s so bad, that even RV is horrified by it. One of the Cirque members dies in this book too…and it’s a big one. It sounds like this is mostly a depressing book, but there are still some good things in it. One thing I loved was that Alice and Debbie started recruiting homeless humans to join their ranks and help them fight back against the vampaneze. Because vampaneze are the types of vampires that like to prey on and kill humans. Logic says, which types of humans are they going to go after first? It would be the ones who don’t have families looking for them, won’t be reported missing…easily targeted due to the fact that they’re homeless…it’s dark but true. So they have just as much motivation to fight back as our characters do.

And, there is a great big twist ending at the end of this one too. Enjoy it while it lasts, because the next book is the last ):

Maddeningly stereotypical and utterly predictable, while being quite a bit more adult in its delivery and execution than a YA book. Let's try to stay on course for the good of the Vampire nation. Good guys adhere to the moral code, while the villains act with impunity.

I feel Shan writes toward supposed plot twists and failed shock moments, without considering the actual steps required to enact the proposed plot he presents. In turn, that creates head shaking moments of doubt as to why one reads this particular series of books in the first place.

Besides being little more than a solid chapter of a bigger story, the narrative is trying too hard to be mysterious while, in fact, remaining absolutely transparent. For instance, Darren walks up to a character, states he felt like he walked over one's grave (paraphrased) then that character dies a few pages later. Just short of saying "I hope that person doesn't die," for no real reason and then whamo, dead.

Ultimately, after finishing this one, there remains only one more to read, then this will complete my Trials of Shan excursion. Thankfully.

Thanks for reading.

This would of been 5...but there was no need for that death... NO NEED.

The pace of this was rather slow to start, but in previous books I enjoyed that. In this one, not so much. It was the last 5 chapters that got this its credit.

I did see that coming early on about Darius being Annies boy.

What will conclude