Lord Loss by Darren Shan
Dec. 27th, 2009 09:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
map_of_the_worldI thought I was going to hate this book, the first couple of meetings with the protagonist put him in a horrible, horrible light and leave the reader with no empathy for him. He thinks it's hilarious to put rat guts and blood in his sisters towel so she gets covered in it after a shower, and he doesn't understand why no one else in his family finds it funny. I think the author expects the reader to find it funny as well but I personally was just thinking "psychopath". The book is aimed at adolescent boys but to be honest if any of the adolescent boys I work with found that sort of thing funny I would be pointing them in the direction of the nearest mental health unit.
Anyway the book got better while never being brilliant or particularly believable (I mean its about demons and werewolves its not supposed to be believable in the real sense but I don't think the author ever captured adolescent boy psychology sufficiently.
I had thought I knew what was going to happen though, that it was going to be really formulaic but there were quite a few twists and turns I wasn't expecting that took the story to quite interesting places, however I think the fact the protagonist was so horrible in the beginning of the book meant that I really lacked empathy for his grief over his family dying so didn't really connect with his character till really late in the book.
Nothing about this book really jumped out at me, it wasn't terrible and it passed the time, but it wasn't really original either (lycanthropy being passed down through genetics and playing chess with demons for peoples souls, ho hum)
I did like the idea of a demon that fed off peoples grief and despair though, I think a lot more could have been made of that. I think it could have been used as an exploration of the nature of grief which would have been a really useful teaching tool for adolescents. In fact there are all sorts of things in this book that could have been explored better such as the psychiatric hospital he ends up in (which is nothing like any psych unit I've ever been in or heard of.)
The demons seemed too caricatured to be scary and there was nowhere near enough suspense or creepiness in the book. I don't think i'll bother reading anything eles by this authout to be honest.
Anyway the book got better while never being brilliant or particularly believable (I mean its about demons and werewolves its not supposed to be believable in the real sense but I don't think the author ever captured adolescent boy psychology sufficiently.
I had thought I knew what was going to happen though, that it was going to be really formulaic but there were quite a few twists and turns I wasn't expecting that took the story to quite interesting places, however I think the fact the protagonist was so horrible in the beginning of the book meant that I really lacked empathy for his grief over his family dying so didn't really connect with his character till really late in the book.
Nothing about this book really jumped out at me, it wasn't terrible and it passed the time, but it wasn't really original either (lycanthropy being passed down through genetics and playing chess with demons for peoples souls, ho hum)
I did like the idea of a demon that fed off peoples grief and despair though, I think a lot more could have been made of that. I think it could have been used as an exploration of the nature of grief which would have been a really useful teaching tool for adolescents. In fact there are all sorts of things in this book that could have been explored better such as the psychiatric hospital he ends up in (which is nothing like any psych unit I've ever been in or heard of.)
The demons seemed too caricatured to be scary and there was nowhere near enough suspense or creepiness in the book. I don't think i'll bother reading anything eles by this authout to be honest.
