4 stars for the grand Slawter!More gore. More Guts. More demons."LIGHTS. CAMERA. SLAWTER!"Warning: Do not read the book if you hate reading about people getting butchered, old and young alike.So... Here we are again. Roughly 25 years after the events of Demon thief(and 1 year after Lord Loss)Those of you who haven't read the 1st book will find the first two chapters interesting as the protagonist gives a quick recap. For others, it may seem irritating(like how I felt)Anyway..Grubbs Grady is back, the protagonist from the first book, who defeated Lord Loss. He has been babysitting Dervish, his uncle, who has yet to calm down from the shock(regarding facing Lord Loss)Bill-E Spleen, Grubbs' brother helps him to take care of Dervish. Everything goes on smoothly. They go to school. Do their homework. Perfectly normal.But one fine day, Dervish recieves a contract offer from David A Hayms(later Davida, oooh she's a chic!), the ace horror moviemaker. She wants Dervish's expertise in helping her craft demonic costumes.Grubbs and Bill-E cannot shut up. They are like "Hey yall David A Hayms is comin' over to our place to talk buisness!" and all the other kids sort of worship them.And then she comes. Davida, Oscars rolling around her house like waste, An old bitch trying to Find out new and bloodier ways to kill people in her movies. The movie she'd like to shoot is called "Slawter", Coolio namio bitchio!The theme is that in which demons massacre people(In the worst ways imaginable) in a village called Slawter(built from the ground up just for the flick) and some funky hero's gonna save the day. Simple as shit. But the thing is KILLING. She wants the demons to look real, so real that even the actors must wet themselves. And since Derv is a man who knows stuff about demons, she asks.The man accepts. He, Grubbs and Bill-E go to the village of Slawter. Everythings cool here. Free food and stuff. Freeroaming anywhere except warehouse D.And everyone's freakin exited the day when the first killing is shot. A boy, Emmet, is supposed to be eating the flesh of some headmaster and then a demon is supposed to drag him into the manhole and kill him, blood everywhere.Davida is too exited, she boasts(Dervish says) that she created demons with circuits and shit which one would not believe to be a dummy.And. ACTION.*munch* *munch*Yummy...Blah.. Blah...The demon comes out of the manhole and grabs Emmet, it looks so real, it pulls him down and rips him apart, raining blood all around, and Emmet goes like XP. Everyone claps.But Grubbs doesn't.That was just a dummy, fool. Wires, Plastic and paint.Right?WRONG!---PLOT: The plot is good, but it's not as captivating as the first two books. While those two had some undefined aim and a twist. This lacked both. There are lot of unnecessary stuff around. For example: the Lambs, some 3 chapters wasted on them, pointless.The Ending was not so pleasant either(you could guess it easily). But you gotta give it in for the narrative style and the speech. They were awesome.CHARACTERS: Grubbs Grady, much more likable than the first book. Bill-E Spleen, sticks around for a lot, wastes 2 chapters. Dervish, the man who lost his nuts, I didn't like him for the first half, then... Gradually he regains his senses and becomes the lovable epic demon-ass-kicker. Juni, a psychologist who has a softy softy spot for Derv the Perv. And there are a lot of characters here, most of the movie cast are on. Can't remember most names.AaaaandLORD LOSS!, Yay! He's back for Revenge. He's back for Grubbs and Dervish. Though he acts less nobler here(slaughtering people, sucking the life out of a little girl), he still is a demon of words. He promised someone something, he gives the something to the someone. But hell with it! I STILL LIKE HIM!---“But stories don't end. They continue as long as you're alive. You just have to get on with things. Turn the page, start a new chapter, find out what's in store for you next, and keep your fingers crossed that it's not too awful. Even if you know in your heart and soul that it most probably will be.”---That's about it, again.-NA
My literature teacher said to class once: a writer that writes countless books, writes the same story over and over again. And I think there is a core of truth in this.Darren Shan writes an insane amount of books in such a short time period. He publishes two books every single year. And what most people forget is that he actually is still fairly young; according to his Goodreads page he isn't even forty yet. By the time he's too old to write he will have written enough for the library to dedicate a whole cabinet just to fit in his books.That makes you wonder though. Are all these books still unique? Or is it the same story told over and over again, only slightly different every time?I don't know what the future may hold for Darren, but I do know that he still has enough creativity to keep us entertained and on the edge of our chairs. Slawter is slightly different from the previous parts in this series regarding the pacing. Darren's other books contain a lot of fighting off horrible demons and keeping them from ripping you apart. There is a lot of action in those books and they're lighter on the plot side. Slawter on the contrary doesn't have that much action going on. Looking back on the book, there is only really one big fight at the end of the book. Instead of a constant stream of blood and intestines, we now have a book that is more subtle, with more intrigue and plot twists. I liked to see this other side of Darren's writing in the Demonata series.As the books in this series don't all follow the same persons, you need some kind of connecting factor to keep this series together. I love the way the author has managed to do this so skilfully subtle. He makes sure his readers see and recognise details from the other books, but keeps his characters in the dark, like they should be. They never know things they shouldn't and I really appreciate he took an effort to stay true of his storyline, and not to take the easy way out.It was great to see Grubbs from Lord Loss (see below) back. He is scared, yet responsible. I like that he is so human, yet still a hero. While he is noble and saving everyone's ass, he would rather run away. He doesn't seek out the danger, he tries to avoid it. But when time comes he has the guts to fight back.I'm really enjoying this series. This book was like seeing old friends. I'm curious to see where Darren Shan is taking us with these books. Will the terrifying Lord Loss ever be defeated?
What do You think about Slawter (2008)?
Darren Shan's Demonata series is my absolute default, #1 choice for when I need a "win". You know, when you've been in a reading slump of terrible books back to back, nothing sounds good, you're getting frustrated and wonder why you even like reading. When I hit those streaks and I need something I know will be undeniably good, this is the series I run for. The first book was absolutely incredible, the second was really great, the third... This is my least favorite so far.Don't get me wrong, it was still good. Grubbs and Dervish can sell me on just about anything. But unlike the first two books, the writing felt a little stilted and awkward in places. Not to mention the pretty frequent typos. Also I just wasn't as personally invested in the storyline. In book one we are rooting personally for Grubbs. Book two, we are totally there for Kernel. Here, given the setting of a large movie set, we never really care enough about any one person to feel the gripping excitement and horror of the first two books.I still count it as a win and I'm still very much looking forward to continuing the series though.
—Cait
Slawter by Darren ShanThe main characters were Grubs Billy and Dervish. They were on a movie set in the middle of a desert and in a small town.My opinion about this book is that it was a good book and i would recommend it to any one who wants to read a creepyish book.The book is about a boy named Grubs Grady and his uncle Dervish Grady and they are invited to a movie set so dervish can help design the demons in the movie when Grubs finds out that the movie producer has brain washed dervish and is making him summon real demons that she is using for the movie.
—Jake
Very happy with the fact that I finished this in a day! So now for my thoughts: for me, this book is when the series starts to feel like a series. The first book feels like it could be a stand alone book, since it definitively ends in a way. The second develops the story a bit more, gives us some more questions but in the end the story doesn't necessarily feel like it's part of a series, perhaps just backstory for characters if not for a few elements. But this book really gives that series feel, picks up where we left off and sends the story in a new direction, and it's something I've never really thought about before. But I must say, the story of this is just so good, and part of the reason why this series is in my top ten of all time ( so far) if not top five maybe. 5/5 stars.
—Glenn Johnson
