Dear Ms. Monaco, 4/22/10
Over the past few days I read Lord Loss by Darren Shan. A lot of people know him for his best selling Cirque Do Freak series. This is the first book I have ever read from Shan and it really gets you hooked and you can't stop reading it. I gave this book a ten out of ten because it is a thriller with no real "weak spot" of the book. Lord Loss is part of a series nine books so far with a tenth coming out in May. Lord Loss will draw all readers for it's sense of danger and adventure but also the decisions that loom.
This book is about Grubbs Grady who is your typical teenage boy who dislikes his sister who constantly gets him in trouble. All in all he has a pretty decent life. Unfortunately all that is shattered when he walks in on his parents and sister getting murdered by demons. Grubbs tries to tell his doctors but they just wave it away. He feels like he has no where to go until a distant uncle shows up and tells him that he knows what he is talking about and he is not crazy.
Darren Shan has created a action packed plot that teens will really enjoy. Not only is the story filled with Magic and Demons it also deals with loss, friends and family. The story moves fast taking you on a roller coaster. Many "reluctant" readers may find they are not so "reluctant" after all.
The quote I choose from the book was "I know what your talking about, Your not crazy, you were just unlucky." Now, this is hard to explain but I will try my best the Grady family has a gene in which some may turn into werewolves when they turn older. (It sounds like way to much to jam into a story but it is fine). Anyway Grett, his sister, had that disease and there is only one way to get cured. The way is to battle Lord Loss at chess. Best of five, if you when shes cured. If you lose the parents and the infected chi led get killed. Grubbs parents lost and right as he was walking into their room Lord Loss was killing them.
I used to main strategies while reading Lord Loss. The first was that I read the book regularly. Then I went back and read the first few chapters over again. This really helps get a deeper understanding of the book and also it helps answer some of your questions about the book. The second was the sticky-note method. I use this quite often because it is very simple. You write down interesting info and then at the end you go over that information and the questions and whatever else you wrote down and you answer a lot of these questions.
One of the reasons I liked this book so much is that there are no real books like it that I know of.
It kind of gets boring when you read similar books all the time. This book really keeps you on your heels because it is a new type of reading.
The character that developed the most had to be Grubbs. He started off as a regular kid with a regular life pretty much oblivious to anything else. Then he walks in on Lord Loss and realizes that he has magic potential. From there he goes to the insanity ward were eventually his uncle picks him up. From there he learns about his past and about magic. All this leads up to is the final encounter with Lord Loss. His problems range from trying to make friends and fit in, demons and magic, and regular daily life.
The only thing that I would change about this book is to try to space out some information in the book. It is hard just trying to explain the book to you all. In the middle of the book were he is really starting to learn about himself and his family it is just packed with important and interesting information. However, the author still does a great job trying to explain all the information out but it can still get confusing. If you are going to try to read this book you need to have patience, it is a hard book to read and you need to take your time on it.
I was really surprised when he walked in on his parents murder. He knew something was wrong because they were being very quiet. Also on the same day they lied about going to the opera so he would go get out of the house instead of dying with them. I was also surprised when he found out he had magic. You don't really think about what he is doing until they talk about it after the events.
I was satisfied after the final event with Lord Loss. I will not say what happens but he is very scared to do it but he knows he has to, also he worked very hard and he really pulls it off. Even though it is a story, Shan makes you really imagine and picture yourself with them the whole story.
I know it probably sounds really weired and boring. I though that it would be to when someone recommended it to me. But you have to try it or you will never know for sure. In closing, this is a very good book and you should definitely read it.
Your Student,
Parker Howe
