A review by geofroggatt
Blood Beast by Darren Shan

3.0

Blood Beast takes place about a year after the events recounted in Slawter. Grubbs Grady is back in Carcery Vale. His life seems to have settled down at last. He's getting on well with Dervish. Grubbs has been struggling to contain the magical talent he discovered in the town of Slawter. He doesn't want to become a Disciple and he hopes his abilities will fade if he hides them long enough. His magician's prowess is growing all the time. He is having dreadful nightmares and suspects he might be turning into a werewolf. I enjoyed returning back to the world of The Demonata, and it was nice reading a book that takes place after the first four books chronologically. It felt like the main storyline was advancing. Blood Beast felt like an in-between book, a transition part of the series. There was just a lot of prepping you for the next book, setting up a bunch of plotlines, coming together in a massive cliffhanger. I saw the massive "surprise" of the book coming from miles away, but it didn’t diminish my enjoyment. While I liked it, it wasn’t my favorite book in the series.