In their eighth book, Grubbs and his fellow demon-fighting Disciples investigate a plot to create a werewolf army. This forces Grubbs to unleash his own inner werewolf. Shan's ability to dream up cruel new horrors is unparalleled. However, his accessible prose and taut pacing can't turn gore into plot in this latest excursion through the series' numbingly bleak world.

Gr 7-10 Grubbs Grady, his magical mentor Beranabus, and their ally Kernel-all featured in previous volumesbattle their way through the alternate worlds of demons and other creepy creatures. They kill all the demons they can while hoping to learn more about the monstrous power that propels the demon forces to slaughter humanity. The teenager Grubbs, as readers know from earlier installments, carries a family curse that could turn him into a werewolf, and it takes all of his magical talents to keep that curse at bay. If that happens, he will be hunted down and killed by a group called the Lambs. When fellow demon-fighters Meera and Shark appear through a window from the human world, they ask for help. Grubbs's beloved Uncle Dervish has been attacked by werewolves and is near death, and the Lambs may have allied with Lord Loss, the series' main villain. Grubbs and the other demon fighters learn that things are worse than they thought (in the "Demonata" books, they always are)the Lambs are now breeding werewolves at Wolf Island, a remote lab and fortress. Like all of the books in this series, Wolf Island is not for the squeamish; blood and death are gruesome constants and triumphs are only temporary. Walter Minkel, Austin Public Library, TX

Every reader of The Demonata series knows that the Lambs are a necessary evil, ridding the world of innocentùalbeit dangerousùteens who morph into werewolves and make the earth unsafe for humanity. But when Grubbs and his crew return from the demon universe to investigate an increase in wolf attacks, the true motives of the Lambs come into question and GrubbsÆs wolven side strains for release. Fans may be shocked by some of the unique conflicts that begin to surface in book eight. Past series installments have required Grubbs to accept the deaths of his loved ones, make sacrifices for the cause, kill, and even be willing to give his own life to save another. Those killings, however, were always of the demon kind, and GrubbsÆs sacrifices served to make the world a safer place. Yet this installment reveals GrubbsÆs transformation from a young man fighting for the survival of all humans, be they good or slightly bad, to developing a bloodlust that is out of controlùone that does not exclude the desire to murder members of the human race. A moral line is crossed here, and the reader is left to wonder whether GrubbsÆs character has succumbed to his own internal evil or if he is being manipulated by some outside forceùan uncertainty that is not fully clarified by the bookÆs conclusion. Readers will be left crestfallen at the changes in Grubbs, but they will also be curious to see whether he will be redeemed in the next installment.ùErin Kilby.