Author: William Hussey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Jake Harker is a typical teenage horror geek, with a huge collection of comics that he has his face permanently buried in. When his mother dies, however, a series of events are put into play that lead him to discover his own role in life and in the coming of the Demontide, held back by only a gate that is at threat of breaking down.
Hussey’s young adult (YA) horror novel has been receiving glowing reviews from outlets since its release, being an oddly brutal release aimed at the teenage market. Indeed, many comparisons to the Twilight series have been made, saying that this is essentially the male version of those books, and it’s not an
entirely unfair comparison. Hussey writes with confident ease, his sentence structure rarely, if ever, coming across as disjointed or too punctuated. The tone of the book clearly positions it at a younger audience, and although some readers may not appreciate the graphically described viscera and gore in its pages, the simple fact is that most of the younger boys it’s aimed at will probably love it. The supporting cast is generally well developed, and the dark fantasy elements give it enough genre weight to appeal firmly to the just-above-entry-level crowd of YA readers.
The central character is likeable enough, and manages to gain a sufficient empathy from the reader for his peril to be immediate and compulsive. Criticisms can be drawn from the obviously franchised nature of the story and the tendency toward showboating in the set pieces, but all in all, it’s a decent effort if taken as a YA release rather than an adult-aimed novel.
[isbn name=”Witchfinder: Dawn Of The Demontide”]978-0192731906[/isbn]
