CHANGELING: DEMON GAMES.

Having read at least one, possibly two, of these books pre-Pen and Paper I couldn't resist picking up what turned out to be book four in the series. A series that I have to say is probably best begun at the beginning and read in order as whilst this read OK as a standalone I was occasionally left wondering what had prompted certain events. Events that if I had read them before I'd obviously forgotten.



CHANGELING: DEMON GAMES by STEVE FEASEY.

BACK COVER BLURB: Two girls trapped in the Netherworld.
One teenage werewolf determined to save them.
But is Trey Laporte tough enough to win the demon games?

For humans, the Netherwold is a place of terror and brutality. For Trey, it's where his greatest enemy lies in wait. But a human girl has been stolen by a vile demon lord - and the vampire's daughter, Alexa Charron, has gone after her. Only Trey is brave enough to cross to the Netherworld to save them. Only Trey is foolish enough to believe he can defeat the demon hordes and win their freedom ...

FIRST SENTENCE {Prologue}: Caliban strode out across a battleground which had, only hours before, been the scene of a terrible encounter between his forces and those of the now defeated demon lord Orfus.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 152}: 'So this ring ... the ring that can get us out of here ... is in your stomach?'

Trey didn't like the way Alexa was looking at him as if he was the world's biggest idiot. 'In case you've forgotten, I don't exactly have a surfeit of pockets when I'm a seven-foot werewolf! And it's not like it's gone for good. It'll come out .... eventually.' He rubbed his stomach, grimacing at the thought.

SOURCE: Ex-library stock.

MY THOUGHTS: A bit tired of the whole vampire/werewolf/demon thing I only picked this up because it was the first book to hand on my TBR pile. Glad that I did pick it up, Demon Games proved itself to be possibly the best 'supernatural' novel that I'd read in quite a while.

Tremendous creatures - many of which I'd never come across before- and plenty of them. I really enjoyed teen hero, Trey. Quietly refreshing, there was none of the smouldering sexiness, the power play, that seem to be the basis of so many lycanthrope novels.

Wonderful world-building. Just enough that you get a real sense of the place, not too lengthy that the story became bogged down by details.

Humorous.

Plenty of action and yet not so much that it distracted from other aspects of the plot and because its target market is young adults gruesome enough without being too graphic.

A hint of a romance.

There really are lots of things to recommend Demon Games.