The Dead: v. 1 [Paperback]

YA horror is big at the moment, and it seems that nary a month goes by without another one appearing on the market. Vampires, of course, seem to be the nether creature of choice at the moment, but demons (in various guises) aren't trailing too far behind. In the last few years we have been treated to, amongst many others, Darren Shan's Demonata series, Rick Yancey's Monstrumologist and Sarwat Chadda's Devil's Kiss. So, when I first read about David Gatward's The Dead, the question that jumped immediately into my brain was does the world really need another YA demon story? I for one am all vampired out at the moment, thus it was with an unsually critical frame of mind that I started reading it. And yet, despite this pessimism, I loved this book.

It is difficult not to compare any book in the demon genre with Darren Shan's work, but I am sure that Mr Gatward will be glad to hear that the comparisons in this case are certainly favourable. I love the Demonata series for the gorefest that it is, but Shan has a way of getting away with such extremes, and this is what makes his books special, even though he is not a particularly great writer in the technical sense. The Dead starts off as a conversation between man character Lazarus Stone and his friend Craig and BLAM!.... chapter three hits you right between the eyes with a particularly bloody scene (more about this in a minute). But where Shan lays the gore on pretty thick, this was a much more considered scene. In fact, on a second read it isn't particularly gory at all, but the description of Red as he first appears in Lazarus' life will most definitely make you cringe - I certainly felt a shiver run down my spine. In fact, why not give it a try now by downloading this pdf of Chapter 3 from David Gatward's website!

I said I would come back to the description of Red. Anybody who has seen Clive Barker's Hellraiser movie will, I am sure, agree that Mr Gatward has been influenced by a scene from this classic horror film. I love the passage that reads: "Lazarus couldn't yet tell if the thing was male or female, but it was definitely naked, or so he guessed. He couldn't see any clothes, not unless they, like the rest of its body, were covered - no, drenched - in blood. From there on down, the figure was stripped of most of its skin. He could see individual muscles and tendons tensing, relaxing. And around the figure's feet, as they rested together on the floor, a dark pool was spreading". If you are a horror fan and that doesn't persuade you to rush out and buy this book then nothing will.

On the basis of Chapter 3 I was expecting the gore factor to increase throughout the book, but I was pleasantly surprised. David Gatward is actually pretty restrained when it comes to writing his horror scenes, but this doesn't mean that the chill factor is anything less than terrifying. There is one scene in particular, where Lazarus is in hospital, that I particularly loved. It is scary, yet there is hardly a drop of blood in sight, and Lazarus' life is certainly in great peril I won't say much more... just watch out for the nurse! This is the kind of horror writing that plays on your mind as it feeds the dark fringes of your imagination, and turns dreams into nightmares without warning.

Sadly, this book is not perfect. I have one big criticism - at 230 pages it simply isn't long enough (hence only four stars instead of five). I know it is the first in the series, and as such it certainly does the job of introducing us to important characters and major plot threads, but in personally felt that it could quite comfortably have benefited from being at least another fifty pages longer. With this is mind, don't expect a nice, neat ending with a few plot threads left unresolved to take you into the next in the series. This book ends on a massive cliffhanger, and very little in the way of loose ends being tied off, and this cause a few readers to grumble. However, what it will do though is leave you hungry for the next instalment, The Dark.

Short-ish books are very difficult to review without giving away too many spoilers. As a debut novel I also know very little about the author, and I would hate to make assumptions about his inspirations for writing. However, in my opinion there is most definitely a biblical link here - Lazarus' name for a start (and what a great name for a character in a YA horror story it is). Red is also descried as being one of the Fallen, and it looks like we may even be taking a journey into Hell in future books. Although, maybe not, as last time I looked I am not sure there was an alcoholic angel mentioned anywhere in the Good Book?

On the evidence of The Dead, and with the sequel coming out only a few months later, I think David Gatward is going to become a big name in YA horror circles, especially as the cliffhanger ending suggests that we are in for one hell of a ride as we follow Lazarus into the land of the Dead.

What a book! I was hooked from the start, and that doesn't often happen to me!

this book is utterly gruesome, with the most vile creatures imaginable, the Dead. The descriptions of these creatures are just amazing, so detailed they might make you feel a little sick!

as many have already said, this has a similar feel to it as Darren Shan's Demonata series, and because of this similar style, I am hoping the series continues to be just as great!

very compelling story, one of those rare books that you really can't put down!

only a couple of things irritated me slightly, firstly, the way Lazarus and Craig talked to each other on the phone at the very start of the book, although probably relitively accurate (if slightly calmed down) version of current teenage conversations, I found it rather annoying, but luckily, this seems to be dropped really quickly once the Dead start appearing. the other thing that got to me was that the cover of this book is almost identical to the cover of Darren shan's Bec, so I assume they have the same artist, but that's just me being petty!

i have just ordered the next two books in this trilogy, and can't wait for them to arrive!

so if you are a fan of truely horrible horror, then this is definately for you!

When I was a young un in the late 70s / early 80s (a frighteningly long time ago now) every local supermarket had a revolving display of paperback novels, alongside the big hitters like Stephen King, James Herbert, and bestselling one-offs like The Amtyville Horror and The Exorcist, the shelves fair bulged with thin horror novels with lurid titles and more lurid covers usually published by Pan or New English Library. Alas the popularity of horror fiction was a bubble which inevitably burst dramatically. Now you need to find a particularly huge Waterstones or a dedicated specialist fantasy and sci-fi bookseller to locate a dedicated horror section, and even then it will mostly be stocked with Stephen King, Dean Koontz and precious little else. Writers still plying their trade in the genre have had to play a canny game of "hide the genre". Disguising horror in the crime genre is a popular tactic, following the template of William Hjortsberg's Falling Angel (filmed as Angel Heart), John Connelly's fantastic Charlie Parker series is the current cream of this crop. Other writers, like Michael Marshall, have moved to the post-Thomas Harris psycho-thriller genre. The other alternative is small press publications, but it's hard enough carving out a living with a major publishing house these days.

Amid all this gloom for horror fiction there are some rays of light, hardcore horror has found a natural home in comics (I dare you to find anything quite as grim as Garth Ennis' sort-of zombie series Crossed), and for more mainstream, for less graphic fare fantasy and horror has found a fertile market in young adult fiction, not only with Twilight (for better or worse, but I'm not getting pulled into debating the merits of Stephanie Meyer, for that way lies madness and eternal flaming tweets) but also with the likes of Darren Shan and The Fast Show creator and Young Bond author Charlie Higson's recent teen-zombie thriller The Enemy.

David Gatward's The Dead is clearly aiming at the Darren Shan end of the market, rather than the Stephanie Meyer end, in other words this is one for the boys. The Dead sticks firmly to the strain of children's fiction that centres on an outsider adolescent, either an orphan or with absent parents, who discovers that they are in fact special or chosen. This is potent stuff for any teenager, especially teenage boys. And Gatward knows not to mess with a proven formula. Thus we find the novel's hero Lazarus Stone, on the cusp of his sixteenth birthday. Lazarus' mother died years earlier in a car accident leaving the boy to be raised by a distant father. Lazarus's rather dreary life is blown apart one night by a visit from a mysterious stranger Red who appears to have had the skin flayed from his body. Red reveals that Lazarus is in mortal peril. The unruly dead are able to push through from their realm into ours and Lazarus' father is not a corporate security consultant, but in fact a "keeper" charged with making sure the worlds of the living and the dead are kept far apart. But something has gone badly wrong, Lazarus's father has disappeared while on a business trip and the dead are breaking through into our world. Our reluctant hero finds that the lineage of the Keepers is passed from father to son. This is not something Lazarus either believes or accepts, so he enlists his horror geek best mate Craig and Clair an amateur ghost hunter to investigate.

The Dead will be familiar stuff to more grown up horror fans (old farts I believe the kids call us) playing with celestial themes familiar from films like The Prophecy and the recent Legion, as well as in comic series like Sandman and especially Hellblazer. In fact The Dead could be seen as Hellblazer Jr, Lazarus has a long way to go before he equals the depth and complexity of antihero John Constantine, but his surly attitude is cut from similar cloth.

The novel takes quite a while to get going (surprising for such a short book), spending rather too long setting things up in the opening half, but when it does gathers a pleasing head of steam and is likely to keep it's target audience amused. It ends with a jolt and is clearly just part 1 of a larger story, but if Gatward can get the next episode out quickly and can control his impulse to employ cheesy dialogue he may have a hit with his target audience.

Advice for anyone thinking of buying this for a "young adult", while it could serve as a good early dip into the murky world of the horror genre, it is definitely aimed at young adults and not children. While the writing is direct and unpretentious, the imagery and violence could be disturbing for under 14s.

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