Changes

It's hard not to love Joe and Giles from the word go, so different, but so in need of each other. I think it must have been difficult to craft this kind of story with protagonists of Joe and Giles' age, and keep it believable, but this is exactly what Voake has achieved. Joe seems very vulnerable but with extremely aggressive tendencies that only surface when he's under threat. Giles is cooler and calmer and a font of knowledge.

All of this is great, but the real kudos has to be reserved for the bad guys – the creatures. I really don't want to tell you too much about them, other than how terrifying I found them. I'm somehow reminded of the nastiest killers in 70s horror movies, not in what they're like but just in how terrifying they are. I guess the hope is we'll see them again, because they really do deserve another outing.

One thing which has slightly puzzled me in reading this book for review is the intended age range. At 247 pages with a slightly large and well -spaced out font, very short chapters, it did seem rather short for what's current in the young adult market. The content is dark and scary, there's no way of getting around that, making me think this book is slightly subverting the middle grade to young adult age range. I think none of this will matter in the long run; kids see much worse on TV these days. I think though that there's a high possibility that this book could be a good choice for older, reluctant readers – high pace, short and digestible chapters with a fantastic story and great cast of characters. This is definitely worth a go for teens who haven't read in a while.

If you like this book I'd give [[The Starlight Conspiracy by Steve Voake|The Starlight Conspiracy]] a go, also [[The Trap by Sarah Wray]]. You'll probably enjoy [[Fightback by Steve Voake]] more than we did!