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Need help with Darren Shan books

11 replies

ragged · 10/01/2012 20:08

y5 DD had Cirque du Freak as a class reader.
This was her introduction to Darren Shan, & she wants to read more.
I let her get Lord Loss from library; I said I would read it after her to decide if she could get any more in future.
It's pretty God Awful: makes Watership Down movie look like Dumbo.
Lord Loss features (SPOILERS!!) the hero finding his family dismembered in many pieces (graphically described), meeting crazy demons who try to rip him apart too, spending months in hospital traumatised by the event, discovering that he has a family predisposition to becoming a Werewolf, and more bloody & creepy & body-part ridden battles with said demons. Lots of creeping suspense. It IS a good yarn, but I'd prefer her to be 34 at least 14 not 10 before reading books where horror/violence are such huge features.
I don't like DC reading graphically violent stuff, they don't get to read American Psycho either (and yes, I think this is like a kid's version, minus debatable misogyny). I feel that it normalises violence for them, and turns violence into entertainment. I'm not really going to shift on those viewpoints, either (so note this isn't in AIBU).

Are some Darren Shan books/series a lot less violent than others? Or all they all pretty much the same?

OP posts:
HattiFattner · 10/01/2012 20:14

my DD is a darren shan expert and said they are all like that, especially the larten crepsley books which your DD should avoid unless you want nightmares.

However, she said the book Koyasan is fairly tame.

Try her on the goosebumps book or and the antony horowitz "power of five" books.

Horowitz horror is also suitable.

ragged · 10/01/2012 20:28

Ah, thank you, that's what I needed to know :(.
So the Horowitz books have hint of horror flavour / atmosphere, but not as violent & graphic? Will look into Goosebumps, too.

Dd otherwise likes Jiggy McCue & Pony Whisperer (type) books, so Darren Shan quite a contrast. I am trying to steer back onto those.

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mummytime · 10/01/2012 20:49

They are banned from my DCs school, and I would have objected to them being used as a class reader (the boys in years 5 and 6 can bring them in for personal reading, but can't use them when reading to their "buddies").

iamsamiam · 10/01/2012 21:13

I was talking with DS and he (14) agrees that the demonata series is very gory. Has she finished the cirque series? If she enjoys the supernatural why not try the skullduggary pleasant series?

Have to say I've never stopped DS from reading something if he's shown an interest. He's been reading Darren Shan since he was 10 and loves the new Larten Crepesley series.

ragged · 11/01/2012 12:46

I have half a mind to complain Mummytime. I wouldn't want to complain if they were used to draw in reluctant readers, or maybe there was value in getting one book the whole class would get sucked into. The LL protagonist seems very obviously secondary school age, probably aged 13-14 going by when his brother turns into a werewolf.

Even commonsensemedia seems to rate Shan OK for age 10+ and they are normally quite cautious. LL made me feel nervous walking around my own house in the dark, I'm almost impressed that DD not scared by it (or maybe I'm disturbed that she was not disturbed reading it Confused). We usually find Dr. Who too scary in this house, ffs, and even Merlin had most of us hiding under blankets one night. I wonder if it's another malaise of modern times, violence as entertainment; along with pursuit of celebrity & "cool stuff".

Thanks for feedback; I will stand firm with telling DD she has to wait until 12 to read any more (& hopefully by then she'll have forgotten better quality interests).

ps: is this what Twilight series are like, too? Very explicit violence? Or are they more scarey/creepy/melodramatic?

OP posts:
mummytime · 11/01/2012 13:00

Twilight is creepy but for a very different reason (boy hangs around in girl's bedroom watching her sleep). Its not very gory or really scary, I've read the first 3 because my DD read them, I said she had to read the books before watching the films.
We like Dr Who, and I have had reluctant reader boys read Darren Shan to me, but they're not what I'd want the school to be pushing.
Quite a lot of the Horror books are a bit yucky, eg. the Anthony Horrowitz Horror's. Goosebumps is quite innocent. Actually I'd even prefer Edgar Allan Poe, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" or good old fashioned ghost stories.

HattiFattner · 11/01/2012 13:01

I think twiglet Grin is all romance and heaving bosoms. Sets feminism back about 50 years tho. But a nice read for girlie girls.

Stephanie Meyer did another SciFi book called Hosts which is good but not so scary.

My DD was a voracious and advanced reader at 10, and enjoyed the tracey beaker books and others by the same author. ALso the "series of unfortunate events" books which are slightly sinister but fun.

There is a good series called Maximum Ride about human/bird hybrids which she enjoyed.

But she did read all the darren shan books in Y5/6 and beyond. Cathy Cassidy is also good.

startail · 11/01/2012 13:06

Skulduggery here too. Older 13y, dyslexic, DD. Learnt to read on Twighlight and is now going back through everything else.
HP, Pecy Jackson, Alex Rider, Kane chronicles, I think she's read the power of five. I am no. Four. A similar series with someone surviving 365 days.
Lots of twilight rip offs, but I'd have to ask about sex etc in them for a Y5.
My DD2 (10) loves Cathy Cassidy, Jacqueline Wilson and Hilary McKay- cattail Family series.
(She sneakily listened to the audiobook of the last Twilight and has seen some of the films, but never read them. She could very easily, just can't be bothered)

startail · 11/01/2012 13:07

Casson family, stupid iPodAngry

startail · 14/01/2012 23:13

I mentioned this tread to DD1, she says DS books are indeed horrible, her 14 year old friend likes them she doesn't.
She's just remembered that she greatly enjoyed Helen Dunmore's Indigo series. The first one is called Indigo and there are 3 more.

ScatterChasse · 18/01/2012 12:35

There is a whole series of Cirque du Freak, 13 if I remember rightly, but the later ones get quite nasty, I never liked them.

Cam you nudge her across onto mystery type books? I know I read some Agatha Christie at that age. Or, if it's the magic she likes, she may like the Charlie Bone ones? There's a werewolf in those, I seem to remember.

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