Slawter

Slawter

First Edition Cover Slawter's cover showing a variation of Cadaver
Author	Darren Shan
Cover artist	Melvyn Grant
Language	English
Series	The Demonata series
Genre	Horror, Fantasy novel
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	June 5, 2006
Publication place	Ireland
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	256 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-316-01387-0
OCLC	62342695
Preceded by	Demon Thief
Followed by	Bec

Slawter is the third book in the The Demonata series (4th chronologically) written by Darren Shan. Even though all the Demonata books can be read separately this book follows on from the 1st in the series, Lord Loss and the 2nd in the series, Demon Thief. The protagonist is Grubbs Grady, who was also the protagonist for Lord Loss.

Plot

The book is set about a year after Lord Loss takes place. When the story takes place Dervish, who has just returned from his battle with Lord Loss, a horror movie producer named Davida Haym offers Dervish a chance to work on the set of her new movie, "Slawter". Grubbs soon finds out that Davida has made a deal with Lord Loss that if she gets Dervish and Grubbs to work on the movie, she can film them live giving her the movie of her life. But when Dervish, Grubbs, Bill-E and a psychologist named Juni Swan try to escape, they encounter a barrier which sends them into a dream world. In this dream world, Bill-E has been captured by the Lambs so they can learn the secrets of how his Lycanthropy was cured. Dervish and Grubbs invade the Lambs complex and demand the return of Bill-E Spleen. The Lambs refuse so they invade the complex and rescue Bill-E. Grubbs then realizes there are too many coincidences, the fact that the complex was an exact replica of Hannibal Lecter's cell, for instance.

He wakes up and finds himself in a small room in one of buildings that make up the town Slawter. Dervish and Bill-E are also in the room with him and he uses special magic to wake them up. The three of them then run into the town trying to warn people to get away by saying there is a gas leak and the town will explode soon.

No one heeds their warnings and Davida sets the Demons upon the unwilling cast and crew, but Lord Loss then betrays her and kills her. Most of the actors don't fight back — thinking this is a plot change — but soon realize it's not and are killed. The three of them run and try to lure a demon closer to the invisible force field that surrounds the town so they can try to kill it on the barrier to cause it to crack for a while so they can escape and bring as many people with them as possible. To do this they leave Bill-E in an alley to attract a weak demon.

Finally, one does come, after a girl named Bo Kooniart (who they previously disliked and whose father was in on Davida Haym's plot), a girl called Karin and three boys see them and run to them while being chased by a giant bee-like demon. Dervish and Grubbs subdue it but suddenly Juni reappears and kills it. To get another, Grubbs, Bo, Karin and a boy all lure a demon into chasing them, but are unlucky when Lord Loss finds them. Artery and a new cockroach-demon called Gregor are with him and the children run. Karin is soon killed off by Lord Loss's literal kiss of death. Grubs and Bo eventually find the edge but Dervish is not there. Suddenly Dervish and Juni appear from under an invisibility shield and distract Lord Loss so Grubbs can move Gregor to the barrier. Juni is about to kill the demon before she is struck by Gregor's leg.

Grubbs manages to open a window by killing Gregor but has to battle Lord Loss and Artery. Dervish attacks Lord Loss with the people he helped get through. Bill-E pulls a merely unconscious Juni through. Grubbs then sees that Demons can get through so he creates another barrier that only humans can get through. Grubbs then has to battle multiple demons to buy time for the people here. He realises he has power that he never knew he had, even the power to injure Lord Loss so Dervish can get out. Grubbs then runs out after Dervish and the window closes. An unlucky few are still trapped inside and Lord Loss then slaughters them brutally.He promises to get his revenge on Dervish, Grubbs and Bill-E. They realise that Bo did not make it out of the bubble surrounding Slawter as she went to try to save her father. They then see Davida's assistant director Chuda sitting there and Grubbs almost kills him but Bill-E stops him. Then Juni kills him with magic she never knew she had until fighting in the bubble. Later, they find that Juni has gone, and left a note saying that she had to be alone for a while after what she had done, and didn't want to be contacted.

Back at Dervish's house, Dervish tells Grubbs about what his future would be if he did have magic. This causes Grubbs subconscious to hide his magic, even though Dervish said it was impossible. When Dervish scans Grubbs for magic powers he thinks he has none, but in truth, Grubbs had hid them without knowing. Later he decides to check if he did have powers, and managed to switch the light on and off without using the switch and make his reflection disappear. To have the power to conceal his powers from Dervish and to use magic in the real world away from any demons can only mean one thing— Grubbs is a magician.

Trivia

• During the fight with Lord Loss nearing the end, Lord Loss tells Grubbs and Bo the name of the Cockroach demon (Gregor). This is a reference to the short story, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, in which the main character, Gregor turns into a giant insect.

• It is deeply implied that David A. Haym the fictional producer of Slawter, is based on David Heyman producer for the Harry Potter movies. David Hayman is a Scottish film and television actor and director. Both were involved in the making of the movie "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas".

• The novel was originally going to be called Demon Town.

External links

• Author's Official Site