My Book of the Month - October

So many great books have been released over the past month that making my decision for the Book Zone Book of the Month for October was possibly one of the hardest so far. Just look at this list of very worthy contenders:

• The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestley
• The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
• Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud
• Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
• The Dark by David Gatward
• The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey (review to come soon)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading every single one of these books as you will know if you have read any of the reviews I wrote for them. However, in the end I have decided to proclaim that the Book Zone Book of the Month for October is The Dark by David Gatward, and it seems pretty fitting to be announcing this on the night of Halloween.

I thought that David Gatward's first book in this series, The Dead, was a superb debut, but I also stated at the time that I felt that it was too short by some fifty pages or so. Thus I was overjoyed, on receiving a copy of the sequel, to find that it was significantly longer, as this would show whether the author could produce a continuation of equally high quality, and maintain this over a greater number of chapters. The verdict was resoundingly positive, and in my review I wrote the following:

If you are a fan of the work of Darren Shan and have not yet discovered this series then it is well worth reading. Dave Gatward certainly knows his horror, and at times this series comes across as his personal homage to the horror films he has loved for most of his life. As an adult reader there were several times when I felt a knowing grin creep onto my face as I spotted a subtle reference here and there. Many of these will be lost on David's younger target audience, but this is the kind of book that will inspire them to become lifelong lovers of the horror genre, both written and cinematic, and they will be able to look forward to spotting these fanboy references, but in reverse.