Invisible Fiends: The Darkest Corners by Barry Hutchison [Review]

Info: Title: The Darkest Corners Author: Barry Hutchison Publisher: Harper Collins Children’s Books ISBN: 9780007315208 Rating: [xrrgroup][xrr label="Characters:" rating="5/6" group="s1" ] [xrr label="Plot:" rating="4.5/6" group="s1"] [xrr label="Writing:" rating="4.5/6" group="s1"] [xrr label="Just One More Page:" rating="5.5/6" group="s1"] [xrr label="Overall:" overall=true group="s1" ][/xrrgroup]

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And so we come to the end of the wonderfully horror-packed Invisible Fiends series by Barry Hutchison.

Can I start by saying just how much I loved the dedication page:

For my son, Kyle, the inspiration for this series.

This is it. Kyle versus Dad. You against me.

May the best man win.

The book begins where The Beast ended. In fact in a lot of ways it’s the second-half of that part of Kyle’s adventures. Reeling from the revelations at the end of that book, Kyle, Ameena, & Billy need to regroup and take a moment to plan what they are going to do next.

But, Kyles’ dad, was never going to let that happen, and he continues to throw everything he can at Kyle, including a couple more truly shocking revelations (for him as well as us), that may just finally break him.

The horrors confronting Kyle, in both The Darkest Corners and the previous one, The Beast, have moved from just being chased by scary bad guys and the gore they trail behind them, to the horror that can only be found in the truth. You can run and hide from the bad guy, but the truth must be faced, no matter how scary it is.

It’s always going to be difficult to end a series like this satisfactorily. With everything Kyle has gone though, a happy ending where they skip off down the road, into the distance as the sun sets, clearly isn’t going work. Nor, do you want him to go though all he has, and not have… something…

I’m not going to spoil things for you by telling you how Barry does end things, but I can say I was both saddened and pleased. Which sounds just about right to me. If you want to know why, then you’ll have to read it for yourself!

An utterly brilliant horror series for children, just make sure you don’t let them have all the fun, read the books along with them, then fight them for that extra pillow to hide behind…

Read my reviews of the previous books in the series : The Crowmaster | Doc Mortis | The Beast

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The concluding part of this darkly funny, horror series Darren Shan called ‘deliciously nightmarish’.

Kyle is a bit of a problem child. He won’t do what his dad tells him. But that’s because his dad wants Kyle to unleash the scuttling, screaming, killer creatures of the Darkest Corners and bring about the end of the world.

Now might be a good time to rebel…

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Buy: Invisible Fiends: The Darkest Corners by Barry Hutchison

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review purposes.