The Glass Demon [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The Glass Demon is one of those books I knew was going to be good right from the very first lines. In just two lines Grant effectively sets up a feeling of impending doom, and with the third sets up the first death - and thus the rest of the book. With such a strong opening, standards are high for the rest of the book. But Grant's elegant writing and careful plotting make for a page-turning novel that gets better and better with each chapter.

In a YA paranormal market awash with vampires, werewolves and the like, and set in English-speaking parts of the world (mostly the United States of America), The Glass Demon stands out thanks to its slow-building series of mysterious events and deaths due to uncertain demonic causes, and (more importantly), its German setting. It is that German setting that adds to the sense of isolation and strange discovery - while main character Lin is fluent in German enough to communicate with the townsfolk and attend school, her family is not. So not only are the family isolated by the tight-knit community into which they have arrived, as well as their out-of-cell-coverage, but also by language.

But not only does Lin have to play translator for her family with regards to their new home, she also attempts to play translator within it. From the outside they look like a wonderful family, but if they themselves were a portrait made of glass it would be full of cracks. Grant deftly combines the internal family problems with the external attacks on them, and ties the whole thing together with the foreshadowing of impending doom for one of them. All in all it makes for a compelling drama, in and outside the family.

The paranormal/horror aspects are very well-handled as well. The clues to the mystery are tantalizing, while the twists and new discoveries kept me turning pages to see what happened next. The Glass Demon was definitely one of those books that once picked up I could not put down, and Lin's first person narration was excellent at building up the tension and was filled with wonderful lines and pieces of imagery. In fact, I found Lin's voice to be at its most beautiful at the most tragic of moments, and the juxtaposition there made for absolutely breathless reading.

Overall, The Glass Demon was a compelling piece of drama and horror that captured me from the first page, and its combination of religious, historical and German elements made it a stand out read. I highly recommend it.

After feeling unfairly shunted aside for the position of medieval studies professor due, in his opinion, to jealousy and nepotism, Dr. Fox decides to implement his dreams of becoming the media's darling of anything erotically medieval. As such he knows the perfect solution to instant Indiana Jones like fame. He leaves London for Germany in search of the legendary missing for two centuries Allerheiligen church stained glass windows allegedly cursed by Bonschariant the Glass Demon; supposedly having caused the deaths of previous seekers of the valuable glass worth millions.

With his wife Tuesday, his two daughters (Polly and Lin) and his infant son Reuben with him, Fox journeys to remote Germany where they stay at a run down castle. Lin finds the corpse of an elderly farmer, which her father says to ignore; and she soon becomes friends with her new neighbor, Michel Reinartz. However, as Polly watches Ru, and Tuesday fixes her hair, Lin realizes the local want her family to go back to England out of fear of what Fox will bring to those who abet his search. Soon another mysterious death occurs making the seventeen year old Lin wonder if Bonschariant is not just real but stalking them.

This is a great horror thriller that uses the real Allerheiligen church stained glass windows as an anchor for a fast-paced tale that shows the grimmer side to fairy tales. Lin narrates what happens to her family and associates as she must overcome her fears to try to save her loved ones by solving the mystery of the glass. Readers will appreciate this terrific story as Lin gets closer to the truth of whether Bonschariant exists; incidents have already made her a curse believer.

Harriet Klausner

This is one of the better horror novels I've read in a long time. Helen Grant has written a scary story in the Gothic tradition: an ancient terror, a small town's dark past, a professor trying to uncover a secret that may end up killing him and his family. From the first chapter till the last, I was hooked. Grant has masterfully recreated the creepy atmosphere of a castle in the forest, a hidden sinister chapel, and a demon that may or may not exist.

I just couldn't put this book down. And for those of you who have overactive imaginations (like mine), I don't recommend reading this book alone at night.