The Demonata is the second full-length Fantasy Horror series by Irish author Darren O' ShaughnessyShan. Unlike The Saga, this series has three narrators, with different books told from different perspectives.The plot features far too many twists to be quickly summarised, but it starts with our first narrator, perfectly normal teenager Grubbs Grady in a perfectly normal town, long story short, some demon related stuff happens and... things go bad. Really bad. And then they get worse. And worse.And worse.After which, thingsreallystart to get nasty.To say this series is violent is like saying the ocean is wet; lets make this clear- this story is for children, but right from the get-go the reader will be treated to some of the most ludicrously over-the-top ultraviolence ever put to print. The Demonata are evil with a capital E, and many, many characters die explicitly gruesome and horrific deaths on-page, to say nothing of the countless others whose horribly mutilated corpses are come across. You have been warned.The series consists of ten major books:
Blessed with Suck: Kernel has always been able to see patches of light floating around, and can use them to create inter-dimensional demon portals. On one hand, it gave him his little brother, Art.. On the other hand...having anything to do with demons in this world will not end well for you.
Plus, there's the whole "everyone thinks I'm insane" thing that he had to deal with.
Brown Note: When Grubbs sees Lord Loss slaughter his family, Grubbs is literally so terrified that he's driven insane. It's implied that if Dervish had not shown up to tell Grubbs that there were people who believed him, and to just play along with the psychiatrists, he would have wasted away and died.
Eye Scream: Book 6. There is a scorpion demon with a human face that stabs you in the eyes and lays eggs in them, which then rapidly hatch and eat your face from the eye sockets out. Kernel gets attacked by it. Yeah. Fortunately, some time between books 6 and 7 he learns to use magic to regrow his eyes, but only on the demon planes.
There's also an unfortunate guard who opens fire on a demon-queen. The bullets stop, turn into horrific bugs, and speed back towards the guard, latch onto his eyes, and burrow through to his brain. Basically, this happens a lot. Repeatedly to Kernel, but also to Grubbs and several others.
Face Heel Turn: Nadia Moore is revealed to have joined Lord Loss, masquerading as Juni Swan in order to fool the others.
Family Unfriendly Death: Boy, howdy. It would probably be easier to list those who don't die in the most horrific ways possible.
Good Thing You Can Heal: Mages can reattach and regrow body parts to some extent, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.
Gorn: Pretty much every fight scene. An extreme example shows up close to the beginning of the first book, with Lord Loss murdering Grubbs's family.
The Grim Reaper: In a deviation from the traditional robed skeleton, this version of death is a malevolent, shadowy Cosmic Horror.
And he wants to end the worlduniverse, with the aid of every demon in existence
Gory Discretion Shot: Subverted, and subverted hard. At best the characters will comes across corpses after they have bee brutally torn to pieces, but even this will be described in savage detail. More often than not the insanely violent death will be carried out on page. There is no such thing as this trope in this series.
Immune to Bullets: This one's actually a subversion. The demons are only vulnerable to magical weaponry. Along with swords and axes, that includes magical bullets.
Karma Houdini: Lord Loss gets off totally scot-free, and is left as the last demon with any kind of power in existence. In other words, despite his jaw-droppingly horrific crimes. he got exactly what he wanted and the rest of eternity to enjoy it with.
Kill It With Fire: Sharmila's usual technique of battling the Demonata.
Les Collaborateurs: Humans who side with the Demonata. It never ends well for them.
Mind Screw: Used frequently by Lord Loss to psychologically destroy his victims. It becomes a Crowning Moment of Awesome when Grubbs mind screw him back during the chess match.
Mix-and-Match Critters: The Demonata tend to be this, explanation being they envy natural forms and end up copying them.
Narnia Time: Time travels differently in each Demon Universe so characters from different times can interact and end up similiar ages. Also leads to odd events such as Kernel returning to his parents after being missing for a number of years but he hasnt aged at all.
It gets funny when a Disciple asks who won the world war, when asked which one he says "there was another one?"
Power Trio: Grubbs, Kernel and Bec, the three parts of the Kah-Gash.
The Id: Grubbs, the most powerful magically out of them and later also a werewolf
The Super Ego: Kernel, probably the most cerebral out of the three
The Ego: Bec, somewhere between the other two, and almost certainly the most diplomatic (as far as the setting allows anyone to be diplomatic)
Really 700 Years Old: Lord Loss. Probably most of the Demonata. Also Beranabus and Bec.
Shout Out: In Slawter, the giant cockroach demon is named Gregor, a reference to the Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins. Bo even laughs at the reference, though Grubbs does not get the joke.
Took a Level in Badass: Kirilli, over the last couple books, goes from an incompetent whiner to a demon-killing machine.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Grubbs, Juni/Nadia. Most recently the Old Creatures when they talked to Kernel.
Will Not Tell a Lie: Lord Loss makes a point of never lying, but he tends to speak in half-truths when it suits him.
XanatosSpeedChess pile up: The whole series essentially revolves around Lord Loss, Death and the Kah-Gash each employing plans which include the other two and are decided by which of the three Bec, Grubbs and Kernel side with. In the end, Grubbs stands opposed to all three, Kernel has taken a fourth option and gone neutral and Bec sides with Lord Loss and employs her own ploy to trick Death and the Kah-Gash. Which is actually the best outcome, even if she does side with Lord Loss.
Yank the Dog's Chain: When Kernel and his family finally move to a new home, start making friends with a little brother he loves, all of their schoolmates are massacred, and Kernel must go into the demon realms to get back his kidnapped brother. Who is actually Artery.
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