The Devil’s Dance transcends categories. It is an exciting, original story, full of menace and very moving. The story is told in turn by two teenagers, Jake and Samuel. It begins with a dream, like a musical overture, which contains the themes to be developed in the rest of the work and describes events that took place two or three hundred years earlier. Gradually the reader understands the horror of what is happening. Jake and Samuel’s story unrolls over Hallowe’en, with eerie and, finally, shocking events.
The book describes movingly the love of Jake and his mother for his father, who is afflicted by a terrible illness, and their heart-searing loss when he dies. When Jake understands that he may himself inherit the illness and indeed pass it on to his children he struggles to come to terms with the appalling fact. The reader shares the boy’s turmoil.
The story has several strands: Jake’s personal loss; his friendship with Samuel and his loving family; and the mystery of the nocturnal rituals that take place in a deserted hospital on the edge of Dartmoor. Between the episodes of adventure in this well paced story, there are peaceful and pastoral descriptions, particularly of Samuel’s home and special family occasions. The boys’ nocturnal walks together and alone are also full of atmosphere. The climax of the story is menacing and cruel, and its immediate aftermath no less shocking.
The book is charmingly illustrated with line drawings by Tracy Davy.
