Gr 6 Up—Charlie, devastated when his parents divorce, hides his hurt with blustering arrogance. His best mate Jack tries to help, but doesn't know how. At loose ends, the boys are recruited into an organization called The Brotherhood, a secret society sworn to protect the world from an evil known as The Scourge. Charlie is able to funnel his anger into his newly acquired superhuman powers. What no one realizes is that Charlie has been possessed by a demon, manifesting itself as a moving black tattoo. An essentially good plot line is sometimes obscured by too many elements in this novel by Sam Enthoven (Razorbill, 2006). There are echoes of the Da Vinci Code, The Bartimaeus Trilogy, and Harry Potter. Add in a humorless Hagrid-like character who forges swords from pigeon droppings, a girl superhero, a portal to Hell in a pub, and a bit of romance, and the tale becomes somewhat difficult to follow. The narrator, John Lee, tries to imbue The Scourge with a creepy sense of malevolence, but the dialogue fails him. He excels, however, at conveying the combination of teen arrogance and uncertainty that leads Charlie to the dark side, and does an excellent job of defining the voices of all the characters. Fantasy fans may prefer the audiobook to the print format.—Alison Kastner, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information