When I was a kid, we loved getting together and trying out one of the spooky kid-legends. Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary! Chris Wooding clearly remembers the lure of that kind of scare because he creates a special one for Malice. If you gather the right things and say the right words, you'll be taken. You'll end up in Malice, a world where the most ghastly things are commonplace and almost no one gets out alive. In this book a group of friends go from laughing at the silly myth to being total believers. And they discover that sometimes getting out of Malice alive doesn't mean you get to stay that way!

Malice is unusual on several levels. First, the cover is the ultimate in cool with the villian pushing right out from the book as if he really is going to come get you. Then the book itself is a novel with comic book-style insets as the world of Malice leaks through into the real world through these comic book stories. As I read, I realized this book would have scared me senseless then I was a young teen and I would have loved every second of it. It is intense so if your reader is a bit sensitive of scary books, you might want to hold off a bit on this one. Just because it has comic book sections doesn't make it light weight. But for the thrill-loving teen, the book is an amazing adventure and a unique exploration of what truly makes a hero.