The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven

Author: Sam Enthoven
ISBN # 0385609655
Publisher: Doubleday
First Published: 2006
488 pages
Rating: 7/10

The Blurb:
Jack doesn't know what he's got himself into. One minute he and his best friend Charlie were up in Chinatown having crispy duck with Charlie's dad (and Jack was having to listen to Charlie shouting at his dad for leaving his mum) - then next minute they were in a mysterious room above a theatre, with some of the strangest characters they'd ever encountered. And they were about to take The Test... and something very, very weird was about to begin. The Test transformed Charlie - leaving him with the distinctive markings of the Black Tattoo - and with a temper that seemed out of control. The boys' meeting with Esme, a young girl with the most impressive martial arts skills this side of Bruce Lee, her huge and hairy father Raymond, and the mysterious Nick seemed to have swept Charlie and Jack into a world they had no idea existed. And it was only going to get stranger...This epic tale of good and evil, demons and hell, vomiting bats and huge battles marks the debut of an incredible new talent for children's books. Drawing on influences such as comic books, computer games and Eastern martial arts, The Black Tattoo is a book no self-respecting teenage boy will want to miss.

The Review:
Although I loved the dark, broodiness of The Black Tattoo, I can’t help feeling that Enthoven missed his mark slightly – it reads a little too boyishly and at times the tone feels forced and slightly patronising, but all the elements of a gothic journey into a demonic dimension make it worth while persevering. It’s perhaps a little too long – there are definitely places where I, personally, would have trimmed a bit – but it’s very imaginative and filled with very graphic description meant to appeal to the tastes of boys in their early teens. Anything that encourages kids of that age group is good in my books and you could do a lot worse than this – there are some very good ideas here and the level of excitement is kept pretty high throughout, the scale is grand and there’s enough teen angst involved that it will appeal to those who feel a little set-aside from the norm.