Title: The Devil’s Footsteps
Author: E.E. Richardson
Release Date: 3rd March 2005
Publisher: Bodley Head Children’s Books
It was just a bit of fun, a local legend. The Devil’s Footsteps: thirteen stepping stones, and whichever one you stopped on in the rhyme could predict how you would die. A harmless game for kids – and nobody ever died from a game.
But it’s not a game to Bryan. He knows the truth. He’s seen the Dark Man, because the Dark Man took his brother five years ago. He’s tried to tell himself again and again that it was his imagination, that the Devil’s Footsteps are just stones and the Dark Man didn’t take Adam. But what does it matter if people believe in the legend or not? Adam’s still gone.
And then Bryan meets two other boys who have their own unsolved mysteries. It seems that Adam wasn’t the first to disappear. Someone or something is after the children in the town. And it all comes back to the rhyme that every local child knows by heart…
‘ One in fire, two in blood,
Three in Storm, four in flood,
Five in Anger, six in hate,
Seven fear and evil eight,
Nine in sorrow, ten in pain,
Eleven death, twelve life again,
Thirteen steps to the Dark Man’s Door
Won’t be turning back no more.’
The disappearance of children in Redford seems to be a regular occurrence, but one that people seem to ignore. The local legend of the sinister Dark Man haunts the town and its inhabitants seem reluctant to discuss it. Bryan’s older brother, Adam, walked the ‘Devil’s Footsteps’ (stepping stones in the woods) while speaking the rhyme and hasn’t been seen since. Only Bryan knows what really happened but no one is willing to acknowledge the Dark Man. After five years of suffering, Bryan’s parents behaving like zombies, he meets Smokey, a boy who has also seen the Dark Man. Accompanied by Jake, whose best friend, Lucy, also went missing, the boys set off on a journey to discover the secret of Redford and find out exactly what happened to the people they loved.
This novel is actually really scary. The continued use of the rhyme is really eerie and the Dark Man is an actual threat all the way through the novel. As well as dealing with the current threat, the reader is given an insight into how Bryan and his family have had to deal with the disappearance of Adam and when Smokey’s sister, Nina, goes missing, the writing is really emotional.
The Dark Man is always just out of reach and it is more what the Dark Man does that makes the novel so effective. The characters have to undergo real trials in order to overcome their fear but it is apparent from the start that they will have to return back to the stepping stones in the woods in order to be able to move on. Richardson also uses suspense to build fear and the chapters are effectively structured, you definitely can’t end one chapter without being desperate to start the next.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this as a brilliant example of a teenage horror. Imagery used within the novel also creates atmosphere and I cannot stress how well The Devil’s Footsteps is written. I was scared to go to sleep… so don’t start this novel unless you can hack it because the ending is also really well written and I wouldn’t want you to miss out!
5/5 Be prepared to be scared!
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