Commentary

I have chosen to replicate Darren Shan’s work as his salient stylistic features such as a unique first person narrative and detailed description of a very different and indulgent story, provide an intriguing and distinctive piece. His target audience is older children aged 13-18 and is non-gender specific, but with certainly an interest in the grotesque- horror.
The most important stylistic feature frequently used is the first person voice. I have picked up on the importance of this feature. For topicality, I decided to take a well-loved and well known fairy-tale- Snow White- and change it into a much darker narrative: ‘When I was younger I used to live next to this magnificent garden.’ Their anecdotal and conversational lexical choice establish a connection with the reader as they feel involved in the scenario and forms an empathetic relationship. This indulges the reader further and makes the characters and the story line more sentimental to the reader. I wanted my target audience to really connect with a character that had been so much part of their childhoods. The play between truth and reality was also important in my style model and I needed to keep an audience engaged by never allowing them fixity or a sense of being familiar; I did that by debating the ideas of truth and reality and never allowing that audience to trust my voice- ‘But it did. If you had told me then, I probably would not have believed you too- but everything I have told you so far is true. So far.’ Every time the first person appears to offer truth, it is then made ambiguous to maintain interest and a real sense of connection with the audience.
Another stylistic feature is the use of simplistic fragment sentences ‘Mother is dead’ and ‘But I was always filled with fear.’ This is used to add drama and they disrupt the rhythm of the text making the reader feel slightly disorientated by the strange variety and intriguing them to read more. They also add purpose and shock value- a sense of...