Scared by Anthony Horowitz and Dan Boultwood

9/10

Gary Wilson is annoyed at being dragged to Suffolk on holiday by his mum, but then Gary hates almost anything he hasn't approved himself.

Early on in the story we find him lost in the middle of a field, hot, tired and hungry, but as the story goes on, there are reasons as to why he is lost and how he came to be in that predicament. Gary isn't a nice boy, at home or at school. He's a known bully who tips up other students books and steals their dinner money.

Each chapter takes a then and now look at what kind of person he is. In the then sequence it shows him bullying the other students, and telling the teacher he can't do a thing about his bullying. In the now, he is lost, alone, hurt and starving – but after reading the then section it is hard to feel sorry for him.

Artist Dan Boultwood does all he can to show how much of a nasty piece of work Gary is. With his acne-covered face, he rarely smiles unless he is hurting someone. His mother is a shadow of her former self after her husband died of a heart attack at work. While she is left distraught, Gary couldn't care less. He even hurts his own mother, and still insists she buys him things he knows she can barely afford on the money she earns. To get away from it all, when the funeral is over, she takes Gary to her mother's house in Suffolk. There, she finds out that Gary can't keep on with his bad behaviour - something has to be done about him, but she is lost as to what that could be.

This is the best from Anthony Horowitz's Graphic Horror series where his short stories have been made into bite-sized comic books. Scared has a great front cover and interior graphic art by Dan Boultwood with his simplistic style, subtle shading and crazy looking characters.

This is a pure Horowitz horror to read and enjoy.