They had brought it with them ...It was in their very blood Sam's family are cursed with a dark and terrible secret. A secret that has its origins in a remote island off the coast of China and has haunted every generation of his family for hundreds of years. Now the curse is about to claim Sam as its next victim. It starts with an itchy rash that spreads all over his body. Then the feeling of something changing within him, coming alive. And why has he become obsessed with the marshes and their cool, muddy waters? Why has he stopped seeing his friends and going to school? As rumours begin to spread about sightings of a sinister creature on the outskirts of town, Sam is forced to face a horrifying truth. One that could destroy him ...

 

There are 256 pages in this book. This book was published 2005 by Faber & Faber .

Thomas Bloor is the author of seven children's novels, including The House of Eyes, winner of the 2003 Stockton Children's Book of the Year Award, and Worm in the Blood which won the Calderdale Children's Book Award 2006.