The Doom Stone has a scene in which a soldier "knew he was being eaten alive" and features a horrifying monster with no nose and streams of slime pouring out of his face, but taken as a whole The Doom Stone is surprisingly free of descriptions that could prove worrisome to some readers. The early killing of Richards establishes just how horrible Skull Face is; hereafter similar horrifying events are always hauntingly possible. Zindel then develops suspense by playing on this potential for catastrophe, putting his protagonists in situations in which the worst could happen at any moment, but he does not actually show any more terrible devourings or gruesome dismemberings. The possibility for such events is enough to build a considerable amount of suspense.

Zindel's frequent descriptions of the monster who has translucent skin, a hole for a nose, jagged pointed teeth, and streams of...