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Book Review: 21st Century Demon Hunter by Charles D. Lincoln

21st Century Demon Hunter by Charles D. Lincoln

Burning Bulb Publishing, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-948278-17-1

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

With main character Juliette Johannes, first time author Charles D. Lincoln may have created the most entertaining antihero the horror genre has ever seen.  By day (when she isn’t too hung over) she’s one of many faceless bicycle delivery people pedaling their way through New York City.  At night, she spends her time swilling, stoning, snorting, and screwing her way through the Manhattan nightclub scene.  Waking up in a strange bed with no memory next to a strange guy (or girl) is a weekly occurrence for her.  Due to family lineage, she’s also an on-call destroyer of demons that hide on Earth and occasionally decide to stir up trouble.  In this story, monsters exist all over the place, but only a small group of humans are aware of them, and have dedicated their time to keeping the rest of humanity safe.  When the demons start stirring up more trouble than usual, Juliette and her two sisters, Samantha and Persephone, get pulled into a web of murder and deceit that wrecks various sections of New York City. It’s a 400-page odyssey of mayhem and hilarity that is completely over the top, and works in every possible way.

Two things elevate this book above the competition: the originality of the plot and the unconventional but highly amusing characters.  God and humans against Satan and his minions  is a trope that has been used frequently, but author Lincoln wisely throws out the conventions that usually come with such a story.  Instead of “good vs. evil”, the conflict is set up as the forces of order against the forces of chaos, with neither side being truly good or bad.  Rather than a single “spirit realm”, Lincoln  has created nine different realms populated with all sorts of demons of varying strength.   This helps prevent the story from becoming predictable: it allows for a lot more variety in the types of fiends that appear in the book, as well as plot flexibility.  Some creatures are almost harmless and actually cute (the killer demon koalas come to mind) and some are as tough and nasty as anything since Lovecraft’s Cthulhu demons first graced the printed page.  21st Century Demon Hunter is a perfect example of how to take an old idea and reinvent it into something truly original.

The plot is excellent, but the true strength is in the characters.  It’s almost impossible not to find them interesting, because they are so unconventional.  Juliette is a prime example.  She shows up to exorcisms drunk,  treats powerful demons like annoying children that need a good spanking, and berates them for their lack of imagination in scaring people. When a demon vomits on her, she pukes right back on him.  It’s why she’s so entertaining; she’s unlike any other exorcist ever created.  The other characters are just as off the wall.  For instance, Christopher and Serenity are a brother-sister vampire team, who happen to talk like Cockneys and are usually more into watching the stock market then draining humans of blood.  With the characters in the book, abnormal is the normal, and it holds the reader’s interest all the way to the end.

Horror and humor are two sides of the same coin, and 21st Century Demon Hunter strikes the absolute perfect balance between the two.  The excitement will have you flipping the pages as fast as possible, while laughing out loud at the same time.  An unusual, original work not to be missed.

 

Contains: graphic violence, graphic sex, drug use, profanity, racial slurs and stereotypes

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Editor’s note: 21st Century Demon Hunter is also a streaming series on Amazon Prime Video.

Posted on October 8, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: The Ghost Hunter’s Daughter by Caroline Flarity

The Ghost Hunter’s Daughter by Caroline Flarity

East Side Press, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-0996845007

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

Anna Fagan lives in a haunted house, but that’s the least of her problems. Her father, Jack, is well-known for his ability to “clear” spirits from the objects they haunt, but since the traumatic death of her mother, his ability is fading and he’s picked up the habit of hoarding, aggressively. He stores holy water in the refrigerator, and “cleared” objects in the basement, where Anna is forbidden to go (the results of Jacks’s hoarding exposed when Anna breaks into the basement later in the story is one of the most appalling things in the book: previously haunted objects are the least of the problems).  Now the lack of space has led Jack to rent an office to reinvigorate his business. He has hired a new investigator, Geneva Sanders, a scientist who has invented a new way to see the electrical activity that indicates that ghosts and supernatural forces are at work.

Anna is also suffering from grief and guilt over her mother’s death, but at school, she has other problems. With the exception of her friends Doreen and Freddy, Anna is mocked by other students with the nickname “Goblin Girl”. Izzy, the school sleazebucket, has decided she’d make a perfect target for his meanness and slut-shaming, while also throwing disgusting homophobic slurs at Freddy. Anna, focused on getting her crush, Craig, to notice her, while trying to manage her family problems and an uptick in paranormal activity, misses out on the serious problems Doreen and Freddy are dealing with. As levels of hostility and violence rise in town, Geneva theorizes that unusual solar flares are being harnessed by a malevolent spirit who is using them to feed on people’s anger and pain.

Flarity’s choice to make Anna the point-of-view character works beautifully here. There is so much going on in this book, especially in the larger picture of things, and yet we see that world through the self-centered tunnel vision of a teenager– which is perfect for a teenager in a YA novel. Our view widens with hers, and we see the story pull together as she does. Getting the story from Anna’s point of view means we are up close to her character growth.

This book reminds me a lot of Lois Duncan’s YA books, except that her books didn’t have the broader supernatural conspiracy behind this story. I’m not sure how many boys would choose to read this, but I hope they will, because there are parts that should really make them think. How many people say and do things without thinking, especially when they are angry or feeling hopeless, that regret it later?

Recommended.

 

Contains: suicide, suicidal ideation, mental illness (hoarding), self-harm, animal cruelty, bullying, abusive adults, violence, cyberbullying. rape culture, distribution of provocative images of a minor.

Posted on October 7, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Monsterland by James Crowley

Monsterland by James Crowley

G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-0399175893

Available:  Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

 

It’s Halloween, and Charlie Cooper is missing his best friend, Billy, who was lost in the river the previous year.  Too dispirited to trick-or-treat, he wanders into the woods, to hide out in an abandoned army base where they used to play. When he sees a figure that looks like Billy, he follows him through the base and into a graveyard he’s never noticed, down into a crypt that leads to a tunnel, and discovers that he has not been following his friend: he has followed a vampire, into Monsterland, an unmapped territory where the U.S. government has contained the world’s monsters. The vampire is Prime Minister of Monsterland, tasked with keeping the peace between all the factions and creatures. Learning that Charlie is looking for his “lost” friend, the Prime Minister sends him on a journey with Frankenstein’s Monster that will lead Charlie to a place where he might find Billy, if he’s lucky.

Charlie’s journey with the Monster is eventful, with kidnappings, near-drownings, robberies, and dramatic rescues. He meets various types of monsters, who are fascinated to find a live boy in their country.  While some characters are well-drawn, especially the Monster, Crowley spends several chapters at the beginning introducing Charlie, with the result that, while Crowley does some terrific world-building, the story is too jam-packed with action and new characters to do everything (and everyone) justice. The door is definitely left open for a sequel– there are many characters I wanted to know more about, and the overall idea that government budget cuts are undermining control of Monsterland is intriguing.

What is most interesting, and most fully developed, is Charlie’s relationship with the Monster, who is not just uninterested but actively hostile to the idea of traveling with Charlie. Charlie insists that nobody should be referred to as Monster or Creature all the time, and helps the Monster choose a name (the discussion, which involves his annoyance with Mary Shelley, leads to the Monster being named Franklin Prometheus), something that significantly changes their relationship. Watching them interact is one of the most interesting parts of the book.

I was bothered by the plot being driven by Charlie’s need to look for Billy. It is pretty clear from the very beginning of the book that Billy isn’t just lost, and I didn’t like that the Prime Minister and all the monsters encouraged Charlie’s magical thinking and the idea that Billy was tangible. Magical thinking is a part of grief you want children to work through, and Charlie is protected from having to do this. Crowley did a nice job of depicting Charlie’s grief before he entered Monsterland, but once there, the possibility of finding Billy made it an adventure.

I wouldn’t call this horror so much as a monster-laden fantasy adventure, but there is certainly potential for it to go darker if there is a sequel. It is a great choice for monster-loving kids. Recommended.

Posted on October 6, 2019 by , Reply
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