The Condemned by Jesse Rosenbaum

Fulton Books, 2021

ISBN: 9781649523228

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition  ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com  )

The Condemned is an entertaining, although occasionally predictable debut novel from Jesse Rosenbaum.  It’s a decent story and worth reading, although it could have used one more edit to correct the grammatical mistakes that pop up from time to time.

The story itself is fun, and puts a few new ideas into the “ordinary guy dealing with angels and demons” plotline.  Michael is your everyday college student who has the misfortune to be visited by Orrix, one of Lucifer’s former high level demon flunkies.  Orrix was banished to Purgatory for insubordination, and he wants to return to Hell to give Lucifer a beating and take over his job.  Orrix gives Michael a choice: help him find an ancient book that will allow him to return to Hell, or Orrix will make Michael’s life miserable.  Not really having a choice, Michael and his friend Tom search for the book so they can get Orrix out of their lives and return to normal.

The plotline is solid, and it’s a nice change from the usual good vs. evil.  Instead, it’s “good mixed up with evil” vs. evil, as Lucifer does play a role in the book, and neither he nor Orrix are shining paragons of virtue.   It’s quite fun, with both Lucifer and Orrix making their case for why each should win, since both of them are pathological liars.  The author shows good creativity with the descriptions of the afterlife, and there’s some good imagery.  The upside-down trees growing from the bottom of precipices (complete with bodies hanged from them) are a good example.  The dialogue between the characters fits in nicely and fills in the plot, keeping the story moving at a brisk pace.  For generating reader interest, Orrix and Lucifer steal the show.  Poor Michael seems a bit hapless and somewhat puppet-like, since he really isn’t given much choice in… anything, really.  He’s a likable character, but he should have been given a little more free will: his lack of control over his destiny makes him somewhat one-dimensional.

All the good points make for a perfectly good story, but the way the dialogue is written could have used a bit more spit and polish.  It is written in more of a script form, as opposed to a story form.   It’s just dialogue, with no indication of who the speaker is.  It never gets confusing as to who said what, but the style detracts from the emotion of what the characters say.  Of course, it could be a stylistic choice by the author, although it’s one not seen very often in fiction.

Overall, it’s a likable first effort from a new author.

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson