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A review by exlibrismira
The Good Demon by Jimmy Cajoleas
3.0
"Like I said, passing through on a sunny afternoon, you wouldn’t see anything was wrong with this place. You have to live here to know it. You have to have spent your whole life drinking its water and breathing its air, taking all the badness and rottenness into yourself, making it a part of you, before you’d ever know anything was wrong at all."
Okay, I must admit I was a little taken aback by the turn [b:The Good Demon|38945097|The Good Demon|Jimmy Cajoleas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1520205869s/38945097.jpg|60523304] took about halfway through. I'm one of those people who aggressively avoid blurbs (a.k.a. the little treacherous bodies of text that look all innocent but end up giving away half of the plot line in less then five sentences). Up until then, it was a fairly wholesome book. Well, it did have an exorcism and an abusive stepfather orbiting the narrative but it was a journey of saving a friendship and finding new ones along the way. Or at least I thought so. When the book hit the 50-percent point, it was like all hell broke loose and out of sudden it was substantially more interesting. You'd have to be blind not to see certain plot twists coming from a mile off. However, and this is an achievement worth nothing because I feel like I've seen all turns YA books can put on the table, there were some moments that genuinely surprised me - not necessarily the-ending-of-Fight-Club-worthy surprise, but it was there. I don't know, sometimes I wonder if reading too many book changes the way your brain is wired and you end up making all the connections long before the book comes with the big reveal. Perhaps the books I keep picking up are just too obvious. Anyway, if are not yet all that acquainted with this genre, I do think this could provide some thrills.
[b:The Good Demon|38945097|The Good Demon|Jimmy Cajoleas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1520205869s/38945097.jpg|60523304] was a decent effort. Clare wasn't the two dimensional basic bitch character, that's true. The minor characters were done well enough. Unfortunately, there's a but. The one character that had the most room to grow and expand and morph, was the character that was the least believable. Roy is a sheltered Christian boy, son of the preacher, with innocence forced onto him but with a little bit of a rebel heart deep down, that much is clear. And, in all seriousness, there probably couldn't have been a better choice for the romantic interest. As good as it sounds, he felt more like a 13-year-old kid than a guy in his late teens. At first, I regarded as a character trait that would gradually dissipate as the story progressed and Clare's influence would take root. It didn't. And it was annoying. Roy was just a mere pawn in the story which is the biggest regret I have with [b:The Good Demon|38945097|The Good Demon|Jimmy Cajoleas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1520205869s/38945097.jpg|60523304]. I demand one more minute of silence for the wasted opportunities.
If someone asked me to name a book similar to this, I supposed I'd hand over [b:Anna Dressed in Blood|9378297|Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna, #1)|Kendare Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398637405s/9378297.jpg|14261925] and [b:The Price Guide to the Occult|35879387|The Price Guide to the Occult|Leslye Walton|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1516995207s/35879387.jpg|57396159]. I'd liken them to each other the same way I'd liken Lucifer to Supernatural. They are just that kind of books - they the same feel to them. And I undeniably like that kind of books. For some reason, I'm always lured in by the promise of something dark and twisted that takes a long time to uncoil but once it does, it's goosebump-inducing. I enjoy the buildup.
[b:The Good Demon|38945097|The Good Demon|Jimmy Cajoleas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1520205869s/38945097.jpg|60523304] does seem like a 4-star read as I'm rereading this review. But something's irking me about it and I can't shake it off. I simply can't bring myself to mark the rating up so I'm keeping it at the middle ground of a three. Just know that it's the better kind of three, the kind that's almost a four but not quite. The Halloween season is round the corner, spooks are in the air - I'd say go for it. Oh, and it has illustrations! Sparse but nice ones. I liked that touch.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: attempted rape, abusive stepfather, drug abuse, overdose, animal sacrifices, gore (all sort of minor, but I thought you should know)
Okay, I must admit I was a little taken aback by the turn [b:The Good Demon|38945097|The Good Demon|Jimmy Cajoleas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1520205869s/38945097.jpg|60523304] took about halfway through. I'm one of those people who aggressively avoid blurbs (a.k.a. the little treacherous bodies of text that look all innocent but end up giving away half of the plot line in less then five sentences). Up until then, it was a fairly wholesome book. Well, it did have an exorcism and an abusive stepfather orbiting the narrative but it was a journey of saving a friendship and finding new ones along the way. Or at least I thought so. When the book hit the 50-percent point, it was like all hell broke loose and out of sudden it was substantially more interesting. You'd have to be blind not to see certain plot twists coming from a mile off. However, and this is an achievement worth nothing because I feel like I've seen all turns YA books can put on the table, there were some moments that genuinely surprised me - not necessarily the-ending-of-Fight-Club-worthy surprise, but it was there. I don't know, sometimes I wonder if reading too many book changes the way your brain is wired and you end up making all the connections long before the book comes with the big reveal. Perhaps the books I keep picking up are just too obvious. Anyway, if are not yet all that acquainted with this genre, I do think this could provide some thrills.
[b:The Good Demon|38945097|The Good Demon|Jimmy Cajoleas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1520205869s/38945097.jpg|60523304] was a decent effort. Clare wasn't the two dimensional basic bitch character, that's true. The minor characters were done well enough. Unfortunately, there's a but. The one character that had the most room to grow and expand and morph, was the character that was the least believable. Roy is a sheltered Christian boy, son of the preacher, with innocence forced onto him but with a little bit of a rebel heart deep down, that much is clear. And, in all seriousness, there probably couldn't have been a better choice for the romantic interest. As good as it sounds, he felt more like a 13-year-old kid than a guy in his late teens. At first, I regarded as a character trait that would gradually dissipate as the story progressed and Clare's influence would take root. It didn't. And it was annoying. Roy was just a mere pawn in the story which is the biggest regret I have with [b:The Good Demon|38945097|The Good Demon|Jimmy Cajoleas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1520205869s/38945097.jpg|60523304]. I demand one more minute of silence for the wasted opportunities.
Spoiler
Also, please tell me since when is having sex with the preachers son a reason to send someone to a mental institution for insanity? Just... C'mon.If someone asked me to name a book similar to this, I supposed I'd hand over [b:Anna Dressed in Blood|9378297|Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna, #1)|Kendare Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398637405s/9378297.jpg|14261925] and [b:The Price Guide to the Occult|35879387|The Price Guide to the Occult|Leslye Walton|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1516995207s/35879387.jpg|57396159]. I'd liken them to each other the same way I'd liken Lucifer to Supernatural. They are just that kind of books - they the same feel to them. And I undeniably like that kind of books. For some reason, I'm always lured in by the promise of something dark and twisted that takes a long time to uncoil but once it does, it's goosebump-inducing. I enjoy the buildup.
[b:The Good Demon|38945097|The Good Demon|Jimmy Cajoleas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1520205869s/38945097.jpg|60523304] does seem like a 4-star read as I'm rereading this review. But something's irking me about it and I can't shake it off. I simply can't bring myself to mark the rating up so I'm keeping it at the middle ground of a three. Just know that it's the better kind of three, the kind that's almost a four but not quite. The Halloween season is round the corner, spooks are in the air - I'd say go for it. Oh, and it has illustrations! Sparse but nice ones. I liked that touch.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: attempted rape, abusive stepfather, drug abuse, overdose, animal sacrifices, gore (all sort of minor, but I thought you should know)