Monday 10 August 2015

Demon Road

25600032

Book Title: Demon Road
Author: Derek Landy
Series: Demon Road #1
Date Started: August 5th 2015
Date Completed: August 8th 2015
Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Adventure, Action, Thriller
Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars
Final Rating: Five stars
Review:

◆ Thank you so so much to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this eBook copy for review ◆

Coming out of Skulduggery Pleasant, I was terrified that Demon Road just wouldn't be the same; of course I wanted something new and different but Skulduggery meant so much to me that how could anything ever compare to it? And no, Demon Road wasn't Skulduggery. It was it's own wonderful, explosive, hilarious, thrilling and bloody terrifying story. It was utterly fantastic, I enjoyed every minute of it and oh wow. I'm a little lost for words.

I've always said that Derek has too much fun writing - and Demon Road just proved that. You can literally feel his glee through the words and the hilariously over-exaggerated gore. And the typical Derek jokes. And the incredibly sarcastic characters. (I've missed Derek's writing.)
The dialogue is priceless as always. I don't know how he does it but Derek manages to create conversations that can be arrogantly clever one minute, dangerously tense and violent, and then so heartwarming even the characters make fun of it. Whatever atmosphere, I can always actually hear people saying it: it's never so outrageously witty or sarcastic to the point of be unbelievable.

Let's get the negatives out of the way first, shall we? Well, one negative. I couldn't help but see the quite bold parallels to Skulduggery: you've got a younger girl being taken under the wing of an adult with far more experience in a new world hidden within our own. Add in an endearing idiot, a few awesome action scenes and subtle twists on traditional monsters and it's hard to avoid the pattern. However (and that's a big however), I do appreciate that the differences outweigh the similarities. While it's hard not to notice the protagonists falling back into the same circumstances and relationships, as the story goes on you do definitely see them develop into their own characters with their own storyline. That's pretty much my only criticism - and you will not hear me say that often.
Demon Road is definitely more heavy on the supernatural and horror genres than what I'm used to, and though I'm not the biggest fan of either of them Derek manages to make the far-fetched seem real and the terrifying actually come across as creepy. I have to admit I'm not particularly fazed by gore or violence but I'd be lying if I said eerie little dollhouses, moving trees and things that go bump in the night weren't creepy - and they're definitely so when Derek's writing them.
But genre aside, the thing that made me happiest about this book was the female characters. I honestly don't realise how much it means to me until I read a book with diverse portrayals of women; diverse meaning so much variation. Throughout the entire book there are female protagonists and side characters matching the quantities or men, there are female heroes and villains, there are courageous women and cowardly ones, clever and stupid, nice and mean - but there's just so much individuality for every one that it just sticks out compared to a lot of fiction. Not to mention things like gender roles and cat-calling etc actually included in the book: Derek just notices things other people don't and confronts it. That's what fiction's for, isn't it?
The climax of Demon Road was just as good as I expected: we get a solid resolution with quite a bit of excitement on the way, but there are still things left open for the next book. To be honest, though I entirely trust Derek and am sure he's building something up to be completely epic, I'm not really sure it needed to be a trilogy.

Derek's characters are always entertaining, and Demon Road was no exception. Though I have to say I didn't fall in love with them as fast as others, they were still more than I could've asked for to make the story engaging, and their development throughout the five-hundred odd pages was fantastic as always.
I really liked Amber because she wasn't perfect. You often get characters who are odd but naturally talented, or romanticised for their flaws but are ultimately very skilful people. Amber wasn't that: she wasn't the most clever person I've ever read about, and she wasn't fearless or particularly good at handling situations, but that was the point. If Amber was powerful at the start there wouldn't have been anything to compare her development to, and there wouldn't have been a reason for her perilous circumstances.
Milo was also fantastic, and was basically the embodiment of me in the story. Everything I was thinking, he said and the dry humour was familiar from how Skulduggery has influenced my personality (not sure if that's a good thing or not). He was so interesting to read about and just generally a brilliant character.
Glen is a tough one. While I ended up really liking him, and his personality was ultimately endearing, he was exceedingly annoying too. Though, knowing Derek, that's exactly what he wanted.

The conventional episodic structure of the road-trip genre could either make it easier or harder on the reader pacing-wise depending on preferences. I've personally always preferred to get really deep into one setting or character and so found that Demon Road took a little longer than I'd have expected just because I couldn't find my own flow (I have a habit of reading in quite long sittings, but the 'episodes' always felt like a good place to have a break). However if you prefer reading in shorter bursts I can see Demon Road being quicker since the action really keeps you wanting to read, and the down-time between each location is a good place to stop.

I'm so relieved after reading Demon Road, because Derek hasn't changed a bit despite moving away from his last series. I will miss Skulduggery forever, but I'm so excited at the road this trilogy is on (pun not intended). Though it might be a bit more gorey than usual, this book is full to bursting with danger, horror, wit and those heartwarming moments that make you stop and wonder how these characters can be so sweet but violent at the same time.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25600032-demon-road

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