Paul McAvoy
Genre(s): Paranormal, Supernatural
Published: August 9th 2014
Pages: 190
Rating: 3 stars
“In a small English town, the residents stay clear of a rundown house they call Spook House. Things have happened there, bad things the locals never talk about. Young Ben sees a girl in the garden of the house one day... a girl who says she is trapped... a girl no-one else can see but him. Concerned, his parents forbid him to go near the place. The girl appears once a year, for the next six years, never ageing. She is held there against her will by a power greater than anyone could imagine... Can Ben help set the girl free from the clutches of Spook House?”
A copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review
I have no trouble in admitting that paranormal and supernatural are not some of my favourite genres. I've read a good amount of both, and I've found a few hits amongst the many misses. So... I Met a Demon falls in with the hits.
The beginning held a bit of mystery, which I liked. It made me want to find out who the narrator was and what they were talking about. I found that the sentences were a bit choppy at times, but overall I enjoyed the descriptions and could put any disjointedness down to the early chapters setting the scene. And perhaps a need for more punctuation (I'm no grammar expert, but some of the pauses were in the wrong place for me, and sometimes I paused naturally where there was no punctuation). The dialogue felt a bit forced and too formal, considering the main character was only young at the start of the story, but not much time was wasted in jumping into the main plot, and I liked that. I don't need to hand around for a million chapters and countless descriptions before actually being introduced to the titular subject.
I thought it was interesting that the main character was so young (and a boy, there are so few male protagonists in the supernatural and paranormal genres). The only books with young main characters that I've read have been children'r or middle grade books. it was nice to read an adult - young adult? I'm not sure - book with a main character under the age of sixteen. I found it made things a little less contrived and I was very interested to see how someone so young and seemingly average would deal with a demon, as it's no secret how dangerous and tricksy demons can be.
The writing did remain simplistic throughout the book, making it a quick and easy read that didn't require a lot of thought to get into. However, the dialogue also remained quite forced and formal, and that was the thing that I had the most trouble with. It could have been greatly improved by simply using contractions more often. Don't reads much smoother than do not, and also feels a lot more natural, too.
Overall, thought, I did like So... I Met a Demon. I feel that with a bit of fine tuning it has the potential to be even better, but as it stands, it was a quick read that I don't regret.
Paul McAvoy and his work can be found at...
Website
Amazon US
Amazon UK
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