Demon High by Lori Devoti (Review by kiwigirlreads)

Demon High Plot Overview:

There are demons attending Caldera High!

How does Lucinda Dent know?

Because she’s the one who called them and accidentally set them loose.......

Lucinda knew it was a bad idea to call demons - her Mom disappeared ten years ago after dabbling in demon calling for too long.  She’s seen what it can do, but with the bank about to foreclose on the only home she’s ever know, Lucinda needs to find some quick cash.
 
She and the local ‘acquisitions expert’ at her school work out a way to make some money putting on a ‘unique’ show for those who can pay.  When it all goes horribly wrong Lucinda finds herself in way over her head. 

Now Lucinda needs to find a way to clean up the mess she’s made, before she loses her heart, her soul, her life, or all of the above.

What I thought:

I think that Demon High was a decent enough book, I had a few issues with it but I liked the story well enough.  I did think the name let it down a bit, Demon High just makes it seem like it would be a much lighter kind of book where it is in fact in the dark paranormal spectrum. It is of course Young Adult, the characters are in high school as the name suggests.  I think that it’s one that still reads as a teenage book (albeit one with mature themes and language) but as an adult I still enjoyed it.

I have seen two cover art pictures for this book, I read it as an eBook and I have to say that the cover art on this edition was a much better reflection on the story.  The cover art with the girl with the long hair and white dress along with the name set quite a different tone.  I have used the cover art from the eBook edition that I read in this post, I think it might be a later one, and like I said it is much more appropriate.

I have been trying to figure out just what it was that made this book not as enjoyable as others I have read.  It was a combination of a few things which I will outline below but I do want to note that I did think it had some good qualities and I would not be reviewing it here if I did not think it was worth reading.

First off it was a bit slow starting, and then even once the demons were called and let loose it was all a bit underwhelming.  I felt that it did not really get interesting until they were finally tracking down the bad guy.  For me that part was the best, it was where the characters really shone and I began to get into the book.  In the beginning there was a lot of new information dropped that was not accompanied by much of an explanation.  I know that it’s hard to find a balance and the beginning was slow enough to start off with but some things need to be set up when introducing a new world – we need to know the lingo and the parameters.

Secondly Lucinda, I did not connect with her as a main character, she just seemed a little flat and lacking depth to me. I never ‘got’ how she fell in love like she was supposed to be, it was just never explained enough for me to really feel it.  On the other hand I really liked the character of Brittany; she was tough and I thought she was fresh and funny. I liked that she was a bit on the shady side which seemed incongruous with her perky popular girl personality.

I saw that on other reviews a lot of people did not like the ending; I had no issues with it.  I think that a lot of people reading may be too caught up in happy endings. I liked that this played out more ‘realistically’ if I can use that term when talking about paranormal fantasy.  Of course you have to suspend disbelief for most of the storyline but the human elements and plot continuity still need to work.  The world that was created by the author told us demons were bad news, if it had ended all happy fluffy bunnies I would have been disappointed.

Final Comments and Overall Rating:

Overall I liked the story, it was compelling and dark. I would certainly give another book in the series a chance just to see where it goes and perhaps it will improve on the aspects I did not find as appealing.

Rating: ☆☆☆