Sci-Fi & Scary

I picked up The Demonic because I’m part of the Horror Aficionados group on Goodreads, and this was one their group reads. In one of my rare tries at being part of a group, I decided to join in and do the read-along. And then I promptly finished the book in a handful of hours and the whole thing felt pointless. But, hey, I tried!

The Demonic got off to a strong start with me. Due to some of Danni’s previous history, there was a ‘nice’ heavy oppressive atmosphere that I could feel weighing down on me. I identified strongly with her and her feelings toward her father. So, fairly early on in the novel, when the first scare happens, I actually jumped. That was a new one for me. All I will say about that is that The Demonic is likened to Insidious for a reason. Good lord.

At first I initially liked how things hit the ground running. This isn’t a book where the creepy starts out small, and then builds up. (Relatively speaking, at least.) Instead, we go almost straight to sightings of bad things, and within thirty six hours, the happening of bad things. While I can’t really stand slow burn novels, I found that I thought The Demonic just moved too fast for me.

One of the things I really appreciated was that there was no dead baby backstory in this book. Though the killing of a few children is briefly relayed when some background into the house is looked into, it’s not an integral part of the story. It would have been nice if it was absent entirely, but upon reading the author’s note in the back, it was completely understandable.

I liked Danni, Leah, and Alex. I appreciated the inclusion of someone with physical disabilities without making them into a ‘poor me’ character to be pitied. John, the husband, was okay, but his domineering style made me twitch.  I do have some conflicting emotions about two of the characters though, considering what happens to them. But, as I’ve ran into lately, it’s not one of those things I can talk about without spoiling stuff.

Overall, it was an entertaining read, and the author definitely has the ability input some mental images that you’ll have trouble getting out of your head. You can tell he’s a fan of horror, and he does his best to bring the paranormal terror through to his readers. My picks with the book are fairly small overall, and I think a lot of people will probably enjoy The Demonic more than I did.