The Demon by Victory Witherkeigh REVIEW

Summary:

The Demon is now in full possession of the Girl's body, and she is starting her journey in Berkeley, California. She should be thrilled and ecstatic - the plan worked!

Except she doesn't remember the plan. The Demon has memories of the Girl's life and vague impressions of a deal made with the Filipino warrior LapuLapu. She reconnects with her former master, Death, and discovers that her bargain went against his will.

Death's punishment is beyond her comprehension - enduring the cruelties of morality and leaving her imprisoned in the former Girl's university life. Life experiences, toxic friendships, emotional and physical attachments, and finally, heartbreak prove sadistic even for a Demon.

Can a demon have an identity crisis? What happens when the Demon shows more independence of thought and understanding of the cycle of dependency?

Death isn't the only one waiting to find out . . .

My Thoughts:

The idea of a demon losing her memories once she possesses a human body is a very intriguing thought, and it is explored pretty well, as we follow the demon going through mundane human experiences and get bits and pieces of her memory back at a time. The memories and flashbacks are arguably the best parts of the book, as we see a glimpse of who the demon was and what her life was like before possessing the Girl's body. Instead of food, the demon feeds on portions of a person's lifetime, which is also a cool concept. Normally demons are portrayed to have to feed on souls. 

The characters are very well developed, even the side characters that the demon interacts with. The Girl's family is pretty despicable, but the demon loves her grandmother, who is the only decent family member. The students on the university campus that the demon is around are either likable or unbearable, which is very true in real life as well.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this, and I do hope that there is another book coming out, as the ending does not seem like an ending.

My Rating: 4 stars

The Girl by Victory Witherkeigh REVIEW

 Summary:

The parents knew it had been a mistake to have a girl. At birth, the girl's long, elegant fingers wriggled and grasped forward, motioning to strangle the very air from her mother's lungs. As she grew older, she grew more like her father, whose ancestors would dream of those soon to die. She walked and talked in her sleep, and her parents warded themselves, telling the girl that she was evil, unlovable, their burden to bear only until her eighteenth birthday released them.

The average person on the streets of Los Angeles would look at the girl and see a young woman with dark chocolate eyes, curly long hair, and the tanned skin of her Filipina heritage. Her teachers praised her scholarly achievements and extracurricular activities, from academic decathlon to cheer.

The girl knew she was different, especially as she grew to accept that the other children's parents didn't despise them. Her parents whispered about their pact as odd and disturbing occurrences continued to happen around her. The girl thought being an evil demon should require the skies to bleed, the ground to tremble, an animal sacrifice to seal the bargain, or at least cause some general mayhem. Did other demons work so hard to find friends, do well on their homework, and protect their spoiled younger brother?

The demon was patient. It could afford to wait, to remind the girl when she was hurt that power was hers to take. She needed only to embrace it. It could wait. The girl's parents were doing much of its work already.

My Thoughts:

I fell in LOVE with this book. The writing was captivating and beautiful, and I wanted so badly to finish it in one sitting (but I'm a college student, so that didn't happen). 

The girl (whose name is never revealed) have parents who have hated her since she was born, and constantly remind her of it, verbally abusing her at every opportunity (basically, all the time). The novel shows the girl growing up until college age. She constantly wishes that her parents loved her, and that they would give her as much love as they did to her baby brother. The girl ends up trying hard at school, and the teachers praised her, but the reason was she hoped that her parents would acknowledge her as a human being. Of course, this doesn't happen. Her parents neglect her, and so her middle and high school years were a living hell. The girl's love life was awful, because all she wanted was to be seen and loved, making her a target for boys who want to take advantage of her. 

The demon/fantasy element of the novel is very small compared to the girl's normal life. The summary hypes up this element, but spends very little time on it. One ability that is mentioned is the one that the girl can see premonitions of those close to death, but it seems to have forgotten this plot point for most of the book. The demon is also barely in this novel, making me hope that the author will write a sequel.

I loved this read, but I also can't ignore the problem that, for a book that promises a constant presence of a demon, it is so small compared to the rest of the novel. However, since it was so good, I do recommend it. I would warn that the fantasy elements are far and few in between though.

My Rating: 4 stars