Customer Reviews

Demon Chick

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book has an interesting premise that wasn't executed very well. Jessica's backstory depicts her as such a nonentity that I'm not even sure why it's given. We are told that she has basically spent the past 16 years moving from school to school; she's been cared for by nannies and assistants; she has no friends, no family except the mother who completely ignores her, and spends all her time alone, and yet somehow she's basically a regular, if slightly nerdy, girl, who is suddenly dealing fairly well with being sold to the devil. Learning who Jessica is (or trying to), I just felt like the author was as uninterested in her as Jessica's mother is. All the characters felt flat to me. Jordan is the most interesting, but when his passion for doing good leads him into morally ambiguous territory, the issue is quickly dropped, as the story rushes to an end. I wasn't looking for anything heavy or deeply meaningful from this book, but then why present such a situation where those kinds of questions are raised? Occasionally the dialogue included a clanker like a teen saying: "I'm frightened." When have you ever heard a real teen use that kind of language? And in several spots the writer uses Jessica's lack of experience as a writer (the framing is that Jessica is writing her story) to sneak in a cliche or two, saying, I know this is a cliche, but... It felt like a cheat. Finally, when the story is nearing the end, and Jessica feels compelled to tell all to Jordan, he believes her incredible story almost immediately, and for no good reason that I can see. "Yeah, I've been sold to the devil by my mother." "Oh, really? Okay." The story is a quick read. Jessica and Brad's relationship is often sweet (though soured somewhat by her tryst with Jordan). The author's vision of Hell as the land of mediocrity is amusing, and her poke at the French was funny (seeing as how she lives in Paris). It just felt like this could have been so much more.

Jessica is a young lady with liberal leanings, and her mother is a right wing political figure who is poised to become the first female president of the United States. They aren't close, they barely know each other.
Much to Jessica's surprise, she finds out on her 16th birthday that her mother's rise to power was facilitated by a deal with the devil. Her mother traded her first born daughter for power.
Good thing though, she winds up with a very nice demon named Brad in one of Hell's better neighborhoods. While she's there, she finds out her mother's actual plans for the world after she comes to power.
Those plans are the satire in the book. It is just believable a political candidate for president could have plans like this to take over the world and change what the US is and be able to pull it off.
Brad helps her get back to earth to stop her mother, now she just has to figure out how.
The ending of the book was a bit rushed, but that was okay because it had some unexpected twists in it that I enjoyed.
Recommend for mature 14 yo or older. There is some adult language and adult subject manner, but it's nicely handled. I plan to discuss it with my daughter after she reads it.

I'm afraid this book is not up to par with the others I've read. I feel the characters are not very strong and for the most part the plot was predictable. The overall outcome of the antogonist was surprising but it took 180 pages to get to that, and then it was the only surprise in the book. I think the author rushed the story and it could have been way better considering the interesting concept.

Plot Summary:
Evil Mother sells daighters soul to the devil so become major political icon. Daughter happens to get a nice demon master, who lets her return to earth to stop said evil mother. If i say any more the story would be ruined. sorry.

Jessica is a smart, lonely, awkward almost-16-year-old. Her power hungry mother, Senator Hunsucker, has her eyes set on the presidency and is so uninvolved with her daughter that she has various assistants buy Jessica's birthday presents and sign the cards for her. Hopeful that her 16th birthday will bring a welcome change to her life and perhaps find her forging something of a relationship with her distant mother, Jessica arrives at her mother's home only to find herself being kidnapped by a mysterious figure in the night. Brad is the young demon who comes to earth to collect her and take her to Hell. Jessica learns from Brad that her mother sold her to Satan in exchange for power, and now Jessica finally finds out what her mother's plans for world domination truly involve.

What's not to love about a book like this? It's a coming of age story. It's a light Young Adult story with a bit of romance, a good dose of sarcasm, and a touch of the paranormal.

And yet, the story falls flat. Brad describes Hell as being boring - it's a suburbia of generic strip malls and bad fast food, no books, and no entertainment. That's sort of how I felt about this book - there's nothing especially horrible about it, but it also didn't rise much above mediocrity either. The premise is fantastic, and I jumped at the chance to read the book based on the cover blurb, but the characters go mostly undeveloped and everything wraps up rather quickly and in a way that doesn't really make much sense. Jessica is easily able to side step many of the "rules" of Hell (as told to her by Brad), and once she's back on earth, she has almost no problem surviving, finding her way back to part of her old life, and getting people to buy into the whole "my mom sold me to the devil" plot. It's almost as if the entire book were written just to establish a basis for future books in the series. Will I read the next one? Possibly. A premise like this has the potential for a fun, interesting series; Demon Chick did not accomplish that.

Jessica Hunsucker normally keeps to herself. Moving around a lot, she finds it easier to not make friends, and with her mother's political position and a long deceased father, she hardly gets any family time either. But her world is about to get a whole lot crazier now that her mother's on the campaign trail for the presidency. Whatever warm and fuzzy feelings Jessica ever had for her mother go straight out the door when she discovers what her mother has done--Margaret Hunsucker, aspiring presidential candidate, sold her firstborn daughter to the devil for political power. That's why Jessica finds herself in an atrociously decorated suburban-style house the day after her sixteenth birthday. She's in hell, literally, and apparently, she belongs to a demon named Brad now. It's not much of a comfort to her that Brad is a pretty decent guy and that her new home is in one of hell's nicer neighborhoods. And it's even scarier when Jessica finds out the reality of her mother's evil plans for not only the country, but the entire world. How in hell will Jessica find a way to stop her mother in time?

Demon Chick has such a unique and interesting premise for a novel, and for the most part, the story is that too. I'm fascinated by novels involving anything to do with the afterlife, so Kaye's version of hell was a major selling point for me. In this novel, hell comes close to resembling a modern nation or even a business with its hierarchy of leadership and system for attracting new residents. Aside from the fact that most of hell's residents are dead, Jessica's new neighborhood would not be too out of place in the real world. I absolutely love how Kaye mixes myth with fact and fantasy with science. Character development was generally satisfactory, especially when it came to Jessica and Brad, but Jessica's mom was completely unrealistic. Margaret Hunsucker is portrayed as a modern-day, far right almost beyond fascist, female Hitler. I suppose it's possible for people to turn out that way, but I would've appreciated some background as to why Jessica's mother would be motivated to act and think as she did. For me, the ending to this story was a little bizarre. I'm not sure I could think of an alternate to the events that did occur, but the novel would've been much better had the ending been a little longer. Overall, Demon Chick is an original and enjoyable novel that really goes to say, nothing is ever fair.

Demon Chick will be enjoyed by readers who also liked Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins, Devilish by Maureen Johnson, and Gorgeous by Rachel Vail.

That's the best part of the book right there -- When Jessica's mother sells her only daughter to the Devil for a chance to become the first woman president, the hapless girl is passed off to a demon named Brad, who takes her to live in one of the better neighborhoods of hell. There are some really clever moments in this unusual book, and some parts of it made me laugh out loud. Hell is not what Jessica expected it to be, and while not exactly fun, there's no fire and brimstone. Hey, they even have a McDonalds.

It's when Jessica returns to earth to try and foil her mother's evil plans that I felt the book took a less than great turn. And the ultimate climax has several disturbing aspects about it that I can't discuss without giving too much away. Still, the book was entertaining and a quick summer read, and I found myself rooting for Jessica to make the right ... er, maybe the wrong choice when she has to choose between two romantic interests.

4 stars for teen readers, 3 stars for adult readers.

Initially I was surprisingly excited by the book, as the first few chapters gave me the impression that the book would be heavy on intrigue and plot. The primary character, Jessica, is the daughter of a high ranking politico who is poised to possibly become the next president. The mother has a huge, almost unnatural following. Jessica believes she's returning home (a relative term, as she's pretty much grown up in various boarding schools, shuffled around as it best suits her mothers political pursuits) to celebrate her 16th birthday with her mom. However, as it turns out, the purpose for the visit home is not what it seems.

Apparently at birth Jessica's mother sold her to the devil in exchange for Power, which has been the cause of her meteoric rise in the political arena. As Hell doesn't take squalling babies or kids, Girls are not "picked up" until 16 & boys at 18, so on the day of her 16th birthday the event takes place. Her mother uses the event to stage a supposed kidnapping and "murder" of her daughter to further her political aspirations; meanwhile Jessica experiences a new lifestyle in Hell as she is given to a Demon, Jason, to be his mate. All sounds pretty interesting, right?

Well this next part of the book was as dull as the description of the neighborhoods and lifestyle in Hell, and my mind began to wander. I believe the focus was supposedly on the budding relationship between Jason and Jessica, but it was slow moving and I became very concerned whether or not the remainder of the book could hold my interest.

After several weeks in Hell, Jessica has the opportunity to return to Earth & assuming the identity of a long lost friend of the murdered daughter, she hopes to thwart her mom's diabolic plan to "take over the world". Through this she meets up with an anti-hunsucker group (Hunsucker is the last name of her and her politico mother) and ends up becoming intimately involved with their leader, who is very charismatic and has a following of kids who are in awe of him. He convinces her to use her connections to set up a meeting, which results in a quite unexpected outcome, creating extreme guilt and I believe a disenchantment with the previously idolized, charismatic leader. (and for those deeper thinkers, it also raises the question of what is truly good or evil, and can that which is considered bad be justified if it is a means to and end that would be considered good?)

At this point the Demon Jason comes to her and offers her the choice of release to stay on Earth, as he is aware of her intimate relationship with the charismatic leader. She makes her choice and the book gives a brief epilogue to quell the curiosity of those who always want to know what happens after the end.

All-in-all I wouldn't recommend this to my adult friends. However, I believe it is considered within the young adult genre, and likely those in their mid to late teens would find it an easy, quick and entertaining read.

To me the positives, much like Urban Fantasy, which is one of my favorite genres, is that the book deals with subjects and individuals which often provoke fear in individuals (hell, demons, etc.) yet, when reading about them in such a context as this it removes this fear, which I consider a good thing. Additionally, it blurs the lines of good and bad, leaving much gray area - which I believe is a much more realistic viewpoint in general.

So, to the mid to late teens out there: Nice, quick easy summer reading.
To adults: you may want to pass this up for something with a bit more character building, more semi-realistic relationship development and just more "meat" to it in general. Kim Harrison is a great author in that genre for those seeking such a read.

I know that I am not the target demographic for this book, but it looked kind of cute on the list of books for review for Vine Reviewers, so I thought I would give it a try. And, indeed, it has some cute quips and a consistently portrayed voice of its own, but the more I think about it, the more I can't figure out who the demographic really is for this book. I guess it is meant for YA females, but librarians and moms won't like the casual references to sex at 15 and 16 without any concern for protection or consequences, nor the quite unnecessary language that is tossed in a few times. And the two major plots--about finding companionship in hell to be better than life on earth and about thwarting a right-wing politico (the bad guys are always right-wing--no one worries about left-wing wackos) from destroying the world is at once too political to be interesting to those who don't care about elections and government and too poorly done as politics (would anyone really give up a U.S. Senate seat to become at Lt. Governor?) to be appealing to those who do care about such things. There's also not really that much romance and there is almost no suspense whatsoever. Everything our heroine tries works, so not really that much adversity is overcome. Lightweight and forgettable.

Demon Chick definitely had a very clever and pretty original premise. A female presidential candidate sold her daughter to the devil for power? Don't come by that every day! And while it was rather clever and took some good jabs at society here and there it was a little bit off for me.

I liked the character of Jessica but found it strange how drastically she would be willing to change her appearance at a moments notice just because someone told her it was ok, that just never made sense to me. (From kind of plain nerdy girl to who you see on the cover) I also liked Brad the demon in hell that Jessica is assigned to be the mate of. He was really sweet to Jessica and never tried to press her on any issues and was very welcoming trying to find things she would like to do or that reminded her of home. But again, a 16 year old girl being a demon's mate and lover. Not really sure about that. That never really comes to play in the book but it was still odd to me.

When Jessica and Brad find out her mother's evil plan (via television which basically lets you spy on people on earth) for the world they decide Jessica should go back and try and do something about it. She gets back via some loop hole very easily and joins up with some protesters near her old school, one who she had briefly encountered before she had departed for hell, and oh yeah he happens to be really cute. So it's got a bit of a love triangle going on, which is never a bad thing.

So as you can see I had some problems with the book but was still able to have fun with it. Definitely an interesting premise with a clever look at hell that was also lacking in a few areas.

The premise for the story is intriguing: That the main character's mother has sold her to the devil, and that hell is a boring suburb where food is blah, the only television programming is spying on the living, and the stores only carry things that no one wants.

I found the main character, Jessica, to be a likeable young lady, very resourceful and intelligent. As she struggles with her mother's betrayal and her new situation, she befriends the demon she's been given to (Brad) and they come up with a way for Jessica to stop her mother and her evil agenda. Things turn out differently than Jess has expected; but the end is rather fitting, if a bit glib.

Overall, the bad guys are wholly bad (the scenario mommy dearest describes in her 'action plan' memo is rather reminiscent of Hitler, after all) and the good guys are very forgiving, sweet and understanding. So the story is laid out in a fairly black and white style that may seem a bit too glib for some readers. However, I found the story works nicely, makes sense, and the events that happen make sense for this world and these characters.

This is a bit darker than many YA books, but it's still fairly light hearted and enjoyable. I would think that someone who enjoyed The Negotiator series (by the author of The Princess Diaries) or similar books would enjoy this one.