Customer Reviews

Demon Theory

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

 

 

If Stephen Graham Jones' wickedly clever "Demon Theory" were to ever be made into an actual film, the witty tagline might go something like this: "Someone has taken his love of MLA too far." Culled from the fictional case notes of the fictional Dr. Neider at the equally imaginary Owl Creek Mental Facilities, "Demon Theory" is presented as a three-part novelization of the movie trilogy "The Devil Inside", based on the (you guessed it) fictional best-selling novel inspired by said notes. Part literary film treatment, part pop culture lexicon, "Demon Theory" tells a triptych of interconnected stories (imagined here as sequels) concerning a group of Midwestern med school pals and their encounters with the nasty titular creatures. Imagine throwing "Jeepers Creepers", the "Scream" films, TV's "Grey's Anatomy", and Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" into a blender and mixing on high.

In part one, or Demon Theory 16, Hale, Nona, Con, and gang leave the trick-or-treat festivities of a Halloween party behind when Hale's diabetic mother calls with a medical emergency. Faster than you can utter the words trapped-at-an-isolated-country-house-in-a-snowstorm, these future doctors of America find themselves slasher fodder for a demon with an axe to grind (or in this case, garden shears). Part two, or Demon Theory 17, finds much of the gang, in one (re)incarnation or another, reunited in a hospital at Christmastime in a breathless, action-packed "Aliens" meets "Halloween II" roller coaster ride of gory entrails and acidic demon blood. Finally, in the third and final Demon Theory 18, several of the battle-weary characters return to the scene of the crime in order to figure the whole existential mess out. The layers of narrative unfurl at just the right moments throughout when the reader's mind has been gloriously stretched to its outer limits keeping track of this richly plotted tale.

Using liberal doses of footnotes as the literary equivalent of pop-up videos, Jones creates a blood-soaked textbook of pop culture reference and epitomized post-modernism with "Demon Theory". He fashions a unique literary hybrid - part novel, part reference book - and seemingly satirizes the post-"Scream" self-awareness of the horror genre while lovingly chronicling it down to its last obscure nuance one footnoted annotation at a time. But in between the definition of retroactive continuity, Clive Barker quotes, deliberations of who rightfully deserves the first scream queen title, and the etymology of the word bumf*ck, Jones powers through a gripping narrative rich with convincing dialogue, atmospheric suspense, and an ample gore quotient.

Lazy readers beware; "Demon Theory" is the anti-beach read. Jones challenges with an intricate read, at times frustrating and distracting until readers hit their stride shifting from footnote to narrative and back again against the backdrop of screenplay jargon. Although Jones offers no easy mass-market thrill rides here, the payoffs are well worth the workout of little gray cells. The ingenuity of "Demon Theory" is the true marvel at work here, presenting as the intellectual literary cousin of Wes Craven's "Scream" trilogy. This cerebral terror trip is made even more so by Jones' staunch refusal to lay his cards out on the table as to whether "Demon Theory" is an application of intellectualism to the horror genre or tongue-in-cheek boyhood homage to a genre he clearly loves. No, he's far too skilled a writer for that, his "Demon Theory" far too superior a novel.

Review originally published at Horrorwatch.com

On Halloween night a med student named Hale gets a disturbing call from his mother. He heads out to the old farmhouse with a group of his fellow students to render aid. When they arrive there is no sign of Hale's mom but something is there waiting to pick them off one by one. Stranded because of a snow storm they must try to stay alive until morning while figuring out just what the hell is snatching them up.

Demon Theory is hands-down amazing, brilliant even. Easily one of the best books I've read in ages. I haven't stopped thinking about it since I finished. I must warn you, if you're into spoon-fed horror with predictable outcomes and characters then don't read this book. I'm not going to say I'm an intellectual but I am well read and I had to focus all my attention into the story. Hell I may not even be smart enough to write this review with the acclaim it deserves.

Stephen Graham Jones' Demon Theory is essentially the novelization of a horror movie trilogy written as a literary film treatment based on the notes of the fictitious Dr. Neider complete with footnotes. Ahhh the footnotes. Footnotes of not just horror trivia but info on hair bands, comic books and TV shows (Manimal!) as well. I thought I knew a lot of pop culture but Dr. Jones left me in the dust. I have to say however that the footnotes, while fascinating, kept drawing me out of the story. I'd recommend reading the story with the footnotes, then rereading the story alone. I'd actually like to see a small companion book with just the footnotes, they were that interesting. For example, where else can you read facts that start at THE GATE and end at APOCALYPSE NOW?

Among all the talk of literature and footnotes and writing styles some of you may be wondering the most important question. Is it scary? The answer to that my friends is a resounding Hell yes! With gargoyle-like demons, the undead, moody atmosphere, chilling encounters, and blood, guts, and body parts flying this book delivers enough terror to satisfy any horror fan and it never lets up. Read it!

Take every slasher horror convention you've ever seen on screen and deconstruct it on the page, with characters who are somewhat aware that they are part of the genre. The book is at once familiar and wholly original. It's sort of the literary equivalent of "Scream" (when it first came out and everyone was excited, anyway). Told as a trilogy, each "part" actually reads like a movie sequel (except that the third part is the best of the three). At first I thought some of the dialogue was a bit stale, but it's totally in service to the genre, and the archetypes become funny over time. Jones has a great gift for description, and you'll find yourself reading some passages a second time just to savor it.

Not many complaints. The footnotes can be a little distracting if you let them, which I didn't. I read some and skipped many, as I grew up with all the same pop culture and understood the references. I recommend reading each of the three sections of this book without putting it down for too long, as it can be a little hard to keep track of time and place in spots. The characters are all introduced at once, so at first it's difficult to keep them distinct in your mind until we learn more about them. I would've prefered more gradual introductions.

If you're looking for a fresh take on horror, and especially if you grew up in the 80s, this is for you.

---- int. of reviewers apt. closeup of his fingers on his laptop feverishly typing, then cam pans out to include his face almost panting over excitement at finishing Demon Theory.

The Editorial review and other Amazon reviewers have summed up the plot more than adequately so the cam focuses on me in f.g. typing instead purely my opinion as opposed to another summary. My only comments on the plot will be to say this book can be found in the horror section of bookstores. Elements are definiitely horrific. Also Stephen Graham Jones's novel is one of the scariest I have read lately. However his writing transcends the genre. It is a novel "based on a movie based on a book". Cultural refereces both pop and more ambiguous flow through the pages. Movie and other books are mentioned and then endnoted. As another pointed out this could and did make it a little disjointed at first. However I soon adapted and appreciate the research that went into this book. Even if as much of the said research was in a theatre than in a library it is still deeply done and therefore it enlightens as it entertains.

The whole adaptation also threw me at first as I was not uised to a narrative style that read more like a screenplay than a novel. Again I adapted and soon appreciated Jone's prose. His style gave new meaning to the maxim show don't tell as reading Demon Theory I found it easy to imagine the scenes as they were described.

It is hard to truly review this tale element by element as it is so original and well written I would need my own endnotes to truly do it justice. Suffice it to say I found it an amazingly enjoyable, gripping read. Bottom line as I said this is usually found in horror section and although it contains graphic material it really is just a really great novel that happens to be scary. Even if you are not a horror fan I can see anyone who likes a good story really praising this book.

I bought this book on my Kindle and am ready to scream with frustration because I can't access the footnotes without doing a search for the number of the footnote, then pressing the back button to get back to my page. It gets even more fun when the footnotes hit double digits, as the poor spacing means even a search won't pull them up. The footnotes are a big part of the fun, so although the book itself is fun and fast moving, constantly stopping to read the footnotes means slogging back and forth through the Kindle menu and search functions. It would be far better to have a hard copy of the book and keep a finger in the footnotes.... I think I'm really going to like this book, if I can only persevere.

I see a lot of people posting negative reviews say that they had trouble making it through the book, or gave up early in.

This book is one of my favorites.

Yes, it reads almost like the script for a trilogy of horror movies. I can understand having some trouble with that. If you can read it though- Stick with it.

It's hard to explain my love for this book without spoiling it. I'm trying the best i can.

The novel introduces itself as 'the novelization of the feature film trilogy, The Devil Inside- as adapted from the best seller D, inspired by the case notes of Dr. Neider as recorded and published in the journal P/Q as "Narrative, Me-dia, and Allocution: Genre as a Mnemonic Device"'

I bring this up because as you read, you understand the relevancy of this. There is a lot more going on here then just a set of slasher/monster movies. Even the footnotes- which yes, are a bit distracting (the very first time I read it, i just skimmed a lot of them, other then the ones you see at the beginning). It doesn't hurt your enjoyment of it too much- but at the end of the novel, you understand them a lot more.

If you can read the unusual style that Demon Theory is written in, I highly recommend pushing through to the end even if you aren't enjoying it. At the very least, you will understand the story the author was trying to tell.

Some of the othr reviews say that there is no character development and I would just like to point out that the author is trying to create a horror movies setting, and that is one of the biggest part of a slasher film. Also th eplot line is easy to follow. I`m 14 and I maged it. Also one review said that they were never taking Amazons suggestions again becasue of this book. Let m epoint out that Craig Clevenger and Steven Jones have the same publisher! I know Craig Clevenger and I'm pretty sure he has read this book and liked it. If you like this book or even if you dont you will like Kiss Me Judas by Christopher Baer. Get it.

I really hate to be this harsh about a book, but I could barely make it halfway through this book (that is, about midway through the prequel story) before finally giving up because I just didn't care about any of it -- the characters or the plot.

Fitting a movie trilogy into a single book is difficult, especially for a slasher series. There's too little time to differentiate the characters, much less come to care about them. The characters themselves even point out how unlikable each other are.

This book is a prime example of how not to use footnotes. The author uses them to point out his pop-culture references, which make the text feel dated instead of being funny or even just enlightening. Contrasted against House of Leaves, the footnotes in Demon Theory were a big letdown and an even bigger distraction.

To be fair, the "camera angles" used in the descriptions are interesting but ultimately wasn't enough to salvage my interest. There's nothing here that you can't get from a decent -- even below-average -- slasher flick.

This book was a recommendation from Amazon. I was intrigued because I'm a huge Chuck Palahniuk fan, and also a big fan of the movie Scream, which the book claims to be like.

The footnotes are a MAJOR distraction. I did not enjoy having to flip to the back to find out what a particular abbreviation meant.

Unless you enjoy reading screenplays, you may not enjoy this book, it reads like a movie, constantly directing you to what point of view you are looking from, what you are looking at, etc.

I'm just not sure the format of the book helps the story. I won't be reading any more Jones due to this book.

This is a really tough read, and I don't recommend it.

What can I say about this book, there are so many bad things to say its hard to know where to start. So I'll keep it short and simple.
1. The story is not well crafted and the dialogue is ridicoulous.
2. The footnotes are kinda useless and somtimes overwritten and can distract from the main story.
3. The narrative can be hard to follow and the story at times doesn't make alot of sense.
4. Character development is non-existent and you never really care about what happens to them.
I bought this book on Amazon recommendation because I like Craig Cleavenger, Chuck Palahaniuk, and Max Barry. I will never take their suggestions ever again. I wanted to stop reading it so many times at so many different points in the book but I paid $11 for it and it seamed like such a waste. DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!