Customer Reviews

Demons in the Spring

5 star:		(3)
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3 star:		(1)
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"Demon's in the Spring" is f-ing phenomenal. I was already in love with Joe Meno's "The Boy Detective Fails" and its absolute wonderfulness (a classic of his and a must read of all his works) but while reading "Demon's in the Spring," I was really humbled to see Mr. Meno take it up a notch from his already amazingly imaginative and unique writing.

Each short story is well developed and has the same amount of heart (if not more) as his longer works (which significantly influenced how much pleasure I took in reading them). The stories are rich and light at the same time, and even more importantly, each is vastly different, showing just how far Meno has stretched his imagination and ours as the reader. One story is even about a miniature elephant! Meno continues to perfect his ability to break and mend my heart in the same instance. A few of the stories left me wiping tears from my face before I could continue to the next one. I cannot express enough how much appreciation, admiration, and love I have for Joe Meno's writing. His intensely direct and spacious style may not be for everyone, but if your heart needs touched and your imagination needs hugged in a new way, don't hesitate to read this book.

Middle class suburban magic surealism. Characters are interesting without being overdrawn. They are familiar yet none are stereotypes.

Got to go with Ryan Jude on this one. Already a big fan of Meno, but was not at all let down by this book.

David Eggers' gushing blurb tipped me to read this, but almost every story read like an exercise. The themes are quite diverse, but none felt inspired, as one story takes a poke at some little corner of historical trivia (the bank robbery that gave rise to the term "Stockholm Syndrome,", or a voyage into the creepy, or an highly contrived spookiness (a cop who belongs to the Kiss Army watches a black hole swallow much of his dingy little city). The writing would best thrill teenagers, who would enjoy the weird, and would not be as vulnerable to being annoyed at the lack of insight/sympathy into the characters sketched.