Early Review: The Demonists by Thomas E. Sniegoski (Demonist #1)

The Demonists (Demonist #1)
Thomas E. Sniegoski
Published: April 5, 2016 (Roc)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

John Fogg has long believed in the paranormal. He’s made a fine job of learning about and seeking out the things that go bump in the night. When he meets Theodora Knight, a self-proclaimed medium, he sees a real chance to bring his expertise to the masses. Jump ahead nine years and John and Theodora are married and have their own Ghost Hunters-type television show.

For their big Halloween special, they scoured hundreds of reportedly haunted places, and landed on a home in rural Pennsylvania dubbed “The House of Tribulation.” So far, the evening has been a wash. That is, until they actually stumble upon something. What happens next is John’s entire crew is killed, he’s injured, and his wife is host to umpteen demonic entities.

As John searches for a way to bring Theo back, it becomes ever clearer that the world as he knows it is about to change. The beings that reside in the dark are no longer happy remaining in the shadows, and as humanity remembers what it is to know true fear, the evil only gets stronger.

The Demonists reads like your typical good vs. evil story. It quite frequently brought to my mind The Exorcist. There were so many times I wanted to put down the book and get away from the grotesque vividness of the gory representations of evil, but I simply couldn’t. The pacing is really fast, and I always found myself wanting to find out what would happen next even though usually what happened next would make me a bit squeamish.

For all the fast pacing, however, I found that the timeline of events was probably my biggest problem with the book. I was just never quite sure of how much time passed between one event and another. The way the book runs it seems like John Fogg had an extremely bad couple of weeks, but then we would get reference, for example, to conversations that happened months ago as opposed to just a few pages ago. My mind had trouble wrapping around what were supposed to be slower progressions of time because the story moves so quickly.

Where the book really excelled for me was with Theodora’s character. Not to give anything away, but the book does not just focus on John trying to heal his wife. Although that is a main concern for John, there are road bumps and revelations along the way. Theo manifests, to me, as this awesome (although awesome may not always be the word I’d use to describe her) paranormal demonic superheroine. I’m hesitant to reveal too much because I think it’s really something to behold while reading, but suffice it to say, there is so much potential for her character that I’m excited to see what she can bring to the table in the next book.

Overall, The Demonists was really an introduction book. Preparing readers for what can be expected down the line in the series; what type of queasy, squishy manifestations of evil will try to wreak havoc upon the world. There seems to be a good team assembled by the end, I think they’ll be able to give evil a run for its money.

Sexual content: sex