AJ SalemReseñas

Full Review on NetGalley

Gemma survived the car accident that killed her two best friends and her brother. Her father's become distant, and it seems everyone blames her for the deaths. To top it all off, she's seeing things. Creepy black blobs, that hover around and sometimes follow her. A few bright spots surface. One of her friends reconnects with her, her English Lit teacher seems to know things she might need to know, and she meets a boy who can take her on incredible journeys. But then she learns about the demons...

Some of the plot was predictable, some not, but the absolute high spots for me were Gemma's relationships. The characters and their feelings felt real.

(Provided by publisher)

I snagged this one when it was available as a read it now on Netgalley. Turned out to be quite good.

Ordinary teen Gemma is trying to get her life back together after a terrible accident she seems to be taking the blame for. A hot new teacher and a new boy show up, Gemma learns she had the ability to summon demons & angels.

World building was quite good and Gemma was a likeable lead character. My main issues with her were that she seemed to accept things a little too easily. New teacher guy trains her in demon summoning and hot new guy has some mystical secrets of his own. All if which she seems to accept without much questions.

Though there were some good twists towards the end that changed the plot pretty well. Some more mystery and hints of a possible sequel as well.

All in all a good read and I would definitely read more from this author.

I'd give this book 3 of 5 stars.

As a tough book critic, I usually give a book above a 3-3.5 rating. The highest I've really ever given a book was a four. Given that, I actually enjoyed this book a lot.

I love how Almost Demon is a bit of everything. Paranormal, sci-fi, romance, historical, it's everything. That's what makes it unique.

But, there were some parts in the book that I did not quite understand. It was confusing sometimes. I don't think I ever ended up incompletely understanding the whole grimoire demon chanting sigil tattoo thing. I would have liked a more elaborate explanation.

The actual idea of summoning demons and such reminded me a bit of The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. Why? Because in the first few book City of Bones, Valentine summons downworlders and demons. But this is a fantasy novel and all fantasy novels have something in common.

One thing that I liked a lot, was how there were lots of flashback scenes throughout the book. They were very descriptive and really told you what our main character Gemma has been going through all along since the accident. That was definitely a plus for me. Another thing that I liked was when first start the book, you are immediately thrown into Gemma's world of suffering. It makes the actual reading experience that much more realistic.

Overall, it was a fairly quick read.I liked it. Almost Demon is a vivid and insightful page turner. What a debut novel. It had almost everything I wanted in a YA sci-fi novel. It's heartbreaking, humorous, and enthralling at the same time. You'll want to read this one. I'd give it a go.

Almost Demon was an engaging read, and I found it very easy to just let myself sit and flow from chapter to chapter. It was a really good mix of demons, angels, spells and gates to hell with a touch of not happy ever after. Whether demon, angel, human, or otherwise, each character has his or her own distinct personality that isn’t necessarily what one would expect (like - an angel with a tattered robe and a nail-biting habit who blithely refuses to help rid the town of aggressive spirits, a beady-eyed, overweight demon in a mustard-colored suit and purple shirt trying to kick a smoking habit who likes to call Gemma “chicky.”) Gemma herself had a snarky sense of humor that makes her fun to read.

The plot:

Gemma has finally returned to school after the accident – the accident in which her twin brother and her two best friends died. An integral element in this story - everyone blames Gemma for her brother and her best friends’ death, even her own father. By following Gemma, we ventured into a rather dark story populated by strange creatures who take possession of bodies and bring a lot of disasters. This is an action-adventure fantasy that establishes a quick pace right from the start. In the first fifty pages, Gemma is attacked by her brother’s possessed former girlfriend, meets the hot new boy in school who shows her a portal to other dimensions, survives the local librarian going postal in the middle of story time, and finds herself the only member of a mysterious new teacher’s “book club,” in which she studies an ancient book of magic and practices summoning demons.

After introducing to Thom and Ian she learn about attraction and desire and... manipulation. Most of the time she is very busy learning to communicate with demons,in purpose to bring order to her school,to her city and especially to her life. Her relationship with her father (the overworked scientist) is weird - he oscillate between Mr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide and she never now she is going to meet, Until she discovered the secrets that surrounding her birth ...

I love the idea of summoning angels and demons and the tattoos they leave behind. I love the idea of channeling their powers and creating debts and favors and working to discover exactly which angel or demon you need for each job.½

Gemma has finally returned to school after the accident – the accident in which her twin brother and her two best friends died. The accident that half the town and most of the school blames on her.

That’s a lot to deal with. Thankfully she has some distractions with an after-school book club that comes with lessons on how to summon demons

But summoning demons isn’t a mere amusement – with people of the town being possessed by the shadowy Dybbuk in greater and greater numbers, Gem’s ability to summon angels and demons may be the only thing to save them all.

All of that is excellent. It’s fascinating. It’s intriguing. It has elements I have rarely seen in any other book. It has an amazing foundation. I could love this book. I could love this series. It could very easily be one of my favourites. I love the idea of summoning angels and demons and the tattoos they leave behind. I love the idea of channelling their powers and creating debts and favours and working to discover exactly which angel or demon you need for each job. I really like the way that the demons and angels are portrayed – human but not with lots of edges.

The descriptions, especially of the alien realms, are really vivid and powerful. Gem herself is well described and characterised and makes for a solid protagonist

The idea behind the story is truly excellent and one I really enjoyed. The demonic plotting and Gem’s slow learning as more and more of the supernatural is revealed to her, the Dybbuk, lost souls possessing people and slowly consuming the entire town adds a perfectly created sense of urgency that really drives the plot and the decisions. Their actions both make the story very personal as people Gem loves are affected while also being almost apocalyptic in the damage it could unleash on the world, let alone the town.

But

Yes. But.

But there were elements that I thought were completely unnecessary additions that served to confuse the story – such as the headmistress of the school being a witch. She added nothing to the story, she did very little, she achieved nothing but a distraction.

An integral element of this story is that everyone blames Gem for her brother and her best friends’ death. The reasoning behind this, even when explained, is convoluted and confusing to say the least and, again, it adds nothing to the story beyond a need to add an extra layer of angst on Gem. And having just lost her twin brother and 2 best friends, was there any need to up the ante on the angst dial? Instead it was a clumsy tool to create a clumsy Mean Girl whose purpose was pretty much limited to being a Mean Girl. We then got to see a large number of people persecuting a grieving girl who lost 3 people she loved for those people’s deaths – it was unnecessary, pretty difficult to believe (how many people would think attacking her in this manner was remotely acceptable – let alone a majority?) and it just didn’t add one single relevant note to the story.

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