Review: Quirky coming of age story.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 13, 2014
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.This is a very quirky story. Mari is a demon. Her father has passed it on to her and no matter how much she doesn't want to be one, she is an Oni demon. Now demons come in three colours, according to her father, purple, red and white. All the demons in her family have been white but Mari is pink. According to her father, she needs to find out what her trigger is and learn to control it. When she realises that her trigger is frustration, it leads to all kinds of problems as Mari is a 16 year old girl and that is a normal state for a girl that age.When she gets frustrated taking her driving test for the third time, she starts to change and when she gets home, everything is packed and the family is moving again.Her father is a Japanese-born Buddhist, her mom is a geologist and due to Mari's last driving test, they are all moving to Rock Creek. A small mining town where there is no cell phones, no internet and no cars. Everyone drives round in golf carts supplied by the mine. Mari's first day at school doesn't go well at all and from that day on, it's like she has a target on her. The mine owners daughter has it in for her and with her two friends make her life a living hell.Whilst Mari has to battle with her control, she meets a boy, goes to a party, where there is an earthquake and purple-vampire-monkey-bats erupt out of the earth. When she gets home, her parent's are angry but also concerned as there is something weird about the earthquake.When she goes to school the next day, she is told that there was no earthquake, it was a mass-hallucination brought on by dodgy food. When she says she didn't eat anything, she is kidnapped by the mine owner and his daughter and dragged off underground. She manages to escape and tells her parents what she saw.With some teenage angst thrown in, this is a funny tale about discovering your inner demon and accepting it. And also saving the world.