Review: Hell Hath No Fury...like an angry demon
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 17, 2012
A few vital pieces of information about Demon Whisperer:1. It's Young Adult2. The hero is Caden Butcher, a teenage exorcist who was in a coma and spent a year in hell (probably not the best place for an guy who banishes demons to be)3. The point of view is Caden's4. Tawny Stokes (who is aaaawesome) self-published this bad boy but you'd never know if I didn't just tell you.Now granted, I haven't read a lot of YA books, but considering in the past week this would be the fourth, I guess I'm starting to read them. This is, however, the first one I've read where the point of view is in the boy's head. That's what made this book so cool. There are so few YA books out there in the male's POV. There's a reason why the teenage boys in my local bookstore are glommed around the gamer story books - they don't have a lot of choices.And Caden is very much a boy. This is not a girl trapped inside a boy's body. He underage drinks beer, eyes his girlfriend's ass, shaves, worries about his demons (ha! pun) and he doesn't ask for help. Aside from the whole year in hell business and being able to get rid of demons, he very much reminded me of my brother 20 years ago. The romance is there but it's not present. His problems are a bit bigger than his girlfriend - he's got a demon gunning for him. Plus he loves his girlfriend, she loves him so that means it's a settled issue for him. The demon on the otherhand? Priority is kicking ass and not getting his ass kicked. Tawny knows her audience.The premise is...let's be honest...freakin' cool. There are no vampires, this isn't post-apocalyptic. There are demons. Lots of demons. And Latin. Two things you don't run into a lot in books, even YA. Caden Butcher (cooooool name) landed in a coma and spent a year in hell. He's freed a demon, his best friend Dan, and they're conning the world with demon exorcisms on Youtube. That's not to say Caden's a fraud. He's an exorcist. Who needs to put a roof over his dad's head because his dad can no longer do his own job as an exorcist. An exorcism goes bad and that's when Caden learns he's got some serious trouble gunning for him. One hella mad/powerful demon who will hurt everyone Caden cares about just to get to him.A skilled YA author is one who breaches age gaps without talking down to anyone. I've read some where I felt embarrassed. I'm far from the YA intended age (far, far) but some authors talk down to their readers. Like they're six instead of sixteen. I may not remember a lot of 16 but I do remember being kind of smart and understanding stuff. Tawny is one of those authors who doesn't talk down to her readers so a 16 year old can read this and so can a 39 year old. I also kept forgetting that Caden was 17 until he mentioned it. Again...brilliant. You know what book I just read that did this? Insurgent. I kept forgetting the characters were 16 & 18 until I was told. Which is brilliant. Because it's a YA book that bridges ANY age. Teen, YA, adult...we'll all love it.Brilliant.Tawny has two YA books out now. Demon Whisperer and Static (which is also awesome and I highly recommend it though this is a female protagonist so that means there's more romance - though demons too.)