Scourge by Sarah Harding-Roberts

[roguexunited]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of Scourge by Sarah Harding-Roberts.]

Scourge by Sarah Harding-Roberts follows the story of an outcast demon known as Lilith the Scourge. Lilith — who spent the last 90 years in a sort of coma — has to adapt to a world that is almost unrecognizable to her. Hunted by the archangel Matias and hated by all other demons she becomes friends with a motley crew of human university students; but her old foes are not ready to stop chasing her, leaving everyone she now cares for in eminent danger. Now all she has is to do is find out what the demons are up to (you know, world domination, apocalypse and such) and put an end to their plans. But the task is easier said than done.

The premise of the story sounded inviting: an outcast demon trying to save the world instead of destroying it felt like a good idea. Nonetheless, there are a couple of things in the book that made the reading less enjoyable. But as most things in life there are good things and bad ones.

Personally I liked the bits of historiographical fiction that appeared throughout the book. A certain number of events, and famous characters, are explained thanks to some manner of supernatural occurrence. For example: the skinning of the Titanic, the sudden disappearance of Jack the Reaper and a plausible scenario due to Y2K (for those that remember 1999) are mentioned, which was entertaining.

What I didn’t enjoy were the editorial mistakes, which threw a monkey wrench into my reading. First there was a point where the font in a couple of chapters didn’t match the rest. This stylistic change was never explained, therefore it made me suspect that it was an error rather than a choice. Then there’s the matter of the syntactical and grammatical mistakes that appeared constantly throughout the book. And finally, there are some issues with the structure of the plot, which felt too disperse. It seemed to follow no order in the focalization of the narrative voices; this made some chapters too digressive because they only took away from the goal of the story, which was a little elusive to begin with. For example: the story jumps from one point to another without any explanation; or characters show up, then disappear, then show up again, but they were never properly introduced or dismissed.

On a personal note, I also found that the characters are a little difficult to relate to and seemed improbable. For example, most of the book Lilith — a demon born before the time of the dinosaurs, who lived through many different epochs and should be used to the passing of time — is portrayed as someone unwilling to accept change, which sound unlikely, at least for my taste. Her disapproval of the present drags on and slows down the narrative. Then there is the matter of Gary, who is despised by all, but his interventions are so small and irrelevant that it seems that the rest of the characters have a disproportional prejudice against him. It isn’t until the end of the book that he does something completely despicable (worthy of the snippy comments at the beginning of the book), but by then the balance between his actions and other characters perceptions is a bit off.

I give this book 1 out of 4 stars. It still feels raw and it could really use a bigger editorial presence.