Review of Demon Freaks

[Kayla McColl]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Demon Freaks" by J.R.R.R. (Jim) Hardison.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Demon Freaks by J.R.R.R (Jim) Hardison is a 249-page young adult novel jam-packed with horror, humour and action.

Twin brothers Bing and Ron Slaughter are set to write their SATs in the morning, but murphy's law is clearly out to get them. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Bing knows that without a good score, he may be stuck working at Mcdonald's flipping burgers. Ron likes to fly by the seat of his pants and isn't concerned with the SATs or studying. Ron convinces Bing to go to their friend Meat's house that night and have a bit of a jam session with their band the Ephits before their friend Kaitlyn arrives. Bing, feeling coerced, goes along with his brothers' plan; after all, what could go wrong? Well, a storm hits, the power goes out, and an evil-possessed dagger crashes their night.

The twist and turns of the story kept me hooked until the end. When I first started reading this book, I thought for sure it was going to be a fun, light read. This novel had many more deep themes than any paranormal young adult ought to have, which both surprised and delighted me. I loved the character development of both the twins and Meat. With the introduction to Meat's character, you assume he's just a silly boy, but he has the most growth of all.

There weren't many negative aspects to this novel. However, there was one thing I didn't like about the book, and that was one character repeating the words, "OK or whatever" after every sentence. In the beginning, it seemed like it was supposed to be a character flaw, but all it did was interrupt the flow of the story and, quite frankly, irritate me.

There were a few spelling errors but not enough that it distracts you from the story. I felt this novel had many more positives than it had negatives. Because of that, I wouldn't feel right about making this rating anything less than what I think it deserves. The horror in the novel was offset perfectly by the humour that was used. The writing was also super fun and exciting. For all of these reasons, I rate this novel 4 out of 4 stars.

Fans of Douglas Adams and Derek Landy will enjoy this book. Douglas Adams fans, because of how ridiculous the story is, and Derek Landy fans, because of the amazing humour.

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Demon Freaks
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