Review by drackeye -- Demon Freaks

[drackeye]

[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 is best described as a supernatural action adventure. The book opens with three of the four main characters in history class the day before they are to take the SATs. A test the identical twins Bing and Ron Slaughter have to do well on if either of them are to have any hope of not follow in their parents footsteps with carriers at McDonalds. From there the story quickly moves on to later that night as the twins are driving to meet their band’s drummer, Prathamesh “Meat” Kimitri at his parent’s lakeside cabin to study along with their keyboard player, Kaitlyn Krimpsen. It is at the cabin where things really start to go wrong and Bing’s plans to study are completely blown.

J.R.R.R. Hardison does an exceptional job with this book. The characters are well written and fleshed out. That is to say the four main characters, the two major supporting characters and both villains are well described without being overly descriptive. The story itself progresses at what could be considered a rapid pace as there is a great deal of events that occur in a single night. This does not, however, make the story at all difficult to follow. Each event comes quickly, takes place, and then moves on as the next event arrives.

My favorite line in the book is a fun play on words but it is sadly undermined by the very next sentence. The line, “Meat walked out of the cabin holding a drumstick and a drumstick.”, could have had a much better affect. I would have worded the next line something like; He took a huge, juicy bite out of one while tapping on the open door with the other. That said though, this is the only time the author uses such a play on words and I would have liked to have seen more of it. There are however a few other places where there is nothing grammatically wrong but the wording feels clumsy. A simple rewording would have read better and in one case in particular, avoided some confusion.

As for actual errors, there are very few. In fact I only found a total of three. The first error was a simple grammatical error early on. The line, “…neither Bing nor Ron was interested.”, should have been “were interested” as the subject of the sentence is more than one noun. The second error occurred much later in the book; “…summoning was something it took a moment.” In this line, the word “it” simply does not make sense and should. The line should have read “…summoning was something that took a moment.” The final error completely omitted a needed word; “…and she had complained about it no end.” Should have been; “…and she had complained about it to no end.” If there are any other errors in the book, I did not see them and for a nearly two hundred fifty page book, I would consider three errors exceptional.

While the book is almost entirely free of errors and is an easy read, it does fall victim to the notion that the main characters cannot die. That is to say, all four of the main characters have some wicked thick plot armor and this causes problems. The result of this is the over use of dues ex machina. There are five such events when one or more of the main characters should have died but thanks to their plot armor, survived. The first ex machina moment actually made sense. Help came from a source that was expected to be there and I might not have noticed had it not been for the second occurrence. Ex machina number two was as blatant as it gets. Mr. Hardison wrote the characters into a no survive situation and rescue comes from a source that up to that point, did not exist in the book. That one scene is the definition of Deus Ex Machina. The third time ex machina is used felt like a matter of convenience as it was one of those cases where a character turned out to be something other than previously established. And both of the last two events fall into the category of but if for. That is to say three of the four main characters would have died but if for not having two of a very specific item. It is sad to see such a good book give its main characters such extremely thick plot armor. Sure, in this story the main characters should not die but it would have been better had the plot armor been more transparent.

Demon Freaks is a very good story. It is fast paced and action packed with plenty of suspenseful moments. The errors are very few though some of the wording could have been better. I would have liked to have seen more than just one play on words but the lack of it does not detract from the book. What does hurt the book however is the over use of dues ex machina and the tangibly thick plot armor. Many of the scenes that should have been suspenseful suddenly fall flat simply because by the second ex machina moment, it is established that nothing truly bad is going to happen to the main characters. It is for this reason I cannot give this book a true four star rating. It hurts the book and loses points. That said, the books other strengths do keep it sufficiently above a three star that when rounded off, it will have to give Demon Freaks a 4 out of 4 star rating. If you like action adventure mixed with the supernatural, I highly recommend you give Demon Freaks a read.

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Demon Freaks
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Like drackeye's review? Post a comment saying so!

[gen_g]

Thank you for the detailed review - the premise actually sounds interesting. However, the author's decision to use a deux ex machina is a serious turn-off, even more so when there is more than one being used.

[drackeye]

Thank you for the detailed review - the premise actually sounds interesting. However, the author's decision to use a deux ex machina is a serious turn-off, even more so when there is more than one being used.

Thank you for the comment. I have to agree with you on the use deus ex machina. It's annoying when the characters have to be constantly "saved".

[kfwilson6]

I've never heard the phrase "plot armor." I love it. I find that an incredibly annoying factor in any story.

Very thorough review regarding the pros and cons. I would recommend not listing the errors in so much detail. Simply say there were few, many, a troubling amount of errors and giving an idea of what categories they fall in and how distracting they are is sufficient. Just my opinion. I get bogged down in a review any time someone goes into too much detail on that topic.

[drackeye]

I've never heard the phrase "plot armor." I love it. I find that an incredibly annoying factor in any story.

Very thorough review regarding the pros and cons. I would recommend not listing the errors in so much detail. Simply say there were few, many, a troubling amount of errors and giving an idea of what categories they fall in and how distracting they are is sufficient. Just my opinion. I get bogged down in a review any time someone goes into too much detail on that topic.

Thank you for the comment. It is appreciated.

Many stories across all genres and mediums are guilty of plot armor. In a nutshell, it simply means that nothing truly bad can happen to the given subject because of... reasons.

That was one of the biggest things the editors nailed me for on this one. I went into TOO MUCH detail. (A personal fault) For my second review, I limited the amount of detail considerably and received a tremendously better score as a result.