The Demon Girl Review

Monday, March 14, 2011

Title: The Demon Girl
Author: Penelope Fletcher
Publisher: Smashwords
Published: October 7, 2010
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Pages: 191 (eBook)
Source: Personal Copy

Rae Wilder has problems. Plunged into a world of dark magic, fierce creatures and ritual sacrifice, she is charged with a guarding a magical amulet.

Rae finds herself beaten up, repeatedly, and forced to make a choice: to live and die human, or embrace her birth-right and wield magics that could turn her into something wicked, a force of nature nothing can control.
Rae Wilder's life is very much a normal person's greatest nightmare. She's a Disciple, and she's training to be a Cleric, which means she lives in a world of monsters - vampires, shifters, goblins, witches and faeries, and as a Cleric, she's destined to fight these creatures. When circumstances change one day though, and Rae witnesses Clerics killing a young faerie, she knows she has to run. She happens upon Breandan who reveals Rae's hidden past and ignites a future of adventure, turmoil and struggles both internal and external.

I downloaded The Demon Girl onto my Nook because I saw it was up for grabs on Barnes & Noble. With a great cover and a cool, paranormal premise, I was really excited to try a book from a pretty much unknown author. Penelope Fletcher knows her demons. She has this innate ability to make her demons both creepy and terrifying but also human in emotion. The Demon Girl features a fun and intriguing plot full of twists and turns that seems sure to promise a fabulous thrill ride.

That said, despite a strong plot, The Demon Girl fell a good bit short for me. To be extremely blunt, the book was riddled with cliches and stereotypes, and everything sort of just fell into place with little or no extreme conflict. I also felt the insta-bond between Breandan and Rae was a bit Twilight-esque, if you will, failing to break through the mold. And, while I can easily overlook a few grammatical errors and such, some of the chapter jumps just killed me. We went from one situation in The Demon Girl to another one, entirely, with no transition at all.

I never like to give bad reviews, and I have a penchant for indie books, but The Demon Girl just didn't measure up to it's premise or plot potential for me. Perhaps some people will like it more than me. I give it a 2 out 5, and I'd recommend it to those who enjoy YA paranormal tales, especially those with faeries.

14 comments:

  1. Too bad it didn't quite get there. It sounds like an interesting book. Paranormals are so tricky. Since Twilight basically set the standard for modern paranormals, it's so tempting to follow that model inserting different characters and paranormal creatures. Some books do that really well if they can develop a sufficiently unique story. But otherwise it falls flat. I'm a huge Twilight fan, but the character development of the Cullen family is what made the book special - the romance isn't all that great. I think authors forget or have trouble creating a strong backstory.

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  2. I'm so glad you reviewed this one. Like you, I picked it up because I saw it as a free read on Barnes and Noble, and I have a Nook too (Yay! We can be Nook buddies)!

    Since it was free and I'm under no obligations to review it, I think I'm going to put it on the back-burner. I might give it a shot eventually, but since you mentioned it was full of cliches and stereotypes (things that really get on my nerves), I think I'm going to pass for now.

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  3. Too bad, the cover look bad. I thought about getting it as well but decided not too. Thanks for the review!

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  4. Oh no so sad when a promising book is ruined by stereotypes :-( Hope you have more luck with your next book!

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  5. Nooooooooooo! I have been so looking forward to this book. Ugh what a booger... :/

    Thanks for the review Melissa!

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  6. This one seems to be chock full of paranormal. I'm not sure I could get over the insta-love as that is one of my biggest pet peeves. Thanks for the honest review Melissa!

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  7. Bummer! I was hoping this one would turn out alright. Ah, well. Thanks for the honest review! :)

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  8. Can't say she looks scary with those butterfly wings, I would think they would be different. Anyway, too bad it wasn't that good

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  9. That's a shame that this one didn't work, but at least it was a cheap grab, eh :) I almost got this one, too, but a glance at the TBR convinced me otherwise - thanks for the review - HATE cliches!

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  10. Bum deal because I love the cover and the premise really does sound interesting. Thanks for sharing your honest opinion Melissa. I don't look at this as a bad review at all. It's fair and straight to the point. I appreciate that.

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  11. Too bad this one fell short! I think the cover is cool, too. Some self-published books are outta sight, but others don't live up to their interesting concept. Thanks for your honest review.

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  12. the cover is soooo pretty! sucks that the book was a bit of a fail

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  13. I saw this one on B&N and I had considered downloading it, but it's so easy to be let down by indie/self-pubbed books and it sounds like that's what happened to you. The plot does sound promising, but I'm so over the insta-romance and cliches rub me the wrong way when it's too overdone.

    Thanks for the review!

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