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mellabella's review
3.0
The Boy Who Killed Demons was a little different than I expected. Henry starts seeing demons at the age of 13. He realizes that as he looks at his neighbor. The book takes place 2 years later. We learn that after that first sighting, Henry goes from popular kid of well off parents to... Somewhat of a loner. I guess I expected more scares. These are demons we're dealing with. But, we get journal entries from a pretty typical 15 year old. Who is being driven slightly crazy because of his abilities. Henry becomes quite methodological and, self reliant after becoming aware of what he can see. I did enjoy it. Scares or not. I do feel like there's room for a sequel.
fractaltexan's review
4.0
The book was slow to start, although it was undeniably riveting in its concept. As the first book that I've read by Dave Zeltserman, I can honestly say that I was impressed. The way he writes some of the scenes had me squirming in my seat from apprehension and fear for Henry, the main character. As the book progressed, it became all the more riveting, from fist fights between students to extremely questionable choices made by Henry in his attempt to accomplish his goals.
All in all, this book was one of the better ones I've read this year, and I look forward to reading more of Mr. Zeltserman's work.
All in all, this book was one of the better ones I've read this year, and I look forward to reading more of Mr. Zeltserman's work.
cseanread's review
1.0
Yeah so I'm not finishing this. Prostitutes are diseased and dirty. This kid thinks his parents are neglectful, when I honestly just see two very devoted career-oriented folks (whether that's good parenting or not, it's certainly not neglectful). While I can appreciate that the writing is solid in its execution, the overall story is unrealistic to the point of pulling me out of it every other paragraph. I also just don't care for all the implied sexism and homophobia. That's better ways of including that sort of talk in a book, and Zeltserman missed that mark.
gregtrob's review
1.0
I think the writing style (a journal of sorts) killed this for me. That and the convenient plot points - oh look what showed up here, and here and here. I'm not sure why I finished reading it to be honest.
sarahernandez's review
Unlikeable main character/narrator; hints of homophobia; poorly written.
andrewjstillman's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
illyria18's review
3.0
Rating: 2.5
I won a copy of this book for an honest review. This will never effect how I like or rate a book.
Oh this one wasn't easy to get through. You can normally tell you're not enjoying a book when it's not even three hundred pages long and you're having trouble getting through it, but finish it I finally did.
Writing in journal/diary form always seems like it has that bigger chance of being really good or really pretty bad. Not only are you getting a later account of the action you missed but you are stuck with your narrator in a much more personal way. So liking them goes a long way in caring about what they're telling you happened.
I'm just going to come out and say it. There was no one, absolutely no one character to really like. Wesley and Curt were the most passable as far as likability goes but that's because they were just kind of bland with the stereotypes they were playing. Maybe the story would of made me sympathize with Henry more if it hadn't been written in journal form but as is he just comes off as a horrible person and that's even with trying to give him the benefit of the doubt with what he's going through. I've read other books from a boy's perspective before and I can easily say Henry didn't need to be this unlikable. His character though only takes second place as being the worst in this. First place undoubtedly goes to Sally. I like how the book tries to convince you later on that she might be smart since she was able to guess that Henry stole that comic book but all her other actions speak against it and even if she didn't come off as being as thick as a brick it wouldn't change the fact that she's a horrible person as well.
I feel that I should mention now that I also didn't enjoy reading about Henry getting his first blow job. I know he's a teenage boy and these things likely aren't foreign to them, especially nowadays but Henry is fifteen. I believe Sally was suppose to be too. I really don't like picturing fifteen year olds freely and more than willing to give out blow jobs to boys. Especially when later they're so quick to move on to another boy. I'm not delusional, I know this is probably sadly realistic to how the younger generation is now but I still didn't care to read about it.
There did come some unbelievably earlier on when another man that had been seeing demons longer gets killed by trying to check one out. He lived that long and he hadn't learned how to survey a demon without getting caught? It just felt very unbelievable. I kept hoping that maybe Henry would still manage to find others like him after that incident but nothing that interesting ever happened.
Near the end when Henry was telling me the end was near I was eager for it to be so. Though it did leave me thinking on how this book could of been better but first let me speak of a few good things in the book.
I did like how creative the demon descriptions were. The author did a really good job with them and really just the demons in the story overall were pretty original I thought.
By the end I was actually engaged in it. When Henry went on his demon killing rampage I managed to enjoy myself and actually root for him. Not only that but I managed to be happy with the ending. That made me give it the better rating that I did.
No, I think this book could of been better if Henry was older. It got tiring hearing about his horrible parents constantly getting on his case. I think also instead of choosing to write it in journal form it would of just been better to either choose first or a third person narrative. Though these things might not have helped much if the characters were still so unlikable.
Needless to say though Henry didn't make me much interested in continuing to read about any further adventures he might have.
I may not have liked this much but for some reason I could picture older teenage boys really liking this.
I won a copy of this book for an honest review. This will never effect how I like or rate a book.
Oh this one wasn't easy to get through. You can normally tell you're not enjoying a book when it's not even three hundred pages long and you're having trouble getting through it, but finish it I finally did.
Writing in journal/diary form always seems like it has that bigger chance of being really good or really pretty bad. Not only are you getting a later account of the action you missed but you are stuck with your narrator in a much more personal way. So liking them goes a long way in caring about what they're telling you happened.
I'm just going to come out and say it. There was no one, absolutely no one character to really like. Wesley and Curt were the most passable as far as likability goes but that's because they were just kind of bland with the stereotypes they were playing. Maybe the story would of made me sympathize with Henry more if it hadn't been written in journal form but as is he just comes off as a horrible person and that's even with trying to give him the benefit of the doubt with what he's going through. I've read other books from a boy's perspective before and I can easily say Henry didn't need to be this unlikable. His character though only takes second place as being the worst in this. First place undoubtedly goes to Sally. I like how the book tries to convince you later on that she might be smart since she was able to guess that Henry stole that comic book but all her other actions speak against it and even if she didn't come off as being as thick as a brick it wouldn't change the fact that she's a horrible person as well.
I feel that I should mention now that I also didn't enjoy reading about Henry getting his first blow job. I know he's a teenage boy and these things likely aren't foreign to them, especially nowadays but Henry is fifteen. I believe Sally was suppose to be too. I really don't like picturing fifteen year olds freely and more than willing to give out blow jobs to boys. Especially when later they're so quick to move on to another boy. I'm not delusional, I know this is probably sadly realistic to how the younger generation is now but I still didn't care to read about it.
There did come some unbelievably earlier on when another man that had been seeing demons longer gets killed by trying to check one out. He lived that long and he hadn't learned how to survey a demon without getting caught? It just felt very unbelievable. I kept hoping that maybe Henry would still manage to find others like him after that incident but nothing that interesting ever happened.
Near the end when Henry was telling me the end was near I was eager for it to be so. Though it did leave me thinking on how this book could of been better but first let me speak of a few good things in the book.
I did like how creative the demon descriptions were. The author did a really good job with them and really just the demons in the story overall were pretty original I thought.
By the end I was actually engaged in it. When Henry went on his demon killing rampage I managed to enjoy myself and actually root for him. Not only that but I managed to be happy with the ending. That made me give it the better rating that I did.
No, I think this book could of been better if Henry was older. It got tiring hearing about his horrible parents constantly getting on his case. I think also instead of choosing to write it in journal form it would of just been better to either choose first or a third person narrative. Though these things might not have helped much if the characters were still so unlikable.
Needless to say though Henry didn't make me much interested in continuing to read about any further adventures he might have.
I may not have liked this much but for some reason I could picture older teenage boys really liking this.
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