paperbackstash's review
3.0
Lucinda is a daring and somewhat clueless character who does the unthinkable in order to impress friends, satisfy her own curiosities, and fit in at a strange high school. Ah, teenagers.
This is definitely a young YA novel, not just because of the plot elements, but also because of the youngish and rather simplified writing style. The story gets better as it goes along, but it requires some patience the first several chapters.
We have misunderstood characters who stand out at school, which made me think of a little (I can’t help it) of Twilight. We don’t get glittering vampires but we get unusual male love interests that are a little eye-rolling but still fun in a guilty pleasure, soap-opera kind of way.
The story isn’t particularly complex but it does attempt to be. The story has a small cliffhanger of sorts. The story is straightforward but worth a read if you like YA books set in high school settings with demons of sort milling around. The heroine makes plenty of mistakes, almost unapologetically.
Characters start out a little too uncomplicated but some of them surprisingly develop stronger roots, especially Lucinda’s friend and her conflicts with her sexual orientation. The demon lords are a bit cheesy but I couldn’t look away from the scenes since it’s still fun stuff.
It’s gritty with its dark touches for a YA book, so YA fans should enjoy the book well enough.
This is definitely a young YA novel, not just because of the plot elements, but also because of the youngish and rather simplified writing style. The story gets better as it goes along, but it requires some patience the first several chapters.
We have misunderstood characters who stand out at school, which made me think of a little (I can’t help it) of Twilight. We don’t get glittering vampires but we get unusual male love interests that are a little eye-rolling but still fun in a guilty pleasure, soap-opera kind of way.
The story isn’t particularly complex but it does attempt to be. The story has a small cliffhanger of sorts. The story is straightforward but worth a read if you like YA books set in high school settings with demons of sort milling around. The heroine makes plenty of mistakes, almost unapologetically.
Characters start out a little too uncomplicated but some of them surprisingly develop stronger roots, especially Lucinda’s friend and her conflicts with her sexual orientation. The demon lords are a bit cheesy but I couldn’t look away from the scenes since it’s still fun stuff.
It’s gritty with its dark touches for a YA book, so YA fans should enjoy the book well enough.
chaosqueen's review
2.0
For a more in-depth review and more, check out http://vivaladolcevita14.blogspot.com/
This was a decent book. It's not the greatest, nor the worst, although I feel like I'm leaning towards not really liking it.
The story was alright. Being that it was a paranormal, suspension of disbelief is standard, but there also has to be a bit of believability. I didn't connect to this, nor was I sucked it. There were so many times I wanted to skip whole chunks of chapters, but didn't. I couldn't follow at times, and honestly, I just got bored. I've not liked books before, but never have I been bored.
Lucinda was alright. I could feel her conflict about her past and what she was doing with the demons. Other than that, I didn't really like her. I also didn't feel like she fell in love, like the description said. Frankly, I didn't even see that at all, other than occasional moments where Lucinda mentioned having strange feelings. The only character I liked was Brittany, and her banter with Lucinda. Brittany was funny and just so connivingly awesome, she saved this book from utter dislike.
This was a decent book. It's not the greatest, nor the worst, although I feel like I'm leaning towards not really liking it.
The story was alright. Being that it was a paranormal, suspension of disbelief is standard, but there also has to be a bit of believability. I didn't connect to this, nor was I sucked it. There were so many times I wanted to skip whole chunks of chapters, but didn't. I couldn't follow at times, and honestly, I just got bored. I've not liked books before, but never have I been bored.
Lucinda was alright. I could feel her conflict about her past and what she was doing with the demons. Other than that, I didn't really like her. I also didn't feel like she fell in love, like the description said. Frankly, I didn't even see that at all, other than occasional moments where Lucinda mentioned having strange feelings. The only character I liked was Brittany, and her banter with Lucinda. Brittany was funny and just so connivingly awesome, she saved this book from utter dislike.
readercecc6's review
2.5 but rounded down due to all the similarities to Diana Rowland's Kara Gillian series (a much better series IMO) [bc:Mark of the Demon|6048518|Mark of the Demon (Kara Gillian, #1)|Diana Rowland|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320432481s/6048518.jpg|6224133]. While I am nowhere near a demon summoning expert, the demon caste system and summoning ritual were pretty much the exact same ones as Ms. Rowland's. Even the bartering and carefully worded questions and responses when negotiating with a demon/demon lord were the same. If this is the norm then my bad. Regardless, I still wouldn't rate this book any higher than a 2.5. I ran out of battery during the climax of the story and felt absolutely zero frustration. The story itself isn't bad, nor are the characters. Everything just felt so damn predictable that I really saw no purpose in finishing the book, seeing as I predicted damn near everything I'd read so far. That's saying a lot - I'm not one of those readers who think and try to solve the mystery while reading. I'm the type who usually goes along with the protag for the ride of her life, follows the bread crumbs while subconsciously oohing and ahing over the events that are unfolding, then analyzes everything after the final page. It's pretty much impossible not to surprise me which is a damn shame because Demon High failed miserably to do so.
Story:
MC was raised by her gran because her mom got addicted to demon summoning and ended up Home (hell, the underworld, demon realm, whatever). She finds a letter from the bank stating her home is about to be foreclosed. Conveniently, her childhood BFF while popular and perfect, is a black market peddler. She convinces her estranged BFF to sell shows of her demon summoning and subsequent chats with said demons. Shit hits the fan when three members of the audience stumble into the summoning circle while drunk. Chaos ensues. Demons escape. For no other reason than because hey it's a YA novel and because it's convenient, two of the three demons enroll in her high school. Blah blah blah, she falls for the emo demon. Blah blah blah, her BFF falls for the succubus. Further blah blah blah, the four of them work together to kick the third demon's ass. Even more blahblhablah, emo demon sacrifices himself for her. What happens next? Why, I have no bloody idea because I never went back to finish the book after my battery died.
I've come to the conclusion that good YA UF books are unbelievably rare therefor I'm giving up my quest of finding them. The process just isn't worth it.
Story:
MC was raised by her gran because her mom got addicted to demon summoning and ended up Home (hell, the underworld, demon realm, whatever). She finds a letter from the bank stating her home is about to be foreclosed. Conveniently, her childhood BFF while popular and perfect, is a black market peddler. She convinces her estranged BFF to sell shows of her demon summoning and subsequent chats with said demons. Shit hits the fan when three members of the audience stumble into the summoning circle while drunk. Chaos ensues. Demons escape. For no other reason than because hey it's a YA novel and because it's convenient, two of the three demons enroll in her high school. Blah blah blah, she falls for the emo demon. Blah blah blah, her BFF falls for the succubus. Further blah blah blah, the four of them work together to kick the third demon's ass. Even more blahblhablah, emo demon sacrifices himself for her. What happens next? Why, I have no bloody idea because I never went back to finish the book after my battery died.
I've come to the conclusion that good YA UF books are unbelievably rare therefor I'm giving up my quest of finding them. The process just isn't worth it.
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