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yogicath's review
3.0
2 1/2 stars
This is book three of the Kendra Temples: The Demonic Diaries series and follows the main character Kendra through a series of situations she finds herself in, after being possessed by a demonic presence called Mhaqal. It all started after she answered a job advert on Craigslist for a librarian for some rich dude’s home library. Who on Earth would take a job they find on Craigslist? Sketchy or what! She ends up working for the guy who is called Eli and is a film director, originally of some really dark and violent horror films, but now ends up making films with animals as the stars. She doesn’t find out till much later, that he has a wife Sonja, locked away in the house, apparently possessed by a demon. Eli is looking for a secret occult section of the library and that is what he has her looking for and this leaves Kendra with far too much time and little supervision, to consume all the dark occult books once she finds them and get herself twisted up in what is happening in the home.
At the time she had a boyfriend called Steve and was relying on him to pay the bills and keep her before she got this job, which caused a lot of problems with their relationship. He kicked her to the kerb and once she ended up at Eli’s, having nowhere else to go, the story got a whole lot darker. After doing exactly what she wasn’t supposed to and watching a man lose his life and her ex-boyfriend be skinned alive and disappear into a hell hole, she was let go and given a payout to compensate her. When that ran out she got another job through Craigslist and started working at a floatation tank centre, hoping to enter a trance and see her ex-boyfriend. But when she does get a glimpse of him, it seems like a mix of a horror film and all of their favourite films mixed together. He and the goat that was to be sacrificed have ended up together, but now the goat is half human, half animal, and they are trying to get Steve’s skin back from an evil king of the demons. Kendra starts to unravel and loses her job, her home, her car and even her self-awareness, as the demon inside her begins to exert more control over her and she spends half of her time blacking out unexpectedly. Going to creepy sex parties with the second librarian, who she saved, but who has no idea who they actually are and have no memory of their life or past. She wakes up in stranger’s beds, or a tent with a homeless man, or some random piece of road.
The partying gets even more extreme and she is losing more and more time, yet still filling out her blog about what is happening to her. Her entries are filled out like a personal diary, yet are supposed to be a blog under an assumed name, yet her former employers manage to find her from it. Her next boyfriend Carlos, even manages to locate her real family and find out that an intervention is not really anything Kendra is interested in! Whatever she is getting up to during her ever increasing blackouts, she has no idea, but waking up in a school playground, practically naked, covered in blood, with a bloody knife in her hands, has to make her worry. Thoughts about what could be happening to her, after normal doctors can find nothing wrong with her, make her realise someone added a comment to her blog that gave her the answer ages ago, if only she had paid any attention to it. Her personal demon has introduced her to torture and the practices of demons, jinns and other occult figures in a hellworld dimension of her own imagination. She is nearing the end of her rope and believes death may be an easier option than continuing as she has been. She can succumb control of her body to her inner demon, or fight back, if it’s not too late!
You will probably want to read the other two books in the series first, to fully understand what she is undergoing, but only of you like the blog or diary entry style of writing. It is quite a dark read with a lot of violence and mental health issues and anguish. Although the blurb states that this is the last book in this series, there will apparently be more tales from Kendra Temple in the future. For me, that may be a bit too many, as I really didn’t like much of how this story flowed. Some seem to like it as they could just pick it up and stop and start as they like. I would disagree with that, as the story gets very complex and if you don’t understand what was going on, you would lose the thread of the tale completely. The premise of taking a job from an ad on Craigslist and thinking it will turn out well, is about the same as buying something advertised on Fbok, coming from China and not being scammed by either not being sent the actual item, or being sent a cheap and nasty item that has nothing to do with what you ordered in the first place! Just because all sorts of social media are now popular, doesn’t mean that books and stories really have to follow the short and sharp tweet lengths, to tell a story. I managed to read the whole series, but probably could have given up on it quite easily, even though I quite like paranormal themed reads. I received an ARC copy of this book, which included the first two books of the series, and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
This is book three of the Kendra Temples: The Demonic Diaries series and follows the main character Kendra through a series of situations she finds herself in, after being possessed by a demonic presence called Mhaqal. It all started after she answered a job advert on Craigslist for a librarian for some rich dude’s home library. Who on Earth would take a job they find on Craigslist? Sketchy or what! She ends up working for the guy who is called Eli and is a film director, originally of some really dark and violent horror films, but now ends up making films with animals as the stars. She doesn’t find out till much later, that he has a wife Sonja, locked away in the house, apparently possessed by a demon. Eli is looking for a secret occult section of the library and that is what he has her looking for and this leaves Kendra with far too much time and little supervision, to consume all the dark occult books once she finds them and get herself twisted up in what is happening in the home.
At the time she had a boyfriend called Steve and was relying on him to pay the bills and keep her before she got this job, which caused a lot of problems with their relationship. He kicked her to the kerb and once she ended up at Eli’s, having nowhere else to go, the story got a whole lot darker. After doing exactly what she wasn’t supposed to and watching a man lose his life and her ex-boyfriend be skinned alive and disappear into a hell hole, she was let go and given a payout to compensate her. When that ran out she got another job through Craigslist and started working at a floatation tank centre, hoping to enter a trance and see her ex-boyfriend. But when she does get a glimpse of him, it seems like a mix of a horror film and all of their favourite films mixed together. He and the goat that was to be sacrificed have ended up together, but now the goat is half human, half animal, and they are trying to get Steve’s skin back from an evil king of the demons. Kendra starts to unravel and loses her job, her home, her car and even her self-awareness, as the demon inside her begins to exert more control over her and she spends half of her time blacking out unexpectedly. Going to creepy sex parties with the second librarian, who she saved, but who has no idea who they actually are and have no memory of their life or past. She wakes up in stranger’s beds, or a tent with a homeless man, or some random piece of road.
The partying gets even more extreme and she is losing more and more time, yet still filling out her blog about what is happening to her. Her entries are filled out like a personal diary, yet are supposed to be a blog under an assumed name, yet her former employers manage to find her from it. Her next boyfriend Carlos, even manages to locate her real family and find out that an intervention is not really anything Kendra is interested in! Whatever she is getting up to during her ever increasing blackouts, she has no idea, but waking up in a school playground, practically naked, covered in blood, with a bloody knife in her hands, has to make her worry. Thoughts about what could be happening to her, after normal doctors can find nothing wrong with her, make her realise someone added a comment to her blog that gave her the answer ages ago, if only she had paid any attention to it. Her personal demon has introduced her to torture and the practices of demons, jinns and other occult figures in a hellworld dimension of her own imagination. She is nearing the end of her rope and believes death may be an easier option than continuing as she has been. She can succumb control of her body to her inner demon, or fight back, if it’s not too late!
You will probably want to read the other two books in the series first, to fully understand what she is undergoing, but only of you like the blog or diary entry style of writing. It is quite a dark read with a lot of violence and mental health issues and anguish. Although the blurb states that this is the last book in this series, there will apparently be more tales from Kendra Temple in the future. For me, that may be a bit too many, as I really didn’t like much of how this story flowed. Some seem to like it as they could just pick it up and stop and start as they like. I would disagree with that, as the story gets very complex and if you don’t understand what was going on, you would lose the thread of the tale completely. The premise of taking a job from an ad on Craigslist and thinking it will turn out well, is about the same as buying something advertised on Fbok, coming from China and not being scammed by either not being sent the actual item, or being sent a cheap and nasty item that has nothing to do with what you ordered in the first place! Just because all sorts of social media are now popular, doesn’t mean that books and stories really have to follow the short and sharp tweet lengths, to tell a story. I managed to read the whole series, but probably could have given up on it quite easily, even though I quite like paranormal themed reads. I received an ARC copy of this book, which included the first two books of the series, and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
jwdonley's review
4.0
I read this in one sitting! So much fun. This was an extremely fast paced supernatural thriller. Loved it. I can't wait to see what Kendra does next.
tattooedhorrorreader's review
dark
medium-paced
4.0
Overall, really enjoyed all 3 books of the Demonic Diaries series, each was definitely a wild ride. Super dark, but also grimly funny. Really enjoyed the casual/chaotic blog style, which made for fast reading.
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