The Demonists is a urban fantasy from Thomas E. Sniegoski, to be released in April. The story takes something everyone has seen and watched at least once in their life, a ghost hunter or supernatural hunter show and twists it. What if it's real and what if something terrible happens because of these people poking about? Everyone has wondered about it, at least maybe I'm the sole weirdo who has so this was an unsettling and very appealing idea for me. John Fogg and his wife, a psychic medium Theodora are hosting their show when something terrible goes wrong and what should have been contained is released. Theodora is left in a coma and John is left in the center of a maelstrom of… let's just say really bad stuff.
For me the beginning of this was the strongest part and then the story seemed to taper off and wander. I'll be frank and say I read the first 20% then came down with a super nasty case of strep throat that kept me from reading for almost a week which could have something to do with this, but I had serious problems staying focused in on what was happening. I'd gain my footing back then my belief in the story would slip and I'd find myself rolling my eyes or growling in frustration. It simply stopped working. I was hoping for something fast, engaging, and maybe a little terrifying. I got that but almost as fast as it happened I lost it.
The overall plot for the story was something I am totally behind, and a few of the characters I really did enjoy. Our antagonist, The Teacher, has got to be one of the creepiest characters I've read in a while though his end game is something that I've seen done. Just because something is a bit of a trope doesn't make it bad, and The Teacher was something that even in the wandering of the book I was sucked to. I loved his segments and they nearly always got a shudder out of me. I'm never eating candy corn again.
Most however, again, I had trouble believing. The more I've thought about it I think perhaps it was the frequency of the jumps. The story constantly leaps from one character to the next with little to no indication of the leaps – in fact the copy I had sometimes would start a new character's view in a new spot with a simple paragraph break. Other times we would stay with someone past a double break. It made it confusing, and possibly aggravating.
For me this was disappointing, but it has promise. I think I'll be giving it another go if I can find a copy in paperback (hopefully with some better editing) and when I can sit down and blaze through. If it's something that does spark your interest, I'd say try it! Don't try to spread your reading out, definitely get it for that long weekend when you'll have the time to read. Fair warning as well, it may be a 'read during the day' kind of book.