Thursday, October 20, 2011

Review: "Retro Demonology" by Jana Oliver

"Retro Demonology" (The Demon Trapper's, #0.5)
by Jana Oliver

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Reading Grade: Young Adult (short story)
Publishing Type: traditional
Publication Date: December 13, 2010
Source: Kindle store (freebie)
Age Rating: 13+

Before Riley Blackthorne can take on Grade Five demons, she has to trap her very first. Her debut solo trapping experience should be a breeze, just a harmless Grade One after all. But throw in some dippy hippies (whose peace signs and Patchouli really aren’t driving any demons away), one mischievous demon, and a run-in with the police, and Riley might not be able to pull it off...

My Review

This is another of many ebook-only prequels to a novel series meant to get you to read the first book's preview. Well, I don't mind if that's the only purpose of the story, but I'd like an interesting story that gets me … well, interested in reading further material. I think this very short story (which took up only 33 percent of my Kindle file) is actually funny, but there isn't much conflict.

Riley Blackthorne is a teenage demon trapper in a near-future Atlanta, Georgia that is aware of its demon population. She is sent to the house of a client in need of her demon trapping abilities. The demon is the most innocuous kind and really just looks like a Brownie, in faerie terms. It pees everywhere, curses, and she does something to make it sleepy, then takes off with it. Then, it wakes, gets free of its confines, and nearly causes Riley to crash her car.

The plot is rather mundane, although a couple of characters, the retro-hippie clients, were hilarious. Seriously channeling The Grateful Dead. That alone kind of saves me from giving this a lesser star rating. Still, I'm most likely going to pass on this novel series (The Demon Trappers) because I need something more intriguing to entice me to read it.

My score: 2.5 out of 5 stars.


7 comments:

  1. Hmmm another e-book prequel. I really wish authors wouldn't put just random stuff out to get people interested. This actually sounds like it could be a really good short story but I don't know if the writing would be worth my time based on your review.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I actually thought this was really cute & funny. It's so short it's hard not to give it a try.Hate that you were sorta "Meh" about it. Better luck next time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Lan: There just wasn't enough conflict in the story for me. It was a perfectly nice story, but not very interesting. You may like it, though. It's free, so there's no risk.

    @Andrea: I'm glad you liked it! Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I'm fine that some things just aren't written for the population I reside in, and that's fine.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Will pass on this one, then! Conflict junkie, am I.

    (Am reading Flash Gold right now, after your earlier review - fun story!)

    ReplyDelete
  5. @BJ: Me, too! (Glad you like "Flash Gold". It is a really fun story.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey! I love your scoring stars! They are cute!

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Mindy: Thanks! I love your name. It's super cute.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...