My Demon by Lisa C Hinsley

Clive beguiles and seduces and only Alex can see, hear and touch him. The stranger comes bearing a gift … and a warning. With the fate of their worlds in the balance, Alex is the best candidate, hand-selected to save the human race, and Clive offers his guidance and support to help her fulfill her destiny.

It’s like having an imaginary friend but nineteen year old Alex soon learns that the line between reality and perception is murky, with consequences too terrible to ignore. The gift is ‘sight’ and what she sees are human shells, their souls forfeit, including the people closest to her.

Clive makes claims—and promises—manipulating and punishing at will until he drives her to incomprehensible acts of desperation. Terrified, Alex must decide if succumbing to her new reality is worth the price she must pay. Book Description

This book is in the fantasy/horror genre. Its a good length and well written and edited – those are my real bugbears in so many ebooks – the self publishing route opens up the market and is great for us readers but also means some really dire and poorly spelt books with huge glaring grammatical errors. Lisa has done an excellent job avoiding this and I'm sure its time well spent.

We begin with Alex, typical nineteen year old in that she works in clothes shop, has boyfriend and lives with her mum – though her mum has alcohol problems and Alex needs to be the adult in the household. She out with boyfriend Jeremy when she sees Clive, a demon. She initially thinks its the waccy baccy their consuming that’s too strong but as days pass and he keeps turning up she gradually believes he is real. He “helps” her out when she's in danger of being made homeless as mum hasn't paid rent and utilities. Clive tells her that her colleague is going to be sacked for stealing, shows her proof and says if she takes the money she needs it won't really matter as her friend is going to get sacked anyway.

Gradually Clive turns from friend to seducer – he's always had a seductive way even when in demon guise but when he drops that and appears as human Alex can't resist him. Then comes the bombshell, he gifts her the “sight” to be able to see the evil people and tells her she’s been specially chosen to save the world, but she needs to rid the world of these bad people who are in fact empty shells, although they appear real and are people she thought she knew.
She becomes more and more confused and upset at what she has to do, her behaviour is very erratic and concerns her family and friends. Finally she discovers incidents from her past when opens her eyes to what is happening and she has to make a tough decision.

It's an engrossing book, gradually drawing the reader into a world where nothing is as it seems and poor Alex has unwittingly become simply a pawn for Clive. We wonder how she can get out of the situation she's found herself in but doesn't want to be there, and sympathise with her even though she is committing some dreadful actions. It's clever the way Clive starts as helpful friend earning her trust, then becomes seducer and finally a bully telling her she has to commit horrific acts to save the world from destruction – if only she's remembered the old adage “never trust a demon” but then we'd not have this excellent book....

Horror isn't a genre I'd usually chose but this book isn't a blood'n'guts type but more a book that makes you consider choices and the horror is in the decisions she makes. As I said earlier its good length and well edited, and at only 99p for kindle a real bargain.

The stars: well I have to give it 4 even though its not a genre I’d usually chose (and didn't realise when I picked this book...speed reading previews again – I must stop doing that!) because it was so well written that I still enjoyed it.

                                         4 Stars!

You may purchase My Demon here : http://www.darkissreads.com/p/bookstore.html

You may find Lisa C. Hinsley on the web here : http://lisahinsley.weebly.com/

Reviewed by Midnight Ruby