#338 - Review of Carpe Demon: Confessions of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom by Julie Kenner.

[reileen]

Kate Connor used to be a Level Four Demon Hunter for the Vatican. Now she's a Level Four Model Housewife, juggling the demands of her teenage daughter, her toddler son, and her ambitious politician husband. She thought she long left the world of demon hunting, but the demons have other ideas, turning up in the pet food aisle of the local San Diablo Wal-Mart and crashing through Kate's kitchen window one hour before a major cocktail party. Apprehensive about her rusty skills but determined to protect her friends and family, Kate races against a high demon from hell to find a famed artifact that could potentially raise the dead - a lot of dead.

The writing style is clear and smartly written, although I thought there were times where the author spent a little too much time on minutiae. I really liked how she handled the various twists and turns of the plot, though perhaps I'm only more aware of them because I've been reading up lately on how to analyze the parts of a story's plot.

The worldbuilding is (perhaps appropriately) a little bland and generic. I tend to have little patience for parenthood-centric stories, so that aspect of this book simultaneously bored me but also fascinated me with its depiction of a "mythical norm" sort of family. There's not much to write home about the demon-hunting Forza of the Vatican or the demons themselves, either. But it's the combination of these two aspects that provides a somewhat different reading experience from the typical urban fantasy stories. Carpe Demon, I suppose, would be an example of "suburban fantasy", hah.

Carpe Demon is a solid effort, and recommended for those who want something slightly out of the ordinary from straight contemporary fiction, but not as otherworldly as some urban fantasy stories can get. Myself, though, I'm not sure whether I'll pick up the next couple of books.

Comments

[pinkpolarity.livejournal.com]

I tried to read that and couldn't get more than a couple of chapters into it. I really dislike the assumption that suburban, 30-something=parent-- I mean, that book is kind of urban "hen lit", and it follows the usual chick lit (20something, single, wanting to marry)-> hen lit (30s, with kids) pattern. Apparently childfree, female 30 and 40 year old protagonists don't exist. I know that's the publishing industry's fault and not this specific book's fault, but it still puts me off reading books with suburban mothers.

As for Ann Aguirre's book, I haven't read her SF but I have read her urban fantasy ("Blue Diablo"), and it had a part in it that was really, really transphobic. Apparently "tranny alley" scared her character more than all the necromancers and black magic in the book.