Demonspawn
By Glenn Bullion
$0.99 (Kindle)
282 Pages
Horror
Review copy received from the author

Plot Summary:
Alex Teague tried to live a normal life. He was a normal high school senior . . . until he talked to his first ghost, exorcised his first demon, and cleansed his first haunted house. If only it ended there. Now a young man in his twenties, Alex makes a horrifying discovery. He is part demon. And the supernatural world won’t leave him alone.

The Review:
I originally found out about Glenn Bullion through a blog post from Jeff Bryan and, intrigued by the title of his novel, decided to give it a gander.

As the plot summary suggests, the novel is essentially about a guy named Alex who finds out that he has demonic powers and that he’s actually part demon himself (when you find out how, it’s more interesting that it initially sounds). Alex’s BFF is a Black girl named Cindy who he’s known since kindergarten when he stood up to a bully for her and got a lighter to the arm for his trouble. But instead of his flesh burning, nothing happened to him. This sets up what’s to come, and as Alex enters high school, he experiences more paranormal phenomena and finds himself embroiled in the world of ghosts and demons. He meets his first supernatural creature, a ghost possessed by a demonic entity, in the house of one of his classmates, Tammy, and finds that not only can he hurt demons with a touch, but also he can banish them.

His adventures continue into college when one night, Alex and a group of his friends go into a haunted house. We know by now that he’s going to bump into another ghost or demon, which he does. Something happens to make him immaterial; he can’t touch anything and no one can see him. He encounters a ghost in this state, McEllen, who tells him his family was murdered because the killers heard about their fortune, which he tells Alex where to find. Alex promptly materializes, finds the money, and divides the loot amongst his friends and sister.

He learns how to control going invisible and walking through walls thereafter, and also part of his arsenal are visions that can warn him of what’s about to happen to someone close to him, most notably both Cindy and his sister. He has a vision of Cindy being kidnapped and goes after her.

While it was interesting at first to see his powers manifest and to see what he’s capable of, he quickly becomes a Gary Stu, although thankfully, humans can touch him without dying immediately; he can also run for miles, and very quickly, without getting tired, at which point I thought, well, even Superman had kryptonite. Alex came off as essentially invulnerable with the notable exception of vampires and humans being able to hurt him. He seemed a wee bit too invincible for my taste, but again, he’s an appealing character who you’ll bond with and he doesn’t let his demonic side twist him. Through everything that happens, he’s able to remain, for all intents and purposes, human.

Although there are a few too many “ugly” jokes, which came off as immature at times, rather than playful, Alex and Cindy’s relationship is at the core of this novel and when she discovers what he really is, it’s endearing to see that she still wants to be with him and support him. However, the amount of times that Cindy, Alex and his sister, Alicia, have to constantly reassure each other that they’re hot and that they’re worthy of love, etc, gets irritating after a while, but these instances are thankfully kept to a minimum.

Eventually, he finds Cindy’s kidnappers who are also the thieves who killed McEllen’s family. Alex makes the big save and teaches them a lesson — don’t mess with a dude who has demonic powers.

Soon after, Alex and Cindy meet the woman who used to be his legal guardian, Beth, to find out more about his origins. Although he gets more than he bargained for, Beth also takes him to help a family with a haunted house. Once again, I won’t ruin the origins of Alex’s demonic powers, but suffice it to say, it could give “End of Days” a run for its money.

Also within his abilities is the power to go into the demon world, which, needless to say, isn’t pleasant. Although I would have preferred something more along the lines of “Infernal Angel” by Edward Lee, and more time spent in this world, I thought the author handled the descriptions decently.

We soon go back to a subplot alluded to earlier in the book when he befriends a sexy redhead vampire he meets at a club, though she threatened him the first time they met. She’s running from a group of hunters with suspiciously Nazi-sounding names, but it gets more interesting as the plot progresses. Although interesting, I felt that the vampire subplot could have been better integrated with the main overarching demon plotline, but when it starts to involve Alex on a personal level, the stakes go up (pun intended)

Overall, this is an enjoyable novel with sequel potential and a good ending.