Review – The Demon’s Grave (The Demon’s Grave, Book 1) by E.M. MacCallum (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 434 pages
Publisher: National Library & Archives of Canada
Release Date: June 17, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-0994778215
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in The Demon’s Grave series
Source: eGalley through NetGalley.com
Rating: 2/5 stars

I got an eGalley of this book to read and review through NetGalley. The premise really intrigued me but this was more of a horror book than a paranormal read. The books starts out really slow; you are about 25% though the book before anything happens. There are also some portions that are awkwardly written and hard to follow.

Nora is plagued by strange messages and visions and is starting to doubt her sanity…again. Then her and her friends decide to spend the weekend at Adrian’s old Victorian house. This group of kids finds and opens a mysterious door they shouldn’t and end up having to go through a series of seven challenges in order to return to their world. The challenges take place in a sort of horror underground labyrinth and basically consist of them confronting their own horrific nightmares.

So let me start out by saying horror really isn’t my thing and this is very much a horror novel. I like dark fantasy and creepy stories, but that is not what this book is. This book is a series of horrific nightmarish scenes (spiders eating people alive and crawling into noses and ears, etc) loosely strung together by a plot.

There are a lot of characters to follow and I didn’t really relate with any of them. The characters are presented in such a way that none of them are all that distinct.

The idea is kind of interesting but the pacing was just too slow in the beginning. The writing itself is okay; however some of the conversations and descriptions were a bit awkward sounding.

Overall I wasn’t really a fan of this book and wouldn’t personally recommend it. The book is more of a horror novel with lots of creeping and scenes with spiders eating people alive and horrors chasing kids through dark passages. Not what I was expecting given the description and not something I enjoyed reading. This paired with the slow start, occasionally awkward writing, and multitude of non-descript characters made this a no go for me. If you are a horror fan you might be more interested, it’s okay but not great.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge