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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Review: "Personal Demons" by Lisa Desrochers

Personal Demons is the debut Young Adult novel written by Lisa Desrochers. It follows Frannie Cavanaugh who’s blessed with a gift—maybe curse--that both Heaven and Hell can use. She chooses between Heaven and Hell in the form of Luc and Gabe all while navigating high school. Along the way, she learns about herself--her past, present and future come to light. Personal Demons captures and holds the attention of its audience because of the characters, supreme writing and unexpected ending.

Frannie Cavanaugh, the main character, is not perfect and we fall in love with her for it. If she were, her decision would be an easy one. There’s an old adage--Men want a whore in the bedroom and an angel in public. Well it applies to women too. And Luc and Gabe epitomize this adage. Luc is hot and dangerous and not having him in your bed would seem like a sentence in Hell, but you want to raise children with Gabe.

These awesome characters unite with their plot through the writing. The symbolism is rampant and used to give the sense of time, place and character. It goes beyond the fact that Luc represents Hell and Gabe Heaven. Ginger represents lust. And if you’ve ever heard the saying that you can smell fear, after reading Personal Demons you’ll know it smells like grapefruit.

Throw in the fantastically unexpected ending and Personal Demons becomes a book that you can’t put down. I found myself hoping half way through this novel that a ‘white picket fence’ lay somewhere in the future. Even though Personal Demons' 'white picket fence' hardly comes in the traditional form, it did not disappoint.

I truly enjoyed reading Personal Demons for its characters, unexpected ending and fantastic writing of a new and unique world where souls have a taste and a demon can make you run towards Hell instead of away. Personal Demons gets 5 out of 5 stars.

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