DESOLATION BY DEREK LANDYI got this from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. HARPER COLLINS (EBOOK), 2016
512 PAGES
Reeling from their bloody encounter in New York City at the end of Demon Road, Amber and Milo flee north. On their trail are the Hounds of Hell - five demonic bikers who will stop at nothing to drag their quarries back to their unholy master.
Amber and Milo's only hope lies within Desolation Hill - a small town with a big secret; a town with a darkness to it, where evil seeps through the very floorboards. Until, on one night every year, it spills over onto the streets and all hell breaks loose.
And that night is coming...
THEY WERE ALIVE WHEN SHE WALKED IN.
Desolation did not impress me. Landy had a good thing going with Demon Road and has decided to crap all over it. All the things I enjoyed about Demon Road; the humour and craziness has been twisted into something quite awful. There is a lot more violence in this book - and not the kind of violence that is really needed for the plot. Some of it can be expected however a lot of it comes across as torture porn. Absolutely unnecessary. There are a lot of new characters introduced and to be honest not one of them had to be there and most of them were little more than cannon fodder or padding. Pointless again. Don't even think about getting me started on the demon hunting Scooby Gang who have a dog and their cringe-worthy stereotype characters including Linda the Chinese girl with huge boobs. I liked Amber in Demon Road. I sympathised with her plight even though she could shift into a demon form. I hate her in Desolation. She's a brat and a horrible one. She starts to hate her human aspect and is generally a pain in the ass. Then we come onto her cringe-worthy sexual relationship. Amber is 16 and while 18 is the age of consent where the book is set I didn't have an issue with this. A sad fact of modern life is that people under the age of consent have sex and end up pregnant. But I digress. Their relationship is cringe-worthy and not even believable. Kelly likes Amber's human face and is pissed when Amber shifts where they're getting it on. It's as if Landy made a list of every lesbian stereotype and shoe-hammered them all into Kelly and Amber's relationship. I also found myself uncomfortable because it seemed like Kelly, who is four years older much more experienced than Amber, who has never been kissed completely manipulated her which is not okay. I was really looking forward to Desolation but it was not good at all.
