Book Review - Demon Road (Derek Landy)

(This review contains spoilers)

Demon Road is the latest book from Derek Landy, author of the bestselling Skulduggery Pleasant series. It follows a teenager named Amber Lamont, who learns that she and her parents are demons, and that her parents want to kill her so they can gain more power from an agent of the Devil known as the Shining Demon. In a bid to escape them, Amber flees across the American landscape with a mysterious driver named Milo, and an irritating hitchhiker named Glen who has his own supernatural business to take care of.

The most striking thing about this book was its difference in tone to the Skulduggery Pleasant books. While that series was dark, the pacing was quick and punchy. Here, the pacing is slower and there was more of an emphasis on dread, with occasional bouts of action to break things up. This oppression makes itself known from the start when we see Amber's unhappy life; while her parents aren't outright abusive, their neglect and the effect this has on Amber's confidence leaves a lasting impression nonetheless.

The story opens with Amber being abused by two unpleasant customers at the diner where she works, and later getting attacked by them, which triggers her first demonic transformation. It's a nasty way to open the story, and sets the tone early on. Similarly, when Amber, Milo and Glen visit one town that's been traumatised by a serial killer, or another that's been infested by vampires, Landy spends some time describing the overall mood of the setting before he makes the actual cause of distress explicit.

However, these attempts at darkness are spoiled somewhat by Landy's injections of humour, which I don't think work as well here as they did in Skulduggery. Demon Road is clearly aiming to be more serious and adult, so to notice the same speech patterns and irreverant humour from before took me out of story. Glen Morrison, an Irish traveller, seems composed entirely of this sort of humour. Right from the beginning, his irritating of Amber and Milo is meant to make him funny and endearing, but only made him jar with the rest of the story. Glen could be compared to Vaurien Scapegrace from the previous series, another character who existed for comic relief. But whereas Scapegrace was a minor character, Glen is more prominent and his goofiness is more in-your-face as a result.

I didn't care too much for the other characters either, especially Milo. While I appreciate Landy paying homage to the Lone Gunman archeype, I didn't care too much for Milo's sullenness, as it seemed to be his only character trait. Amber felt a little more fleshed out, as we're given an insight into her thoughts throughout, but I still felt like more could have been done with her. She was a decent protagonist at best, but somehow she didn't stand out in my mind that much.

Amber's parents were also a disappointment. I find power for its own sake to be a weak motivation, unless the villain is dynamic and charismatic enough to carry the material. Neither Billy or Betty Lamont were strong enough to do so. Finally, there's a freelance journalist named Edgar Spurrier. I put a spoiler warning on this review just to be polite, but really, was anyone shocked when he turned out to be evil? I didn't find him sinister enough, nor funny enough to make any kind of impression on me. I hate to keep coming back to Skulduggery (but not really, because I love those books) but Landy has written some top-notch villains that you either loved or loved to hate – China Sorrows, Billy-Ray, the Torment, the Remnants, Kitana – and it's a crying shame that he couldn't do the same here.

The use of horror is the book's saving grace, but it's done very well, and there really seemed to be more creativity going on here than any other aspect. Dacre Shanks's dollhouse of terror was a fun moment (if a little derivative of Anathem Mire – I'm sorry, I'll stop), as was the fight in the Varga Hotel. Amber's fight with a hitman was a nice moment of gore, and the wood-witch reaches proper toe-curling levels of disturbing. The story does manage to save one of its characters from being a complete waste, although poor Glen ends up a little dead and forlorn as a result. Hopefully that will make him more interesting later, perhaps if he tries to fight his vampirism. I get the sense that Landy cared more for his horror set-pieces than fleshing out his characters. I hate to sound harsh, but that's how I truly felt reading this. I only say it because I care.

Can I recommend Demon Road? If you like horror, I say it's worth checking out. Its grim, slow-burning tone make for heavier going than Landy's previous works, but I'm sure some people will appreciate this more mature approach. I might check out the sequels in due course, though I won't be scrambling for them as much as I was for this. When I do, I hope to find more reason to love them than I did here.