The Demonologist

By: Michael Laimo

Narrated by: Kevin R. Tracy

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Is Bev Mathers going crazy? He's been hearing chilling voices in his head, seeing nightmarish visions that just can't be true. And it keeps getting worse and worse. No, unfortunately for Bev, he's completely sane. What's taking control of him is far more terrifying than insanity. And it has an unimaginable purpose....

Bev has become an innocent pawn in an infernal game, a victim of hellish forces beyond understanding. His visions of blood and debauchery are growing more ghastly every day. Some of them - the most shocking - are real. Bev can feel his mind, his body, his very soul slipping away. Will his only hope or his eternal damnation come from...the demonlogist?

©2005 Michael Laimo (P)2014 David N. Wilson

The demonologist is a good listen

I hesitated about downloading this book and had it in my wish list for a while. I'm glad I finally listened to it. Story is decent and the fact that the male character was named Bev kept me at attention. Narration was excellent.

For your consideration

Let me start by saying I respect the effort of Michael Laimo in creating this novel. I'm sure I couldn't do half as good if I tried. That said, here are my thoughts on "The Demonologist"
Overall I rate this novel ☆☆☆. The experience was entertaining, and moved along at a brisk pace.
The performance earned ☆☆☆☆ in my opinion. The narrator did a great job of emphasizing dialogue correctly when required. This added to the overall paranoid feeling you get while listening to the story. His tone is soft overall, lending believability to his female dialogue.
The story earned a solid ☆☆☆ rating. I debated four stars for a minute but settled with the three. I found the story to be a fun take on the possession/demon themed trope. Without spoiling the plot for you, let's just say there are a couple pretty clever twists within the main story that add spice to the drama unfolding before us listeners. However, taken as a whole, the story is good, not great.
The main reason I wanted to review this novel has to do with the author's style of writing. I have never encountered this "issue" before and because it affected my listening experience I found it worthy of mentioning.
As I was getting into the meat of the story, a couple hours into the book, I began to notice something. It was starting to pull me out of the novel's grasp. I was losing focus. Trying to put my finger on it, I went to trusty old Google and searched something like, "what's it called when a writer becomes too descriptive/uses too many metaphors". There appeared an answer to my query. The literary term I saw was "Purple Prose".
Now you may think that I am being overly critical, or splitting hairs in an attempt to find some fault in the book. That of course is not true. This issue found me. It poked me and prodded me until I had no choice but to acknowledge it.
The amount of adjectives, adverbs, and overall metaphors within this novel has to be on the highest end ever. If you were an English student and needed an example of purple prose look no further. There is not a noun or verb safe from the author's need to flesh it out for us. The rain doesn't simply fall to the streets. In this story it is more like "The cold, wind swept driving rain pummels down onto the concrete like a boxer's fists pounding a woozy opponent in the 12th round of a heavyweight prize fight."
In the beginning I enjoyed the descriptive writing and found it useful in painting a picture of the scenes in my head. But by the middle of the novel I was just waiting for the next metaphor to fall, trying to guess beforehand what it may be. So, ironically, the thing the author was doing in his attempt to ensnare me into his world had the exact opposite effect. I was losing focus, interest, and desire to continue.
Of course I did continue, and enjoyed the story to its conclusion. It may certainly be more of a "me" thing here and most listeners will not even notice. But, if you're anything like me, beware.
Thanks again to the author for a fun, exciting, and yes, scary story. I would love to know your opinion of this review Mr. Laimo. As you might've said, " I will wait with baited breath, like a spurned lover at the altar of her 3rd and hopefully final marriage, for your response!"
WAP