You can’t say Andrew Piper’s new novel has an original title. Checking on Amazon I have found a few books with identical or similar names (and I don’t even mention close relatives, like my favourite Dostoevsky’s novel, Demons). When you open it and began reading, however, that feeling of deja vu quickly disappears. Two other things you will notice immediately about The Damned: it’s dark, quirky and well written. And it’s scary in a subtle but quite effective way.
The cover tells you all you need to know, and even more:
“Ashleigh and Danny Orchard are twins, not that you’d ever tell by looking at them – Danny distant and shy, Ash beautiful and accomplished. But there’s a secret in the Orchard house: Ash is a monster, a psychopath who can feel only through bringing others pain. When Ash and Danny are caught in a fire on their 16th birthday, both of them die. But only Danny comes back. Since then, Ash has haunted Danny, denying him any form of normal life … or love. When Danny meets Willa and her son Eddie he glimpses the life he could have without Ash. To stop her from ruining his new-found happiness, Danny must venture into the frightening underworld of Detroit, where he will unearth the mystery of the night his and Ash’s fates changed for ever.”
This sets the stage for what follows, and if you expect a compelling, scaring story, well, you won’t be disappointed. While it’s easy to root for Danny, the MC, I have to say I was especially attracted by his dead sister Ash for a series of reasons – her accurate characterisation, her nasty ways, her haunting presence among the living. Paraphrasing Mae West, when she’s good (faking it, of course) she’s very good, but when she’s (openly) bad, she’s better – and that alone would make The Damned worth reading, even if your not a fan of the supernatural in general.
Piper’s writing style is another, and even under this aspect I was fully satisfied. It’s not my first book (I had already noticed this talented author since The Demonologist – an amazing novel I certainly recommend), and the second one lived up to my (high) expectations, even though the two are fairly different.
Anything I didn’t like here? No, not really. This is one of the rare cases I felt the paranormal element is handled the way it should in order to really scare the reader – i.e. not using outright horror or pure fantasy, but adding a *hellish* (technically speaking) premise to an otherwise “normal” life. This makes it chilling: it could happen to anybody.
It doesn’t come as a surprise that the novel has received some great reviews, both from the blogosphere (I link here just a couple – one and two – among many) and from the press. One for all, The New York Time Book Review, which states: “Smart, inventive….this is what demons—living or otherwise, human or not—do best: they mesmerise, they seduce, they stop us in our tracks.”
And seduced I certainly was – to the point that I got myself yet another Pyper’s book, The Killing Circle, which promises to grant me a few more sleepless nights.
For more about Andrew Pyper and The Damned, see the author’s website.
(Where I got it: Netgalley, as ARC from the publisher, Orion – thank you).
Thanks for the link up Stephen! Totally agree with you, I loved this book and I’m chomping at the bit to go back and pick up The Demonologist. You’re not the first person to recommend that one.:-D
Hello Tammy, I really loved The Demonologist. Won’t say anything – just read it and let me know your views 🙂
It sounds like a great book…A very catching plot, indeed. All my best wishes, dear Stephen! Aquileana 😀
Thanks, I’m sure you would like it – and The Demonologist too, which it’s something more literary and as scary…