Review: The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper
Title: The Demonologist Author: Andrew Pyper
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Orion Books Published: May 2013
Paperback: 285 pages
Stand alone or Series: Stand alone
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher
My thanks to Andrea and Anika at Jonathan Ball
The desperate search for his missing daughter will take a father to hell and back...
Professor David Ullman is among the world's leading authorities on demonic literature. Not that he's a believer. He sees what he teaches as a branch of the imagination and nothing more. So when offered a luxury trip to Venice to consult on a 'phenomenon', he accepts, taking his eleven-year-old daughter Tess with him.
Amidst the decadent splendour of the city, David makes his way to the address he's been asked to visit. What he witnesses in the tiny attic room shakes him to his core: a man restrained in a chair, clearly insane. But what David hears the man say is worse. The voice of his father, dead for thirty years, repeating the last words he ever spoke to his son. Words that have left scars – and a mystery – behind.
Terrified, David is determined to leave with Tess as quickly as possible. But he can't shake the feeling that something is following him. And then, before his eyes on the roof of their hotel, Tess disappears. But as she falls into the Grand Canal's waters, she utters a plea: Find me.
Review: In The Demonologist, Andrew Pyper has created a book laced with currents of menace and mystery that will have you turning the pages late into the night to find out what happens next, while at the same time hoping that you'll never know.
I love the cover art for this particular edition. The view of Venice in brilliant shades of blue with the sin glinting off of the famous buildings and gondolas seems idyllic. It's only when you look closer that the peace of the scene is shattered. First, there is the tiny black figure in the top right of the scene falling with arms outstretched towards the waiting water. And then in the bottom right of the scene the shifting lines of the currents in the canal are transformed into a demonic visage, waiting for the falling figure with mouth wide open. The cover depicts the start of Professor Ullman's journey as his daughter falls towards the Grand Canal. But it is also symbolic of the novel as a whole – sometimes you need to look closer to see the whole picture.
The Demonologist is the first of Andrew Pyper's books that I have read and I was impressed by his ability to draw the reader into the story and the paranormal world he has envisaged. This is horror the way I enjoy it – a building sense of wrongness and menace that doesn't rely on cheap tricks to affect the reader. Rather, as the story progresses the reader becomes so immersed in it that the horror and unease build like a rising tide and sweeps them along in its wake.
There are numerous references to John Milton's Paradise Lost throughout the book, but it is not necessary for you to have read this epic poem to understand the story. All the information you need is relayed seamlessly through the main character, Professor David Ullman, without muddying the story with obscure references and academic discussions. Paradise Lost chronicles the fall of Lucifer and the rebel angels as well as that of man. Themes from the poem are woven through the book and add depth to the story.
David Ullman is an academic. An English professor who specialises in literature dealing with the demonic and the divine, with a specific interest in Milton's Paradise Lost. A demonologist. Yet he doesn't believe in any of it. “The mind is its own place, and in it self Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
These words, as spoken by Lucifer in Paradise Lost, resonate with him as he believes that good and evil are purely man-made distinctions. This contradiction between knowledge and belief makes David an intriguing character. And it is this contradiction that Pyper explores as he takes David on his own journey through hell – and, like all mythological heroes who take this journey, he is transformed by it.
The two other characters who play an important role on David's journey and subsequent transformation are his daughter Tess and his friend O'Brien. Tess, while not physically present through most of the book, is a central figure in the narrative. Her disappearance signals the start of David's journey and she is his lodestone as he navigates his way through a world of myth brought to life. When Dante descended into hell in his The Divine Comedy he was accompanied by a guide, Virgil. In much the same way O'Brien is the voice of reason in David's unravelling reality. She is a strong presence who centres him and forces him to look deeper. To question.
The Demonologist is an unnerving and well written book that will make you want to sleep with the lights on long after you've finished reading it.
Rating: 8
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Orion Books Published: May 2013
Paperback: 285 pages
Stand alone or Series: Stand alone
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher
My thanks to Andrea and Anika at Jonathan Ball
The desperate search for his missing daughter will take a father to hell and back...
Professor David Ullman is among the world's leading authorities on demonic literature. Not that he's a believer. He sees what he teaches as a branch of the imagination and nothing more. So when offered a luxury trip to Venice to consult on a 'phenomenon', he accepts, taking his eleven-year-old daughter Tess with him.
Amidst the decadent splendour of the city, David makes his way to the address he's been asked to visit. What he witnesses in the tiny attic room shakes him to his core: a man restrained in a chair, clearly insane. But what David hears the man say is worse. The voice of his father, dead for thirty years, repeating the last words he ever spoke to his son. Words that have left scars – and a mystery – behind.
Terrified, David is determined to leave with Tess as quickly as possible. But he can't shake the feeling that something is following him. And then, before his eyes on the roof of their hotel, Tess disappears. But as she falls into the Grand Canal's waters, she utters a plea: Find me.
Review: In The Demonologist, Andrew Pyper has created a book laced with currents of menace and mystery that will have you turning the pages late into the night to find out what happens next, while at the same time hoping that you'll never know.
I love the cover art for this particular edition. The view of Venice in brilliant shades of blue with the sin glinting off of the famous buildings and gondolas seems idyllic. It's only when you look closer that the peace of the scene is shattered. First, there is the tiny black figure in the top right of the scene falling with arms outstretched towards the waiting water. And then in the bottom right of the scene the shifting lines of the currents in the canal are transformed into a demonic visage, waiting for the falling figure with mouth wide open. The cover depicts the start of Professor Ullman's journey as his daughter falls towards the Grand Canal. But it is also symbolic of the novel as a whole – sometimes you need to look closer to see the whole picture.
The Demonologist is the first of Andrew Pyper's books that I have read and I was impressed by his ability to draw the reader into the story and the paranormal world he has envisaged. This is horror the way I enjoy it – a building sense of wrongness and menace that doesn't rely on cheap tricks to affect the reader. Rather, as the story progresses the reader becomes so immersed in it that the horror and unease build like a rising tide and sweeps them along in its wake.
There are numerous references to John Milton's Paradise Lost throughout the book, but it is not necessary for you to have read this epic poem to understand the story. All the information you need is relayed seamlessly through the main character, Professor David Ullman, without muddying the story with obscure references and academic discussions. Paradise Lost chronicles the fall of Lucifer and the rebel angels as well as that of man. Themes from the poem are woven through the book and add depth to the story.
David Ullman is an academic. An English professor who specialises in literature dealing with the demonic and the divine, with a specific interest in Milton's Paradise Lost. A demonologist. Yet he doesn't believe in any of it. “The mind is its own place, and in it self Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
These words, as spoken by Lucifer in Paradise Lost, resonate with him as he believes that good and evil are purely man-made distinctions. This contradiction between knowledge and belief makes David an intriguing character. And it is this contradiction that Pyper explores as he takes David on his own journey through hell – and, like all mythological heroes who take this journey, he is transformed by it.
The two other characters who play an important role on David's journey and subsequent transformation are his daughter Tess and his friend O'Brien. Tess, while not physically present through most of the book, is a central figure in the narrative. Her disappearance signals the start of David's journey and she is his lodestone as he navigates his way through a world of myth brought to life. When Dante descended into hell in his The Divine Comedy he was accompanied by a guide, Virgil. In much the same way O'Brien is the voice of reason in David's unravelling reality. She is a strong presence who centres him and forces him to look deeper. To question.
The Demonologist is an unnerving and well written book that will make you want to sleep with the lights on long after you've finished reading it.
Rating: 8
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