Book Review: Logic of Demons: The Quest for Nadine's Soul by H.A. Goodman

Logic of Demons: The Quest for Nadine's Soul by H.A. Goodman

Reading Level: Young Adult
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1452018170
ISBN-13: 978-1452018171
Source: Sent from author for honest review
Cover: It's okay. It works for the novel and I like the flames fading into black.
First Sentence: "He couldn't stop staring at the ultrasound image."

Mini-Review: While Logic of Demons has merit in its story telling, it didn't hold me the way I would have liked.


Book Summary:

What would you do if the love of your life was murdered by a deranged killer? Would you become a vigilante and seek retribution? And would this revenge affect those you care for in the afterlife? 

Logic Of Demons The Quest for Nadine's Soul takes you on a journey inside the psyches of men and women forced to deal with the spiritual consequences of their decisions. Through the lives of a demon, two Angels, and a mysterious teenage girl, a plethora of politically and socially relevant issues ranging from the roots of genocide and sex trafficking to child conscription and religious fundamentalism are addressed in this fantasy thriller. Life as well as the afterlife converge in this novel to explain certain peculiarities of the human condition. 

Whether you are God fearing individual or an atheist, Logic Of Demons The Quest for Nadine's Soul addresses moral and theological issues of interest for people of all backgrounds.

Review:


Logic of Demons was an interesting exploration in all things religious and in this aspect, was a fascinating read. I enjoyed the main character's journey through Hell and back, learning the story of some of the other characters and the ending was certainly surprising. However, there were definitely aspects that didn't work for me.


Devon's journey was definitely one full of twists and turns. I was drawn into his plight from the beginning and wanted to know why and how his wife was ripped from him. I understood why he fell into temptation but him killing his wife's murderer really did cut off my connection with him. Afterward, he seemed very childish, falling for one lie after another. While I liked that he was so devoted to his wife, it bothered me that he was willing to forsake everything to be back with her. I was really glad that he learned to stop making rash decisions, even if he did believe he was going to be back with her. In that regard, his growth was refreshing.


I also found how Goodman portrayed demons very fascinating. The fact that they lied to each other to get the new recruits to follow suit was an interesting twist. The entire imagining of Hell was something I hadn't read before and felt fresh. I enjoyed picturing it as an office with stints selling The Formula and answering to "The Boss".


The way we were introduced to Nadine, the girl who could draw angels and demons was also great. I loved getting snippets of her stories throughout the novel and really helped solify the ending. I had no idea how it would end but becuase of these snippets of who Nadine was and what she did, it was a believalbe way for the story to end. It was a quest for Nadine's soul, we just don't find out until the end that she's alone on the journey.


While there were plenty of good things about this novel, it wasn't without its faults. The endless exploration did wear down on the story and interrupted the flow of the plot. By the middle of the novel, I felt that it was either trying to preach to me or that it was focusing too hard on the issues and forgoing the plot. I felt a lot of things could have been cut to allow the reader to interrupt what the author was trying to say instead of hammering it over and over again.


The writng was also a bit shaky. Some first novels don't feel like firsts, but this one did. It suffered from some over-writing and as mentioned before, it just felt like the author didn't trust that the reader could get the point. However, this only showed up every once and a while and for the most part was absent.


I enjoyed getting to know the other character but I felt a bit tricked about Devon's son and his wife. We go on a journey, and unbeknownst to Devon and the reader, we are actually with his son and his wife but his son and his wife pretend to be entirely different people. It was a bit frustrating because it was from these two journies that Devon learned that even if he does bad things for good reasons, the deeds are still bad. This is really Devon's breaking point where he finally starts to accept his own actions and because those people his wife and son were pretending to be didn't actually exist, it sort of cheapened the journey for me.


There were a lot of things about this novel that worked-- the main character's journey, the re-invention of Heaven and Hell and angels and demons and the surprise ending. But because a lot of the plot was buried in exploration, I grew a bit detached from everything else and lost interest about halfway through. This might be a book for some people but I certainly wouldn't reccommend it for everyone. Overall, I'm glad I read it but it's definitely not for the light hearted.

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