Demon Chick by Marilyn Kaye

Jessica Hunsucker normally keeps to herself. Moving around a lot, she finds it easier to not make friends, and with her mother’s political position and a long deceased father, she hardly gets any family time either. But her world is about to get a whole lot crazier now that her mother’s on the campaign trail for the presidency. Whatever warm and fuzzy feelings Jessica ever had for her mother go straight out the door when she discovers what her mother has done—Margaret Hunsucker, aspiring presidential candidate, sold her firstborn daughter to the devil for political power. That’s why Jessica finds herself in an atrociously decorated suburban-style house the day after her sixteenth birthday. She’s in hell, literally, and apparently, she belongs to a demon named Brad now. It’s not much of a comfort to her that Brad is a pretty decent guy and that her new home is in one of hell’s nicer neighborhoods. And it’s even scarier when Jessica finds out the reality of her mother’s evil plans for not only the country, but the entire world. How in hell will Jessica find a way to stop her mother in time?

Demon Chick has such a unique and interesting premise for a novel, and for the most part, the story is that too. I’m fascinated by novels involving anything to do with the afterlife, so Kaye’s version of hell was a major selling point for me. In this novel, hell comes close to resembling a modern nation or even a business with its hierarchy of leadership and system for attracting new residents. Aside from the fact that most of hell’s residents are dead, Jessica’s new neighborhood would not be too out of place in the real world. I absolutely love how Kaye mixes myth with fact and fantasy with science. Character development was generally satisfactory, especially when it came to Jessica and Brad, but Jessica’s mom was completely unrealistic. Margaret Hunsucker is portrayed as a modern-day, far right almost beyond fascist, female Hitler. I suppose it’s possible for people to turn out that way, but I would’ve appreciated some background as to why Jessica’s mother would be motivated to act and think as she did. For me, the ending to this story was a little bizarre. I’m not sure I could think of an alternate to the events that did occur, but the novel would’ve been much better had the ending been a little longer. Overall, Demon Chick is an original and enjoyable novel that really goes to say, nothing is ever fair.

Demon Chick will be enjoyed by readers who also liked Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins, Devilish by Maureen Johnson, and Gorgeous by Rachel Vail.

Rating: 4.0

Review copy from Amazon Vine