In a world where people can be possessed by demons, the main character is trying to make sense of his own past demonic possessions. The narrator ends up assembling a strange cast of characters who help him solve the mystery of how and why demonic possession happens. This is a weird, but ultimately very fun story with some good world-building. ( )

Pop culture romp through an America in which demons possess people every day. Really great science fiction/fantasy/culture mash-up. ( )

I have enjoyed everything I've read by Daryl Gregory, and highly recommend his stories and novels to everyone. ( )

I suppose this is the first Daryl Gregory that I really really loved. And since it's only my second novel, it might be not too far a stretch to start thinking he might be one of THOSE AUTHORS.

You know, Good Ideas, Great Execution, Cool Characters, Deep Plot... and while we're at it, it's a fantasy/SF hybrid with major horror undertones, a vast world-building mythology/history doing an alternate universe diverging from the '50's and ending in the present.

DEMONS. Or is it daemons? Whatever, it's awesome. Possession all over the place and while there are still people with mental health issues, real demons are possessing people out in the open and it's kinda obvious as hell it's a real thing. So real that it's on the law books. Media. You name it. It's there. And this is just the setup.

The rest of this novel has surprises. So I'm not gonna start spoiling stuff, but the fact that this begins quirky and develops fascinating twists and never strays far from a gorgeously drawn world with complicated and cool characters in a VERY un-UF way, becoming more of a thriller than anything, makes me want to jump for joy.

It's a serious treatment of both mental health, fantasy, and Jungian analysis. :) And because it leans fully on the hardcore fantasy side rather than a trite dismissal on the traditional fiction side just makes me weep with joy. :)

So yeah, I love this stuff. :) Quality all the way through. :) ( )

Like many other reviewers, I really enjoyed the worldbuilding. In particular, I liked the uneasy linkage between science and mysticism, and the sense that no one actually has the answers and everyone is working from their own incomplete understanding. But also like other reviewers, I felt it faltered in the last third. ( )