ARC Book Review: On Demon Wings by Karina Halle

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On Demon Wings (Experiments in Terror #5)

Karina Halle

Review of Lying Season (Experiments in Terror #4)

Publication Date: May 13th 2012

Publisher: Metal Blonde Books

Pages:

Genre: Horror, Paranormal

When the life you wanted has crumbled beneath your fingers, there’s nothing left to do but pick up the pieces and soldier on. You’ve done this before.

But what happens when you no longer feel like yourself anymore? When fires spontaneously start-up around you, when you hear growling coming from underneath your bed, and you no longer recognize your face in the mirror. What happens then?

Ghost-hunter Perry Palomino doesn’t have much time to find out. Now, the evil she used to hunt is a lot closer to home. It’s inside of her, taking over her life bit-by-terrifying bit, and there’s only one person who can help her. If part of her doesn’t kill him first.

Oh. My. God. This is possibly one of the best books I've ever read, I'm not even exaggerating. It is so good that I am going to have to come back to this review in like a day to write most of it because I a still reeling from the experience. Needless to say this is the best written and scariest so far of the Experiments in Terror series. Halle has completely out did herself and I am on edge to see what will happen next. Why is this book not on every horror lover's shelf? It certainly deserves to be.

Now, personally, having had a couple of ghost experiences myself, I find stories about hauntings incredibly fascinating. I am one of those people who watch shows such as "A Haunting", "Celebrity Ghost Story", "The Haunted", etc. So I have a bias towards more personal experiences, and that is what we get in On Demon Wings. Perry as a person is haunted, as opposed to a place, and I sit there reading, freaking out along with her, upset her parents are acting the way they are (though very realistically so). Because I believe in ghosts and such, I find this book the scariest out of all the Experiment in Terror books, there is a sense of realism in this book that isn't in the others. The kind of things that happens to Perry, are similar to experiences I've heard happening to other people and it's that that makes this book so scary.

Also, I have no idea if it's on purpose or not, but I love that there is a Rosemary's Baby feel to some of the book. I used to be really into old Horror flicks, and that is one that scared me in a psychological way, so good for that.

Now, steering away from the plot itself and towards the characters, once again Perry hits the nail with acting so much like me. The way she completely shoves off everything from Experiments in Terror and attempts to make a new life gave me chills because I had to do the same exact thing recently because of a "best friend breakup", and as people tried to reach out to Perry, pretty much just as I was reading those part, I had a friend from the past reach out to me (talk about scary coincidences). That aside though, what strikes me is that it is very realistically portrayed. Perry is running, and who can really blame her? Of course you can't run from vengeful ghosts.

Perry's family is well done as well. I love how Ada steps up. She is still one-hundred percent the character of Ada, but as the books have progressed you can really tell that she and Perry are finally connecting as sisters and that connection leads to just what Perry needed here. On the other hand, Perry's parents react to things in a very realistic way, they would much rather believe that something is wrong with Perry's head than something paranormal.

This is possibly one of the longest reviews I've ever written (and of course on the blog there is still the Spoiler section), but honestly this is one of the best books I've ever read. After finishing this book I set my e-reader down and had to take a moment. I really wish I could pick out everything that I enjoyed and why, because I'd love to convince everyone to read this series, if only to get to this book right here. I just cannot believe I have to wait for the next one, I want to read it so badly.

Dex to the rescue! I love you Dex, I really do, you get things done, I truly think Perry would have died without his interference, which also reminds me, thank you Ada I love you as well and I'm honored I got to host your blog post. It is really good, in my opinion, that they had that time away from each other. I think Perry and Dex really realized how much they needed each other in that silence and something about Dex made me feel like he had grown a bit since last time.

The use of a medicine man for the exorcism was also a stroke of genius on Halle's part. It gives a completely different flavor than the usual "priest and exorcism" route and it connects things back to Red Fox, which is a literary technique I adore.

Speaking of Red Fox, I want to kill Maximus, slowly and painfully. He's so two-faced it makes me just ARGH! Every time he went to Perry's parents and said that he was just humoring Perry, I would get so angry that my poor Kobo e-reader was almost chucked across the room. It's hard enough for Perry, without him making it worse! I also got pretty pissed when I realize that him ingratiating himself with Perry was a form of revenge on Dex, although so was Perry's reason for sleeping with Max, but I like Perry and I don't like Max, so there.

Oh and the great revelation of Pippa completely took me by surprise! There were so many clues that I am quite ashamed I hadn't put them together that Pippa was Perry's grandmother. It really does make complete sense why Dex and Perry both see Pippa, and it also gives a feeling of "destiny" or "fate" about Dex and Perry meeting. They were already connected before, so how cool is it that they have found each other and have such great chemistry. It also gives reasons to why Perry's parents are so ready to believe that Perry is crazy, her mother has dealt with this before and decided that her own mother was crazy, so of course Perry must be crazy as well. With Ada starting to see things as well though, I wonder where things are going to go.

Read this book, period. Well actually, read the first four books and then read this book. Even though I know from other books how great Halle's writing is, I had not expected On Demon Wings to be that much better. Others may have different opinions, but for me this is my favourite and that bodes well for the series, since it just keeps getting better and better.

5 Bookmarks

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