Review – Demon: A Memoir

Demon: A Memoir is a truly chilling tale about a mortal man’s brush with the eternal; as he’s ferried through a tale of the ages by an evil being older than time itself. This is a story of Lucifer’s fall, the creation of Eden, the fall of Adam and Christ’s victory on the cross, told by the unlikeliest of sources: a fallen angel, a demon in the service of the Great Prince of Lies himself.

Clayton is an editor at a moderately sized publishing house, and all he’s ever wanted in life has been destroyed. His own literary career has stalled, perhaps never to live again, his wife has left him after cheating on him for years, and he now lives alone, eats bad Chinese food, and struggles to move from one day to the next. Existence is a hollow sham, a cosmic joke, and as far as Clayton is concerned, life is a gray, empty husk.

Along comes Lucian, a mysterious client who says he’s got an appointment with Clayton because he wants to tell him his life story. At first, the editor brushes off the claim as the ravings of a crackpot, but it doesn’t take long for him to realize the truth: Lucian is far more than he claims, and the story he wants to tell is a tale to end all tales: the story of angel cast from heaven, consigned to damnation and an eternity as a demon.

The catch: Lucian offers it to Clayton as his book, a way for the downtrodden editor to rejuvenate his career and live the life he’s always dreamed of. However, as the story unfolds and Clayton becomes ever more obsessed with Lucian and his tale, the book editor begins to realize a startling truth: this story is his, and his final choice at the end may very well determine his eternal destiny.

Demon: A Memoir may very well be the most creative, mind-twisting novel of summer 2007. Tosca Lee does what few Christian authors have the guts to do: take a force of evil, a fallen angel, and craft a truly ingenious, clever, almost attractive character. Demon reads like the Christian version of Interview With A Vampire, because that’s what it is: an interview with a force of evil. Tosca tells us the story of creation from the opposite perspective – from an ethereal being that hates and envies humans for the grace God has bestowed upon them. This is a story that’s unlike any to date in the CBA, and a must have that will haunt the reader long after the last page.