It’s finally time for The Demon Star to come out! It’s tough reading ARCs because you can’t talk much about the book with anybody because nobody else has read it. I’m excited for other people to get into it.
When I was a kid, there were two main pieces of media that kept me awake at night. One was The Mummy, which I watched at 13 and then lay awake for many nights thinking of those horrible scarab beetles. The other was Animorphs, which is the reason that to this day I sleep with my blanket over my ear so a brain-controlling slug can’t get in there.
Suffice it to say that this book was precisely calibrated to my exact fears. There are “demons” which are really trans-dimensional scorpion things that live in your brain.
I am not a person who seeks out things I’m afraid of on purpose; I picked up this book despite the scariness because I was intrigued by the hints of Catholic vibes and an evil church. I am always here for religious conflict. However, I think people who like to be scared, grossed out, and horrified will enjoy that angle too. It certainly does not pull its punches in that respect.
There are two main characters: Ysira, who is a tough loner scavenging the desert, and Jacen, who is an alcoholic priest. I identified most with Jacen. Alcoholism is surprisingly common among priests in real life, and I think you can clearly see in this book why: Jacen is isolated, due to not being able to be truly honest with anyone, and suffering severe moral injury from the harm the church forces him to participate in.
At first, the world feels narrow: there’s this one city, and one nearby desert rift full of demons. The characters don’t understand very much of the world they live in; it’s just always been this way. Every year an eclipse happens, and gods come to reap a certain number of souls.
But soon the world opens up around us: nothing is how the characters thought it was. The gods are more and less than gods. The universe is so much vaster than anyone imagined.
At the heart of everything is this kid, Neri. He’s right at the age where a child kind of understands everything, but at the same time isn’t really old enough to make good choices. Naturally his first thought is to sacrifice himself for everybody, which is heartrending for the reader—I kept wanting to reach through the page and shake him! No, little guy, you think you’re so mature and strong but in fact you are a baby and need to run away now!
This book explores a lot of big moral dilemmas. The characters don’t always choose the right thing. You can see how their lives under brutal oppression have shaped them to be merciless and desperate—the kind of people who fight dirty and will accept almost any consequences.
This book was compared to Dune and Red Rising, and I wouldn’t say either is inaccurate. It’s tough, gritty, and on the grimdark side. However, it’s not the kind of white-man fantasy I think of when either of these books is mentioned. The reader is placed firmly in the point of view of the colonized, and there’s nothing straight and white going on here.
Housekeeping updates:
My Disability Pride Sale is ongoing till the end of the month. We have 11 books, each under $2 and starring disabled characters.
Valet to the Prince is in a Sweet and Spicy itch bundle of romance and erotica, 36 books for $30.
Signups are open for my Nonbinary Heroes Sale in August. I expect this to be my last group sale. This has been fun but it’s a bit of a time suck and it hasn’t taken off the way I would have hoped.
Sheila Jenne, author 