high school | Musings of the Monster Librarian

Book Review: Demon Freaks by J.R.R.R. Hardison

Demon Freaks by J.R.R.R. (Jim) Hardison

Fiery Seas Publishing, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-1-946143-16-7

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Jim Hardison’s Demon Freaks pits high schoolers on the eve of their SAT exams against wicked would-be wizards and monsters, with the fate of the world at stake. The story is written with irony and humor from the viewpoint of teenagers. The protagonists are members of an ad hoc school band, including twin boys who don’t look or think alike. The drummer, who is the low-achieving son of a high-achieving family, is the comic foil. The female member is a “brain” who is happiest taking a shower.

The night before the SAT, the band members plan to meet to jam and cram, but are caught in the middle of a deadly rivalry between two groups of elderly, evil golfers, the Servants of Darkness and the Golfers’ Association. The Servants of Darkness are led by the teens’ sarcastic, vindictive English teacher, while the Golfers follow his power-hungry brother, who looks like a twisted Santa Claus. Both groups want to possess a magical dagger that traps souls, communicates telepathically with its victims, and can control their minds. Think of the Ring of Power in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring.

Each group plans to use the dagger for a human sacrifice, in order to open the gates to Hell and release a powerful demon that they hope will help them dominate the world. Two of the teens are captured, possibly to be the human sacrifices. The rest of their friends, along with commandos from a clandestine division of the McDonald’s Corporation called McODD (McDonald’s Occult Dangers Division) fight the Servants, the Golfers and Teethheads (scaly, fish-headed monsters with hundreds of teeth) in tunnels and chambers under the golf course.

The story is told in an engaging, fast-paced, tongue–in-cheek style. The teenagers are quirky, but discover hidden talents that help them outwit the adults. The adults are caricatures of hubris and greed. The plot will appeal to children and teenagers. The monsters are scary, but not frightening. The violence and gore are mild. The author has written another novel, an epic fantasy Fish Wielder. Recommended.

Contains: Not applicable.

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

More Short Stories: Paula Cappa’s “Tales of Terror”

According to our statistics, it appears that I was correct in saying that there actually is a LOT of interest in short stories. I’d like to share with you a resource I just discovered that can direct you to some excellent ones. Paula Cappa, author of Night Sea Journey (reviewed here) and The Dazzling Darkness (reviewed here) has a blog with a feature called Tuesday’s Tale of Terror. Each blog entry gives a brief synopsis and background on a supernatural short story(almost always in the public domain, meaning they are older stories), with links to the actual story when available, for free. Sometimes she even has links to additional formats: in her entry on W.W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw”, she also provides a link to an adaptation on YouTube. Middle and high school teachers, take note: I see at least a few stories here that appeared in my English textbooks. With the Common Core emphasis on nonfiction driving spending, this could be a good supplemental resource for building a fiction collection.

I do want to note that the titles to Cappa’s blog entries are not the names of the stories, but are descriptive of content. The title is listed just below, at the top of the entry (meaning you can’t just scroll quickly down the page and have a story’s title jump out at you) “The Chilly and Darksome Vale of Years”, for instance, is the title for the entry on “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”.

If you are looking for more current stories, you will have to look elsewhere, but there’s a lot of good stuff here, and plenty to explore. Paula has done all the hard work for you.