Claire Chilton

We first meet Dora in the church of her televangelist father. She is the typical brooding teenager in that rebellion is her top priority. While her parents are busy trying to save souls, Dora's goal is to successfully summon a demon. Having failed many times, Dora is extremely hopeful and surprised when Demons attack the congregation. It is only when she returns to room, sure of the punishment to come that she realises she hasn't summoned the thick horned, fire breathing demon with a tail but the dashingly handsome and beautifully built, blonde haired Kieron. For his part, Kieron has determined that it is his duty to serve Dora and if possible get into her pants. What neither of them realise is that their time of getting to know each other on the earthly plane will be short because as a witch, the townspeople, lead by the rotary club and Dora's parents intend to burn her alive as a witch.

Given the choice between burning to death and hell, Dora chooses to return with Kieron to hell. At first it all seems cool as Dora manages to learn to cast spells and even pick up a pet demon. It isn't long however that Dora learns that the cost of being in hell is losing her pure soul and the love she has for Kieron.

In many ways, Demonic Dora is your typical angsty YA novel. Both Dora and Kiernon have troubled family history and it very much informs their view on the world and actions. There is a lot of poo in this book and yes I mean it literally. It felt like someone was flinging poo at someone else on almost every single page. It was so bad that at one point Kiernon even mentioned Dora's fascination with throwing poo to defeat her advisories. At first, these situations were absolutely funny but over time became puerile and irritating. As this book is meant for an audience far younger than I, I can sort of give this a bit of a past. I further didn't understand how an entire town could get together to decide to just make a pyre and burn one of their citizens on it. This was never explained and made little sense to me. I did however giggle about the fact that Dora was chastised for using the word "holy" and encouraged to say "fuck" instead.

Demonic Dora truly left me with mixed feelings. The world building of Chilton was absolutely great. Chilton's descriptions of hell in particular were imaginative and so far removed from the typical pop culture references. It helped to alleviate my frustrations in times when the story seemed to jump from place to place without any form of cohesion.

As a protagonist, I simply adored Dora. When Dora first arrived in hell she was a powerless human with a fully intact soul but over time as she learned the ropes, she became powerful. What intrigued me about Dora was take no shit attitude and fearlessness. Dora constantly used her wits to engage in battle, fully aware that she was the most powerless person in the room. It didn't always work out in her favor but Dora's first instinct was never to sit and hope that someone would come and save her.

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I received a free copy of this book to review

Demonic Dora is a farcical, black comedy about teenage Dora who hates her life and decides summoning a demon will solve all her problems. It doesn’t. What it does is lead to her almost being burned at the stake by her fanatical religious parents. Luckily, the demon she summoned saves her – by dragging her to Hell with him. Dora loves Hell and thrives there, until she realizes all isn’t as it seems and then things go straight to, well, Hell.

To me the humor of this book is its main focus, the plot and characters seemingly built around it, so if you’re not into poo jokes and slapstick gags, this book isn’t for you. While the comedy in this book didn’t exactly match up with my sense of humor, I described some of the scenes to a sophomore in high school and she howled with laughter, so the fact that it wasn't right for me doesn't mean it's not right for others.

I don’t think I’ll read any other books in this series, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to people I know who would enjoy this brand of comedy (and let’s face it, we all know some that do)
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