*** 3 good, but long stars ***

This is a "cat and mouse" based story, where the investigation of the case is in forefront and the romance second. There are several POVs, including both main characters and the bad guy. I liked the change of POV, it made the story interesting and the mystery intriguing, but not terribly exciting.

To use an analogy to describe the story, it read as an sturdy and solid no-nonsense car, who takes some bumps along the road/story, but it takes the bumps and keeps going anyway. It was okay to "drive" in the beginning, but it got tiresome. Not exactly boring, but it didn't make me exciting to continue to journey either. I felt the book was too long. There were too many descriptions, which were okay, but there were too many of them when they added up. The book was over 300 pages, and my personal opinion is fifty pages could easily have been cut, to make the story more tight and better flowing. To make it a faster and more interesting car to "drive".

I feel the story started out as a possible 4 star rating, then morphing into 3,5. I got a bit disappointed towards the ending and how it all went down. It was eyeroll inducing since the MC had an misunderstanding which could easily have been avoided, but resulted it the showdown with the killer. The main characters were very frustrating!

So 3 stars it is. Intriguing and good mystery/crime, but a bit too long. Frustrating MCs made for eyerolling events towards the end. But the ending was good, but a bit abrupt.  

He crossed the room, set the plate on the counter, and began unloading the plastic bags. (...) The melon rolled from the bag and into the sink. Zach picked it up and inhaled. Round and sweet as a lover’s ass.

What is it with authors and sexual food analogies? The last book I read talked about the guy was used to "more prepping before the turkey was stuffed into the oven." And now melon and ass. This is nuts. Heh.

Pandemonium, the first novel from the author of one of my favourite reads of all time, We Are All Completely Fine, is a decent high-concept thriller with an interesting hook that never really lives up to its awesome potential.

Taking place in a world much like our own, but with the critical difference that demonic possession occurs openly and is widely acknowledged (even if whether said demons are evil spirits or something else is hotly debated), Pandemonium is told from the perspective of Del, a young man who was possessed by one such demon when he was young. His story is different from almost everyone else who has ever been possessed, however, in that his demon has never gone away and remains locked inside of him, desperate to escape. Del seeks answers from his former therapist and multiple others, all while getting closer to the truth of what is actually scraping the inside of his mind with increasing power ...

Part thriller, part road-read, part fantasy, Pandemonium has a few relatively dark and frightening scenes, but for a story about demons, this remains a relatively horor-free book. Instead, Gregory piles on the mystery about the etiology of the demons and the part that Del may play in their origins being revealed.

It's a great-set up, and for a first novel, Gregory's prose shines. His ear for dialogue is spot on, and his characters - especially Del - feel fully realised and easy to connect with. Which makes it all the more disappointing that the last third of the novel falls somewhat flat, with the eventual revelation being fairly standard and not able to justify the lengthy journey to get there.

Still, this is a first published novel, and is impressive enough on that basis. It's certainly readable and most readers will likely enjoy the journey if they can keep their overall expectations in check.

3 Unwanted Passengers for Pandemonium.

Highschooler Prenna doesn’t really belong in the United States. She is American, only she is actually from the relatively near and terrifying future ravaged by an unstoppable mosquito-borne plague. Prenna and her fellow time-travelers are tasked with colonizing the past, and must adhere to strict, but necessary rules as a result, or risk altering history itself.

Unfortunately after the first 100 pages, I grew to understand that I must have somehow fallen for a bait-and-switch. I have not read any of Ann Brashares’ other books, so I was not let down in that regard. In this case it was the story and plot that fell apart, and the flat characters sealed the coffin.

The idea of humans re-colonizing the past was intriguing. Just thinking about the politics surrounding that decision and the plot opportunities ignited my imagination, but nothing really ever came of my hopes. Nothing materialized to say "here is a plot twist or development that harkens back to the amazing summary!" I couldn't even fall in love with any of the characters. It seemed like most were strange, weak echoes of characters that could have been much more complex and real.

By the time I reached the 3/4 point in the book, I had already stopped trying to figure out if any of it made any real sense. Like, why was Prenna's mother so strangely distant from a daughter she should have been happy to have, and treasure, given her previous experiences? Why was she even in love with Ethan? How could all of these seemingly intelligent people from the near-future not suspect the technology and excuses made by their morally weak rulers?

It grew to be far, far too much. The climax wasn't exciting or fulfilling--neither was the ending, because I could not care less about the characters.

For most of the book I was aching for the author to push somehow deeper. It was as if she were exploring for herself just what she wanted this book to actually be about. It boiled down to something so simplified I almost didn't finish.

I'm a sucker for high-concept, though. Hence the two-star rating. This could have been phenomenal, and I really wanted it to be. Readers who want to ease into another form of speculative fiction aside from the popular dystopian reads might want to give this a try, and readers who also favor romance as a pivotal factor in a book would probably enjoy it more as well.

*note: I received an e-copy of this book from Random House Children’s/Netgalley in exchange for honest feedback.