Kagama -The Literaturevixen

I recieved this ARC from Netgalley and this is my honest review of it.

Nora has been having some strange experiences lately but she is afraid to share her fears about them with her family and friends The reason is that she is not entirely certain that shes not imagining it all in her head...

After all its happened before.

She is even more unsettled when the newest addition to her circle of friends,Aidan Birket invites them all to go to an old house that his family owns. Not only because she dislikes him but that she senses that they would be wrong to to go to there.

But in the end Nora is convinced to go with them against her own doubts and her best friend Phoebe reinforcing it by telling her about a strange dream she had. But in the end they all convince each other that they are going.Who care about some weird things like that.

When they arrive Aidan warns them to not to go up the stairs to the third floor,because its not safe,but impetous Phoebe cant resist and goes to explore causing the others to follow her. They find a strange room and a door.

Things are set into motion and a shadow that takes the form of a man appears introduces himself as Damien and tell them that they have to go through the door and take on the Challenges he will make for them that will be based on their fears and desires.

If they pass the Challenges they will all go free but if they fail,or even die. They will all belong to Damien and stay in the Demons grave...

 

It is simple." Damien said, gaze sweeping. "You survive six Challenges and you're set free. If you fail, you're trapped."
"What kind of challenges?" Read and Phoebe asked together before glaring at each other.
"Once you pass through this door, your thoughts will be open enough for me to know certain…‌" he paused, taking a moment to gauge us, "…‌nightmares and longing

My initial thoughts about "The Demons Grave" was not entirely good as after the prologue I was thrown into a confusion in the first chapter when names where thrown at me in a rapid sucession. Who what?? I mean I the reader is not as wellknown with them,could have eased me in a little bit there author.

But after they all arrive at the house I just couldnt stop reading.

There are editing problems throughout the book,I wouldnt call them typos more like strangely constructed sentences that should be fixed.

As for our main character I liked Nora but it was not an immediate like if you understand me right. I am not sure I understood her very well at first but as piece of the puzzle began to fall in place,she grew on me.

at first Nora when they are taken to the Demons grave and meet Damien she is convinced that everything is part of her delusion and that she is finally slipping into insanity.She snaps out of it however and comes through as a strong character towards the later part of the book.

There is not really a romance in this wich I appreciated, I will however say there are hints of it but the greater emphasis is placed on friendship and other emotions. It does make sense that when you are fighting for your life you have other priorities than making googly eyes at each other.

Then...there is Damien. Our antagonist and the perpetrator of the friends miseries.In terms of personality I would say he is less whimsical than Jareth from Labyrinth but hes not quite as horrid as from Guardians Key.'

 The man could have been dreamy if he hadn't just popped out of shadows. Nothing that beautiful should exist, except maybe in a fairy tale, to tempt stupid, young girls into some perverse, sexual game

I would say hes interesting in that I want to know what his deal is and why hes there.

Because of my interest in name meanings I put great significance on the meaning behind Damiens name but alas after a twitter convo with the author she told me this

This book rightly belong on the horror shelf. The amount of things they go through were scary and weird.

II would expect some people will draw comparisions to L.J Smiths Forbidden Game series but to be honest this is hardly a new concept. Its all depend on what you do with it and McCallum does a great work expanding on the theme.

In fact the whole setup centers on one of my favorite reading tropes. Girl underground. Its all what you do with it and in the end this is a book I cant wait to read the sequel.

I just hope there arent any spiders.