Don’t you just love it when you stumble across a book that’s just… well written, enjoyable and you struggle to put it down? Well I do, which is why I wasn’t pleasantly surprised by The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory. It’s a contemporary fantasy story that could appeal to people who don’t normally appreciate the genre. As I was reading it, I could easily imagine it being a cinematic blockbuster… if only someone would take a risk and make a film like this.

I had the paper back version, but it’s also available on the Kindle too (HERE).

The product description from Amazon decribes the Devil’s Alphabet as, “From Daryl Gregory, whose Pandemonium was one of the most exciting debut novels in memory, comes an astonishing work of soaring imaginative power that breaks new ground in contemporary fantasy.

Switchcreek was a normal town in eastern Tennessee until a mysterious disease killed a third of its residents and mutated most of the rest into monstrous oddities. Then, as quickly and inexplicably as it had struck, the disease–dubbed Transcription Divergence Syndrome (TDS)–vanished, leaving behind a population divided into three new branches of humanity: giant gray-skinned argos, hairless seal-like betas, and grotesquely obese charlies.

Paxton Abel Martin was fourteen when TDS struck, killing his mother, transforming his preacher father into a charlie, and changing one of his best friends, Jo Lynn, into a beta. But Pax was one of the few who didn’t change. He remained as normal as ever. At least on the outside.

Having fled shortly after the pandemic, Pax now returns to Switchcreek fifteen years later, following the suicide of Jo Lynn. What he finds is a town seething with secrets, among which murder may well be numbered. But there are even darker–and far weirder–mysteries hiding below the surface that will threaten not only Pax’s future but the future of the whole human race.”

I’ve not read Pandomonium yet, but it’s definitely next on my purchase list. I realise they’re technical in the wrong order, but the books don’t seem to follow on from each other – and the Pandomonium book was very well reviewed now that I look into it a bit more.

Here’s Amazon’s description,

“It is a world like our own in every respect . . . save one. In the 1950s, random acts of possession begin to occur. Ordinary men, women, and children are the targets of entities that seem to spring from the depths of the collective unconscious, pop-cultural avatars some call demons. There’s the Truth, implacable avenger of falsehood. The Captain, brave and self-sacrificing soldier. The Little Angel, whose kiss brings death, whether desired or not. And a string of others, ranging from the bizarre to the benign to the horrific.

As a boy, Del Pierce is possessed by the Hellion, an entity whose mischief-making can be deadly. With the help of Del’s family and a caring psychiatrist, the demon is exorcised . . . or is it? Years later, following a car accident, the Hellion is back, trapped inside Del’s head and clamoring to get out.

Del’s quest for help leads him to Valis, an entity possessing the science fiction writer formerly known as Philip K. Dick; to Mother Mariette, a nun who inspires decidedly unchaste feelings; and to the Human League, a secret society devoted to the extermination of demons. All believe that Del holds the key to the plague of possession–and its solution. But for Del, the cure may be worse than the disease.”

The Kindle version of Pandemonium is also available, but unfortunately, it’s only marginally cheaper than the paperback version! Why do publishers insist on doing this?! Anyway, the link to the Kindle version of Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory is HERE.