Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror Reviews

Book Review: Demon Underground

By Sandy Amazeen Jan 9, 2011, 1:26 GMT

Half-human and half-demon, Allay has finally warmed up to her new life feeding off the customers at her downtown bar whens he finds herself brokering a truce between New York City\'s most powerful demons. But when she senses assassins around every corner, Allay hides out of sight and underground-until combatants in the growing war tempt her back above the surface... ...more

Allay is one of those rare demons that started life as a human but absorbing the essence of a demon forever changed her. Now working as a bartender on New York City’s Lower East Side, Allay uses the bar as a means of feeding off patrons’ emotional pain. It is not a one-sided arrangement as Allay manages to ease her patrons’ pain as she feeds. Allay’s unusual blood is a magnet for other demons looking to feed on or exploit her, a situation made worse by her eliminating one of New York’s most powerful demons. As assignation attempts mount, Allay literally goes underground into the hidden tunnels that run beneath the city. There she gains the acceptance of several of the tunnel inhabitants but they are not enough to help Allay fight her dangerous attraction to Ram, an extremely powerful demon who unhesitatingly kills. With demons fighting about whether to make their presence known to humanity, there are some who seek to profit from the fallout and it falls to Allay to prevent a catastrophe.

Allay’s perilous attraction to Ram plays a large role this fast paced urban fantasy filled with emotional angst as she attempts to come to terms with being a demon while living with the conscience of a human. It proves to be a difficult balancing act compounded by Allay being caught in the middle of a demon power struggle that she had a part in creating. Though the story line and subplots are interesting, this is not as strong as the first book, Confessions of a Demon.