2 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
In Demon Heart by David Crane, the reader follows Naoko Kitamura through her life as a half-human, half-demon hybrid. As an adult, Naoko decides to become a police officer and later begins to deal with cases that involve the supernatural with the help of a secret government organization. As she battles multiple threats to Japan, Naoko risks her life and the lives of her family and friends.
I liked the details that were included about Japanese culture, like festivals and holidays as well as the value that the Japanese place on honor. There were also a lot of interesting details included about the yakuza, since they were a part of the main plot. In the preface, the author says that he had help from a Japanese friend, which made him more trustworthy in regards to what he saying about Japanese culture. I also liked the Japanese proverbs that were given at the beginning of every chapter. They were related to the events in the chapter, and they were fun to read.
The story had a good prologue, which drew me in and made me want to find out how Naoko got into the position she was in. The story also had a good pace, and there was a good balance between the action and fighting parts of the story and the slower dad to day life parts. As I got further into the book, I was actually reminded of Japanese anime and manga with a young, female main character, who is not fully human and has powers that she has to hide.
What I didn’t like was that the story’s flow was inconsistent and sometimes stilted, which was not helped by the odd word choices and phrasing that was sometimes used, like “with what I recognized as an expression of disdain” instead of just saying “with an expression of disdain.” There was also many times where unnecessary information was repeated. The full names of Naoko’s friends were often used. Even at the end of the book when the reader would know their names. There was also a few times where, basically, a summary of events would be given about things that had just happened in the story.
At one point, there was a sub-plot involving a serial killer, who Naoko stumbles across and fights and kills. I felt that the entire section was unnecessary and added nothing to the story. I was a bit impatient as I was reading it, wondering what the point was and wanting to continue with the main plot.
I also had a couple of small issues with the way Naoko was written. One issue was that sometimes she actually did not seem to be trying to hide being half-demon, like when she is in SWAT training and decides to throw herself and a mannequin ‘victim’ out of a third story window and walks away uninjured, and later in the story, she tells her boss that she doesn’t smell any explosives at a scene where the perpetrators have claimed that the building was rigged with explosives. It was even stated in the story that this was not something that humans would have been able to smell. The other issue I had was that at one point in the second half of the book, Naoko says she hates violence, which completely threw me off as I tried to figure out when it was ever demonstrated in the story that she hates violence. She was always ready and willing to fight if she had a reason to and never seemed bothered by the violence.
For the most part, the story did not have graphic descriptions. In one fight, Naoko loses a hand, it says "in a spray of gore” then it continues with the fight. So, things are described but not focused on, although there were a couple of exceptions where Naoko's injuries were described more vividly. There were also mentions of characters being raped or almost being raped, but there were never any descriptions of it.
The story had many missing commas, misspelled words and a few missing words. These editing mistakes, particularly in regards to the misspelled and missing words, and the issues I had with the writing and Naoko’s character has led me to give Demon Heart 2 out of 4 stars. If you like stories with characters that are half-human and are interested in Japanese culture, than you might like this story. I would not recommend it to anyone under the age of 16, because of the few graphic scenes and the mentions of rape.
******
Demon Heart
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
Like Mbrooks2518's review? Post a comment saying so!
$u$han €kanayak€ 
