Demons at Deadnight (Divinicus Nex Chronicles #1)

Demons at Deadnight (Divinicus Nex Chronicles #1) by A. & E. Kirk

Blurb:

For seventeen-year-old Aurora Lahey, survival is a lifestyle.
Aurora has the crappiest superpower on the planet. And it's just unleashed a hit squad from hell. Demons are on the hunt, salivating to carve her carcass into confetti.
The Hex Boys – mysterious, hunky, and notorious for their trails of destruction – have the answers Aurora needs to survive. But their overload of deadly secrets and suspicious motives makes trusting them a potentially fatal move.

Review:

(Sooo... I might have a slight problem. I can't decide on any of the funny moments to use as quote here. That's why I decided to only use quotes from the first chapter just to give myself a concrete limit to what material I can use. Honestly, that already says enough about how much I liked this book.)

"I believe you suffer confusion, Nex." The volume of its voice lowered. Had it backed off, thinking I had something up my sleeve? "I harbor no trepidation but that you remain alive. And my immutable predilection is to deliver your corpse in a profusion of pieces." Then that laugh. 

I couldn't comprehend much of what it said, but overall, I wasn't getting a warm and fuzzy vibe.

I am so happy right now. I had extremely high expectations for this book (I tried to suppress them, though, because I didn't want to be disappointed) but, somehow, it surpassed all of them. I was laugh-crying by page 9 and had decided that I loved Demons at Deadnight by page 20. I annoyed my entire family by continuously bursting into laughter and/or high-pitched laugh-wailing.

Before I go on let me make one thing clear: This is by no means a "good" book (as in "sophisticated", "complex", or any other fancy term you'd want to whip out to describe the kind of books commonly received as "good"). It's brilliant and I love it but it belongs to the guilty pleasure group of books. In other words: Objectively, it's pretty bad. The characters are pretty superficial (speaking of which: everything else is also pretty superficial), everyone is pretty stupid, the story mainly revolves around super-hot – sometimes pretty dense – guys and a – sometimes pretty dense – female in their midst, it is definitely tailored to a young-ish audience, and generally something you want to avoid if you can't handle stupid teen-movies. With explosions. (The explosions are important.)

I launched into a graceful ninja-like front roll, then stood my ground to face the monstrous heathen, fearless in my determination to vanquish the deadly foe. 

Nah, just kidding. I bolted, discretion being the better part of not getting dead.

Obviously, I love it. I need stories like this one every once in a while – or more often, honestly, they're just too much fun! – because they cheer me up like nothing else can. This book was extremely over-the-top and it didn't take itself seriously at all and I was laughing all the way through. Comparatively little things – like Aurora not being able to go a single day without getting herself into a hospital (if she even makes it an entire day without having to go back or, worse, not even being able to leave before she's got herself into trouble again) – started cracking me up because the story captured me on this constant level of near-giggling that made absolutely everything appear like the funniest thing ever. 

What makes or breaks these kind of silly books for me is whether they take themselves seriously. Luckily, as I've already established, this one doesn't. What happens, when a story as this one is as light hearted as this one, is that because it is already exaggerating and does not take itself seriously it's able to exaggerate even more! Which is why I usually made a dismissive/disbelieving "pfff" sound before I started laughing – re-playing a scene in my usually got me really going. Also, there's just something about hot teenage-boys trying to be all smooth and suave and ending up blurting out the stupidest lines.

Dogs aren't my thing.  

I hate dogs.   

And if this one was dumb enough to sacrifice itself for me, hallelujah. I kept running. 

After I reversed course. 

Stupid dog.

Just to make this story even better it included a lot of family. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before but I adore YA books that include a healthy dose of family – and actual friends but I'm sure we'll get to that eventually. Somehow, every time family is included they are one of the funniest parts of the story – this one being no exception – while also providing security and a generally healthy environment. What's not to love about that? I don't know.

Okay, so, obviously I could go on blubbering about how much I liked different parts of the story and how often I was cry-laughing (in short: too many times) or almost accidentally spilling my drink (Yeah, in retrospect I don't know why I was drinking while reading an obviously funny book, either. Happened only once, though. I can learn.) but, honestly? I don't really have anything substantial left to say. All that is left to mention is that I hope to get my hands on the second book asap.

A blow from behind lurched my body forward. I would've gone down but instead found myself airborne. And gaining altitude. 

Not good, because last I checked, I couldn't fly.

Rating:

If you haven't guessed it by now: it's 5/5 stars. And I am very delighted with that development while also dreading the time it'll take for me to read the next book in this series.

Details:

Name: Demons at Deadnight

Series: Divinicus Nex Chronicles

Author: A. & E. Kirk

Pages: 404