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Running With the Demon
512 pages
A sweltering summer weekend in a quiet Midwestern town becomes the battleground for an apocalyptic war between light and darkness.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like standing on a quiet suburban street at dusk, watching a storm gather on the horizon. It masterfully captures the sweltering, nostalgic haze of a Midwestern July, then slowly infects that Americana warmth with a creeping, apocalyptic dread. The narrative builds with a steady, deliberate tension, contrasting the innocent rituals of childhood and community picnics with terrifying, prophetic nightmares of a ruined world. The prose is earnest and atmospheric, grounding epic fantasy stakes in the deeply personal struggles of a fractured town. It is a perfect fit for readers who crave the dark, coming-of-age atmosphere of classic Stephen King or Ray Bradbury, where ordinary people are forced to confront ancient, absolute evils hiding in their own backyards.
- Mood
- sweltering
- dread-soaked
- tense
- eerie
- Tone
- earnest
- ominous
- nostalgic
- suspenseful
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- loss of innocence · hidden wars · weight of destiny · small-town secrets · corruption of community
- The writing
- Atmospheric and grounded, seamlessly weaving the mundane details of Americana with stark, terrifying visions of apocalyptic ruin.
- The arc
- Begins with the nostalgic warmth of a Midwestern summer before descending into a tense, harrowing confrontation that shatters childhood innocence.
- Who it's for
- Fans of dark, coming-of-age urban fantasy who love watching epic battles between absolute good and evil play out in quiet, unsuspecting neighborhoods.
Content notes
- child endangerment
- violence
- animal death
- domestic tension
About the book
Twenty years ago, Terry Brooks turned fantasy fiction on its head with The Sword of Shannara, the first fantasy novel to make the mainstream bestseller lists, and the first in an unbroken string of thirteen bestselling books. Now, in Running with the Demon, Brooks does nothing less than revitalize fantasy fiction again, inventing the complex and powerful new mythos of the Word and the Void, good versus evil still, but played out in the theater-in-the-round of the "real world" of our present. On the hottest Fourth of July weekend in decades, two men have come to Hopewell, Illinois, site of a lengthy, bitter steel strike. One is a demon, dark servant of the Void, who will use the anger and frustration of the community to attain a terrible secret goal. The other is John Ross, a Knight of the Word, a man who, while he sleeps, lives in the hell the world will become if he fails to change its course on waking. Ross has been given the ability to see the future. But does he have the power to change it?At stake is the soul of a fourteen-year-old girl mysteriously linked to both men. And the lives of the people of Hopewell. And the future of the country. This Fourth of July, while friends and families picnic in Sinnissippi Park and fireworks explode in celebration of freedom and independence, the fate of Humanity will be decided...A novel that weaves together family drama, fading innocence, cataclysm, and enlightenment, Running with the Demon will forever change the way you think about the fantasy novel. As believable as it is imaginative, as wondrous as it is frightening, it is a rich, exquisitely-written tale to be savored long after the last page is turned.From the Hardcover edition.
Description from Open Library.
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