Personal Demons

I struggled with what score to give this novella. On the one hand, it's well-written, cohesive, descriptive, and flows quickly and well. The characters are complex and individualistic, the dialogue is believable, and the world-building, vivid.

But I just didn't like it. Granted, I am not a big fan of horror stories - and that's what I would categorize this offering as - so keep that in mind as you decide whether or not this book is for you.

Essentially, the book is about a politically conservative writer forced to change his name and relocate as a result of "cancel culture" coming for his more unpopular views. He moves from California to a suburban neighborhood that seems very at odds with his more pompous, narcissistic, urban, show more personality. He festers there, for lack of a better word. He has writer's block and fears he has lost his muse, and fills his time with affairs and making fun of his solid-though-uninspiring neighbors until one day, someone new moves into the house across the street. That someone is an alleged murderer whose conviction was overturned thanks, in large part, to a documentary about him that provided him with an alibi that did not come out at the original trial. The rest of the book is really about the mind games played between these two men, and the others that are sucked into their orbit.

What it really felt like was a psychological battle between two equally unpleasant and self-centered men that eventually deteriorates into bloodshed. I wouldn't want to spend time with either the main protagonist or antagonist as they are both thoroughly horrible - and consequently, I didn't want to spend time reading about them, either. There is no real "good guy" to root for in this short novel as the main characters are so distasteful and the supporting characters are more like caricatures that fulfill a certain niche in the plot.

I rate each of the following aspects of the story on scale of 1 to 5 stars, as follows:

Protagonist - 1 star
Antagonist - 2 stars
Supporting characters - 3 stars
Plot - 1 star
Pacing - 4 stars
World-building/setting - 5 stars
Dialogue - 5 stars
Syntax/grammar, etc. - 5 stars

AVERAGE: 3.3 stars, which I rounded up to 4 because I really do think it's a well-written example of its genre - it's just not a genre I particularly like.

I think the author is talented, and oddly enough, I can see this story becoming a fairly successful horror movie, but it's just not for me. Your mileage may vary. show less

Personal Demons is a quick paced, thrilling roller coaster ride of a story. With the opening pages, I didn't think I was going to like it, but it moved on so quickly that I could forgive it. I didn't even realize the chapter numbers were odd until I got to number 4. Adam Cosco is sneaky in getting you wonder and think about touchy and uncomfortable subjects that you would not ordinarily look at too closely. Absolutely a well written, thoughtful, frightening and observant piece on the dark side of humanity. I will be looking for more of Cosco's work.