Though the story seems to start off with Charlie as the main character, we end up seeing through his friend Jack's eyes, who is just along for the ride. The book started off well, but lost momentum midway though, I found The world building was interesting and descriptive enough to hold my attention. The last third in, the story not only picks up but is the best part of the whole book, imho, and winds to a sometimes funny but satisfactory resolution. ( )

This book isn't at all what I expected. I thought it was going to be all dark and serious. Instead it falls somewhere closer to the writing of Terry Brookes or Douglas Adams (minus the sci-fi). It is funny. Yes, yes, the universe is in danger of being snuffed out in one abortive act of finality and everyone is in danger, but the characters (Jack especially) are still able to recognise the absurdity of the situation and let an exasperated explicative slip. Jack's insistence that most things in his life are just 'typical,' even when everything around him is most assuredly not is an effective running gag that made me laugh more than once.

Granted, he's a pretty useless hero. I'll admit that for much of the book I lent toward agreeing with other reviewers who disliked him because of this. Even after hints that he might have finally been given a few extra abilities of his own nothing materialises. He remains totally and utterly normal. But toward the the end I started to suspect this was the point. He is the most powerless individual in all of Hell. He is simply below notice of the movers and shakers of the underworld. But in the end he is also unquestionably the hero. As defenceless as he is (and knows he is) he twice marches into the bowels of Hell to rescues his friends..."and apparently the universe." He willingly offers his life in place of his best friend in order to correct the actions of another and save the world. Such courage is almost superhuman by itself, more so since there is nothing but unassuming backbone to support it.

Esme is just plain awesome. I always love a well-honed warrior and just go gaga over a female one. I suppose I should at least mention Charlie. He's a git. He just is.

I got fairly tired of all of the ridiculous descriptions of the different demons. A whole section of the middle seemed dedicated to this. The story seemed to lag a little, bogged down by one description after another. Similarly there seemed to be a lot of 'great black wings wrapping around them' going on. It seems that one description apparently covers a lot of different sounds. All-in-all, I enjoyed it. ( )

This is a Young Adult book, so I'm the wrong audience.
I found the characters rather simplistic and reactions obvious.
A young ordinary boy has a friend who becomes a chosen one in an age-old battle against an ancient scourge. His friend makes rather unwise choices that Jack is unable to dissuade him from.
Wild kung-fu battles, fights against unstoppable evil and a visit to Hell thrown in.
2 1/2 stars
( )

Convoluted and a little messy, but with enough adventure and gross out scenes that boys will love it and most likely want to read the sequel. ( )

This book was nothing like what I expected, the protagonists are much younger then you would think and the cover is definitely overly serious when compared to the actual text of the book. Yes the book is an apocolyptic hell will take over the world kind of thing, but it doesn't take itself too seriously. With running jokes like (God)frey, the archivist/librarian being our God and double headed tape worms who argue at every meal over who's the mouth and who's the bum, this book is good for a laugh. Don't expect one of those whiney the world is ending and it's all up to me books, cause this isn't it. ( )