The Devil You Know

Rating:
Summary: Reviews from around the US
Review: Book plays in left field
John Carruthers, Staff Writer
Monday, November 24, 2003 - Volume 94 Number 67
Printed from DailyBeacon.utk.edu<
Imagine a scenario where a demon possesses a boy sent to be a messiah for mankind. Then add a grizzled priest, a sexy but tough angel and a man who may or may not be Jim Morrison trying to stop the demon. Throw aliens in the mix and you have something close to Jay Hansen's new book "The Devil You Know."
While the previous paragraph may sound a bit confusing, the book actually has an engrossing and original plotline. With the wit and creativity that Hansen brings to the book, the entire work plays like "Dogma" mixed with an episode of "The X-Files."
The plot somewhat follows the path of Michael, an abused child and genius. After a demon is inadvertently summoned from another dimension, he possesses Michael to exploit his genius.
This leads a Guardian being from another dimension being sent to help Michael, as the possession messes with the destiny of mankind since Michael is meant to affect the lives of millions.
The Guardian possesses the body of a suicidal woman named Candace who joins forces with a disillusioned priest and a mental patient who claims to be Jim Morrison. Along the way, there are plot points including Area 51, peyote, Viking afterlife Valhalla, and exorcism.
What makes "The Devil You Know" such a fresh and exciting read is the fact that the entire book comes out of left field. Hansen has both studied the occult and worked as an improv comic. This leads to the darkness mixing with some truly funny circumstances and taking the edge off the book, which involves the tragic life of two abused children.
Along the way, some truly great lines are uttered. At one point, the demon utters a line about how "the milk of human kindness has curdled into the cottage cheese of brutality." The delivery of the line and the other characters' reactions to it make Hansen an author worth quoting.
Hansen also holds no reverence for religion. At one point, Father Murphy (the disillusioned priest) says "being a priest sucks." He also talks about how "I spent the last eight years living in a freakin' dorm where we couldn't even sneak girls up to our rooms or throw a kegger on Saturday night."
However, Hansen doesn't eschew spirituality. While not holding allegiance to any religion, "The Devil You Know" is actually a very spiritual book.
The story deals with different aspects of spirituality and the afterlife the entire way through. The book is just irreverent enough to be funny without being off-putting.
While the story may be a bit confused or convoluted at times, Hansen writes with a wit and charm that brings life into the characters and situations that he creates.
The unpredictable story and strange references that Hansen writes about make "The Devil You Know" a memorable book.

Grade: B
©Copyright The Daily Beacon 2002. All rights reserved.

Thursday November 6, 01:19 AM
The Devil You Know - New suspense novel tells of demon-possessed boy and the unusual characters that save him
Thursday November 6, 01:19 AM
The Devil You Know - New suspense novel tells of demon-possessed boy and the unusual characters that save him
DENVER, Nov. 5, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- In a bizarre suspense novel, author Jay Hansen brings the mysterious worlds of spirits, demons and aliens together. The Devil You Know (now available through 1stBooks) is the story of a demonically possessed boy genius, the spirit sent to drive the demon out and the unique characters that help this spirit along the way.
A spirit from a higher realm is on a mission to cast a demon away from Earth. She takes over the body of a woman, Candace, and enlists the help of a cynical priest, Father Murphy, to help exorcise the demon. They locate the boy, Michael, after media reports about a man murdered by his young son. Michael is placed in a mental institution. Candace gains entry and befriends a patient named Jim. Jim escapes with her and the boy and becomes a valuable asset to her mission.
When Candace needs help separating the human child from the demon, she seeks it from extraterrestrial beings. Hopping into a stolen car and bolting for Area 51 in Nevada, Father Murphy, Candace and Jim find themselves in a few predicaments with the law and the aliens. A UFO picks them up, and the creatures inside run strange psychological tests. With the help of Michael's sister, Katie, the groups successfully casts out the demon from this young child, and Candace takes the evil spirit back to its own realm.
A unique story of good versus evil, The Devil You Know focuses on the paranormal. The author incorporates many actual cases and weaves them expertly into this highly unusual, entertaining plot.
Hansen has been a student of paranormal activity for more than 20 years. From Bigfoot to ghosts, alien abductions to the Western occult tradition, Hansen's experiences lend a distinctive quality to his novels.

Rating:
Summary: Reviews from around the US
Review: Let me preface this review by saying that I am a huge fan of occult/sci-fi/horror/fantasy movies and literature. So as you can imagine, I can be a little picky when it comes to what I think is good. However, that does not apply in this case. I had high expectations for this book. The author has supposedly been a "student" of the paranormal since age seven. Although after reading this book, one might think that he just read some random book on the subject and then threw in random exerts and called it a novel.
The Devil You Know is the first book by Jay Hansen and maybe, if he improves his writing style by leaps and bounds, will not be his last. It tells the story of a demon who has been pulled into our reality, the boy he possess, and the rag-tag team that has to get him out. The problems with the book begin immediately as typos and missing words are very abundant. However, the one clear thing is that the story has four main characters. The only problem is that the author does not give any exact descriptions of them. This makes the characters basically faceless.
The first of these characters is, of course, the demon. Going by the name of Cain, the demon takes possession of a very gifted young boy named Michael who the author calls a "messiah" because of his destiny to help mankind. He then decides that he should use the extreme intelligence of the boy to destroy humanity. However, throughout the entire novel, Cain basically does nothing and only randomly screams obscenities at his captors.
The next character is The Guardian (basically an angel) who is sent to retrieve rouge spirits when they do something naughty, like try to destroy a planet. This Guardian is supposed to be the best at what she does, which is why she was put on this assignment. However, her plans throughout the book would lead on to believe she is a mere amateur. The Guardian must take possession of a body in order to fight Cain so she chooses Candace Sinclair, a woman who tries to overdose on pills because her cat dies. Using Candace's memories of The Exorcist (brilliant plan #1) she enlist the help of the next character, Father Murphy.
That's right, the author never gives his first name. And since he is faceless, I had to rely on the way he acts to imagine what he looked like. Murphy is a complete and total rip-off of Father Damien Karras (played by the late Jason Miller) from the 1973 film. He is the cliché "I've lost my faith" priest and gives up the life quit easily when this woman comes calling about demons and exorcisms. After Murphy's failed first exorcism attempt, Cain is able to escape the pair only to be caught by the police and taken to an insane asylum.
The next character is introduced during Candace's brilliant plan #2 (get locked up in the nut house and then escape with the kid). Here we meet Jim, and just Jim because no last name is ever given. Jim is the most pointless character in the book. He does help this plan happen but after that he is just dead weight, especially after he gets really high off some plants in the desert.
After escaping the asylum, this book goes from bad to worse as brilliant plan #3 evolves. After some random conversation, Candace decides they should seek out aliens (who are actually inter-dimensional travelers) to extract the demon from the boy. She drags the group to Area 51, which she determines is the best place to find aliens, again using her new body's memories. The whole time, Murphy is fixated on anal probing and mumbles about it for the rest of the book. They arrive only to be nearly killed by the military.
Finally after pages and pages of crap, the book ends in some lame fashion that I don't care to waste ink on. Let's just say it is even lamer than the ending to that 1987 classic The Gate (starring a very young Steven Dorff), which is all I could think about as I read this. But thank God it ended is all I can say.
There were many, many problems with the book. The most obvious is the lame as anything storyline, which included elements of the paranormal that should never be combined in this fashion. Not to mention the numerous inconsistencies that plague the already horrible plot. And to add to that, the chapters of the book are all named after tarot cards, which had absolutely nothing to do with the story. To summarize, it was a whole world of problems that could only be fixed by burning the book and starting all over again. Better luck next time Jay.

Rating:
Summary: How much this book sucks.
Review: Let me preface this review by saying that I am a huge fan of occult/sci-fi/horror/fantasy movies and literature. So as you can imagine, I can be a little picky when it comes to what I think is good. However, that does not apply in this case. I had high expectations for this book. The author has supposedly been a "student" of the paranormal since age seven. Although after reading this book, one might think that he just read some random book on the subject and then threw in random exerts and called it a novel.
The Devil You Know is the first book by Jay Hansen and maybe, if he improves his writing style by leaps and bounds, will not be his last. It tells the story of a demon who has been pulled into our reality, the boy he possess, and the rag-tag team that has to get him out. The problems with the book begin immediately as typos and missing words are very abundant. However, the one clear thing is that the story has four main characters. The only problem is that the author does not give any exact descriptions of them. This makes the characters basically faceless.
The first of these characters is, of course, the demon. Going by the name of Cain, the demon takes possession of a very gifted young boy named Michael who the author calls a "messiah" because of his destiny to help mankind. He then decides that he should use the extreme intelligence of the boy to destroy humanity. However, throughout the entire novel, Cain basically does nothing and only randomly screams obscenities at his captors.
The next character is The Guardian (basically an angel) who is sent to retrieve rouge spirits when they do something naughty, like try to destroy a planet. This Guardian is supposed to be the best at what she does, which is why she was put on this assignment. However, her plans throughout the book would lead on to believe she is a mere amateur. The Guardian must take possession of a body in order to fight Cain so she chooses Candace Sinclair, a woman who tries to overdose on pills because her cat dies. Using Candace's memories of The Exorcist (brilliant plan #1) she enlist the help of the next character, Father Murphy.
That's right, the author never gives his first name. And since he is faceless, I had to rely on the way he acts to imagine what he looked like. Murphy is a complete and total rip-off of Father Damien Karras (played by the late Jason Miller) from the 1973 film. He is the cliché "I've lost my faith" priest and gives up the life quit easily when this woman comes calling about demons and exorcisms. After Murphy's failed first exorcism attempt, Cain is able to escape the pair only to be caught by the police and taken to an insane asylum.
The next character is introduced during Candace's brilliant plan #2 (get locked up in the nut house and then escape with the kid). Here we meet Jim, and just Jim because no last name is ever given. Jim is the most pointless character in the book. He does help this plan happen but after that he is just dead weight, especially after he gets really high off some plants in the desert.
After escaping the asylum, this book goes from bad to worse as brilliant plan #3 evolves. After some random conversation, Candace decides they should seek out aliens (who are actually inter-dimensional travelers) to extract the demon from the boy. She drags the group to Area 51, which she determines is the best place to find aliens, again using her new body's memories. The whole time, Murphy is fixated on anal probing and mumbles about it for the rest of the book. They arrive only to be nearly killed by the military.
Finally after pages and pages of crap, the book ends in some lame fashion that I don't care to waste ink on. Let's just say it is even lamer than the ending to that 1987 classic The Gate (starring a very young Steven Dorff), which is all I could think about as I read this. But thank God it ended is all I can say.
There were many, many problems with the book. The most obvious is the lame as anything storyline, which included elements of the paranormal that should never be combined in this fashion. Not to mention the numerous inconsistencies that plague the already horrible plot. And to add to that, the chapters of the book are all named after tarot cards, which had absolutely nothing to do with the story. To summarize, it was a whole world of problems that could only be fixed by burning the book and starting all over again. Better luck next time Jay.