Review: Hellhole by Gina Damico

Title: Hellhole
Author: Gina Damico
Genre: paranormal, fantasy
Series: none
Pages: 352
Published: January 7, 2015
Source: Publisher via Netgalley
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

A devil is a bad influence . . .

There was a time when geeky, squeaky-clean Max Kilgore would never lie or steal or even think about murder. Then he accidentally unearths a devil, and Max’s choices are no longer his own. The big red guy has a penchant for couch surfing and junk food—and you should never underestimate evil on a sugar high.

With the help of Lore, a former goth girl who knows a thing or two about the dark side, Max is racing against the clock to get rid of the houseguest from hell before time, and all the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos this side of the fiery abyss, run out.

Update: We are so happy to be able to provide a special treat for our readers, the first 30 minutes of the audiobook version, thanks to Esther at Audible. We hope hearing Macleod Andrews doing the voice of a contraband, bobblehead cat will convince you that you need Gina Damico in your life.




Hellhole is not Croak.

I know, I’m disappointed too. Gina Damico’s last series was a comedic supernatural masterpiece, so it’s only natural for people to compare her newest book to it. And while there are similarities in writing, Max isn’t Lex. E-town isn’t Croak. And Burg isn’t like anyone you’ve ever read.

"Oh. I'm Satan. ... Well I'm a Satan. There are six hundred and sixty-six of us, not that anyone's counting. ... The name is Burgundy Cluttermuck, devil-at-large. I do bachelorette parties and retirement galas, but NO MORE children's birthdays."

Burg, Associate Imp of Salty Snacks and sort of like a cruder Betelgeuse, is able to cross over from hell when Max Kilgore, a teen boy who is the antithesis of his name, steals a bobblehead cat for his bed-ridden, dying mother, whose only joys in life come from cheap tchotchkes and reality tv. Do you need happy books? You might want to turn back now, because Hellhole, like Damico’s other books, is a very dark story.

It's also a pretty funny one. Max is a total social moron, frequently engaging strange women in discourse about veal, when he can muster a verbal response to the opposite sex at all. He lives for crossword puzzles, archeology, and Madden and has a giant metal whale that lives in his backyard. Even as a dork myself, I found I had a deep-seated desire to give the kid a wedgie.

Max is offset by Lore, a devil worshiper in bedazzled sweaters, who can’t hide her disdain for the entirety of the human race. Lore’s actually an ex-devil worshiper, having had her own run-in with one of Burg’s compatriots last year. Still, in a small town, she’s the best advice Max is going to find, and she allows herself to be roped into trying to banish the imp.

There are a lot of funny moments, but I’m not in love with the story’s end. I found it rushed and I hadn’t emotionally connected enough with Max to agree that the costs were justified. The story seemed to be heading for redemption for Burg, before swinging back to, “oh wait, demon. Definitely evil.” It’s difficult because all of my favorite scenes, (drunk Project Runway, dinner with mom,) are of Burg being a lovable scamp, so for him to massacre a lot of people? It wasn’t satisfying.

The romance did work for me. Max and Lore play off each other extremely well. I adored the epilogue, especially the final line, which brought me back around on the book as a whole. In the end, Hellhole is dark, funny, and unique. It’s not destined to be an all time favorite, but you want to read it anyway.

Review: Croak by Gina Damico

Title: Croak

Author: Gina Damico

Genre: young-adult, supernatural

Series: Croak #1

Pages: 324 (Nook ARC edition)

Published: expected March 2012

Source: publishers via NetGalley

Rating: 4/5

Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than that of shoveling manure.

He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business.

Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer.

Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?

Lex is the hard-edged and foul-mouthed teenage main character of Croak, and if you don't like Lex, chances are that this is not the book for you. Lex takes the stage early and that made Croak's beginning one of the weakest I have come across - I nearly set it down when "retard" came out to play as an insult early on. The reader's immediate, first impression within two pages of starting this is that this 17-year-old hellion is violent, volatile, impolite and frequently out-of-bounds. With a name like Lexington (plus twin sister Concord -- how cruel is that?! I'm a huge history nerd/double major and even I wouldn't do that to my kids!) and the attitude of a bear with four sore teeth, this is a highly individual character, but ultimately, never one I truly loved. Lex battled her way into my esteem, slowly creeping up in my estimations, but she is easily and obviously the weakest link in this morbid YA novel.

Lex will never top, or even appear of any list of mine for favorite/memorable heroines, except for one. This is a funny girl with her own sarcastic, rough type of humor, and while I didn't love every single bon mot that fell from her lips, I absolutely, and more than once, literally laughed out loud several times at what she has to say. Even her name, taken from a battle that kick-started the American Revolution, unkind as her parents were to stick her with it, is a subtle reminder about how much this novel revolves around death. I also liked the symmetry present in the name: the battle of Lexington that began off a years-long war, and Lex's personal arrival in the town of Croak sets of a series of deadly events. Be warned, Lex is is rough shape at the beginning/middle: she's offensive, unrelentingly childish and overdone teenage cliches abound. What bothered me most, outside of the 'retard' comment, was Lex's double standards with her fellow Croakers. She constantly accuses everyone else of being cryptic and elusive with details, but sees no hypocrisy in shielding her own secrets and knowledge. But eventually, she evolved into a character that if I couldn't like, I could at least understand.

I really enjoyed the lore and mythology the author created for her world, especially since I wasn't particularly invested in Lex or her life. What got me truly involved in Croak was...well, the town of Croak itself and the Afterlife.  I thought the Killing/Culling pairs were a bit unwieldy and unlikely, but the structure reinforces the friendships between the teams so I can't complain too vociferously. The organization of the Grims is highly regimented, and seems like a viable plan for the tasks they must undertake (Ha! Death pun!). Croak itself is fun to read: from Slain Lane, Pushing Daisies flower shop (now I want to watch the tv show. I heart Ned!)  to Dead Weight (a gym), death puns and wordplay appear and add and element of fun to an understandably less-than-teeming city. Let's talk about the Afterlife - very visually striking in the narration, very tactile in description. But what I liked best, out of the whole damn book, was the version of Edgar Allan Poe that Damico has crafted. He's morose, moody and just plain hilarious. I would read a book about his adventures in the Afterlife anyday. His rivalry with Teddy Roosevelt ("where's your big stick now, Teddy?!") was one of the aspects of Croak that kept me vastly amused and coming back for more. In fact, this whole book is "lol-worthy" - so much so that it inspired me to make a shelf named just that for future novels in the series/other books.

Like Lex's, the uncle she lives with has a name that is a harbinger of death, though not nearly as subtle: his name is Mort. Mort and most of the other GRIMs (Gamma Removal & Immigration Managers - a bit of a reach for that acronym, no?) lacked the wholly rounded personality of Lex, but weren't total cartoon caricatures either. What I liked best about Mort was his repeatedly demonstrated ability to put Lex in her place, often and firmly. With a character like Lex, so full of heedless anger and self-righteousness, Mort's calmer, steady personality balanced out her high emotions. Despite a blip of character continuity, Mort is the responsible, smart member of the group, but his control over Lex is tenuous, which leads to their fractious, though loving, relationship. I could have done without the whole romance element, slight as it was, because it just seems superfluous. With Lex's tude, the whiteeye deaths, navigating being a Grim Reaper, couldn't the two just be friends? Is it that unheard of for two teens of opposing sexes to just be friends for a while? Damn - also, the picture "reveal"? I found it creepy, not adorable. And SPOILER: shouldn't Lex recognize a picture of herself when she sees it several times?

Though it begins with a rather weak introduction, Croak happily gathers steam midway and eventually makes a more-than-favorable impression with its strong, complete ending. Besides Lex's overdone teenage tude, and a cliched villain monologue at the end (seriously, I swear it was Syndrome making a cameo) detailing every last element of the grand evil plan, this is enjoyable to read. And, BONUS!, this fun little death-centric book is only $7.87 for Nook. The next book and direct sequel, Scorch, is due out later this year in September, but is already available for pre-order now.