Forsaken

Forsaken (The Demon Trappers #1) by Jana Oliver, 2011. 422 pages. Published by Macmillan. Source: Won.

Riley Blackthorne just needs a chance to prove herself—and that’s exactly what the demons are counting on...

Seventeen-year-old Riley, the only daughter of legendary Demon Trapper, Paul Blackthorne, has always dreamed of following in her father's footsteps. The good news is, with human society seriously disrupted by economic upheaval and Lucifer increasing the number of demons in all major cities, Atlanta’s local Trappers’ Guild needs all the help they can get—even from a girl. When she’s not keeping up with her homework or trying to manage her growing crush on fellow apprentice, Simon, Riley’s out saving distressed citizens from foul-mouthed little devils – Grade One Hellspawn only, of course, per the strict rules of the Guild. Life’s about as normal as can be for the average demon-trapping teen.

But then a Grade Five Geo-Fiend crashes Riley’s routine assignment at a library, jeopardizing her life and her chosen livelihood. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, sudden tragedy strikes the Trappers’ Guild, spinning Riley down a more dangerous path than she ever could have imagined. As her whole world crashes down around her, who can Riley trust with her heart—and her life?

First sentence:

2018
Atlanta, Georgia

Riley Blackthorne rolled her eyes.

*note: I read this one early last year* Forsaken had actually been sitting on my TBR stack for a couple weeks before I finally picked it up. But once I started in on it I could not put it down.

I was afraid that it was going to be your typical supernatural book with the same old story line. I was especially worried that it was going to be another one of those book were the heroine falls for the (enter enter supernatural creature of choice) and gets pulled into the darkness. What I was not expecting was to be so absorbed in the twisted reality of what had happened to Georgia, as well, as unable to turn away from what Riley's story and her strong personality. While I love supernatural/paranormal books, it has been some time since I have been so caught up in a book of that genre were I didn't want to put it down.

Forsaken kept bringing to mind the first season of Supernatural when the Winchester boys were hunting down the yellow eyed demon and searching for their father. The sense of danger, the stubbornness of Riley, and the excellent writing of Jana Oliver paired with memories of a show I loved just teamed up to create a book and series that I cannot wait to return to in the next volume, which I have.

Riley, now I enjoyed reading about this crazy girl who decided to follow in the footsteps of her father and become a demon hunter. What I really enjoyed about Riley as a character would have to be that she would not back down from a fight, and that she was not going to forfeit her goal just because the good ole' boys didn't want to have her in the game.

One of the things that really made Forsaken such a great read would have to be the changes that Ms Oliver made to our world. I thought it was really interesting to see how rough things were there and how much everyone depended on members of the Guild, like, Riley. It was definitely interesting because in most books with demons and hunters you don't really see many of the ordinary people clued into the problem at large or knowing how to seek help. So it definitely made it interesting to see that the hunters and demons were common knowledge.

So, while I did enjoy this one immensely, the problem I had with it was that the language. There was a little too much in the way of swearing for my taste. while the amount of swearing probably wouldn't bother most readers, it did bother me. Even though I felt there was maybe a little much cussing in Forsaken, what made it bearable was that it was only really used in extreme situations, like, someone was about to die or something like that and that it wasn't just thrown around all willy-nilly.

Final Verdict: Forsaken, now this is how a book about demon hunting should be like. Rough, fast paced, and with an interesting and strong female protagonist.

Forsaken earns 4 out of 5 pineapples.