Forsaken (Demon Trappers)

by Jana Oliver

Riley has always wanted to be a Demon Trapper like her father, and she's already following in his footsteps as one of the best. But it's tough being the only girl in an all-guy world, especially when three of those guys start making her life more complicated: Simon, the angelic apprentice who has heaven on his side; Beck, the tough trapper who thinks he's God's gift, and Ori, the strikingly sexy stranger who keeps turning up to save her ass.

One thing’s for sure – if she doesn’t keep her wits about her there’ll be hell to pay . . .

• ISBN10: 0330519476
• ISBN13: 9780330519472
• Publish Date: 7 January 2011
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 4 September 2015
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Macmillan Children's Books
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

Riley hunts demons, like her father, in a world where things went wrong when demons started turning up in the world, where life started to be hard to live for ordinary folk and her dad changed from being a history teacher to being a hunter. They barely make the rent, owe a lot because her mother had cancer and the treatment cost a lot and life is just hard for them both.

This throws you into the middle of the action from the word go. Riley is determined to be the first female Demon Trapper and having grown up with it is largely unfazed by it all, what does faze her is the fact that the demons know her, and they're hunting her.

It's a world that's almost ours and close enough and yet far enough to be interesting, there were moments when I wanted more information and I'm hoping that it will come with time and the series.

[Amber]

Forsaken sounded like a fantastic read. I love demons, demon hunters *points at the demon-fighting Winchester in the banner* and all things supernatural, and so I couldn’t wait to get stuck into this book. Unfortunately, I finished it feeling a bit let down.
Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the novel, but I found myself getting frustrated with the main character so many times. And if you’ve read my reviews in the past, you will know that an annoying main character could easily mean the death of a book for me.
I’ll get the negative stuff out of the way. I found the main character, Riley, to be very immature and annoying. The girl was supposed to be a demon trapper (meaning, she catches and sells demons rather than killing them) in training, and I just assumed that would mean she was as badass as Rose Hathaway. Instead, Riley turned out to be a bit of a whiner and this became very annoying very fast. She also seemed to get over a certain event far too quickly. If the same thing had happened to me I would be curled up in bed for weeks, but then again I guess that would make for a boring novel. Plus, Riley was raised in a world very different to ours.
Onto the better stuff!
The other main character is Beck, who is good friends with Riley’s dad, and someone Riley used to have a crush on. Beck started off annoying, but he became a lot better towards the end of the novel. I liked reading things from his point of view, and I definitely wasn’t expecting that. He’s actually kind of sweet, under that hard shell of his.
Simon, the love interest, was very average. I don’t have much to say about him. He was nice. Yeah.
Which leads me onto Ori. Oh my GOSH, Ori! He was only in a couple of scenes in this novel, but I fell in love. What more can I say? He’s amazing, badass and totally hot.
Anyway, I found the demons in this novel fascinating. There were so many different types – another thing I wasn’t expecting – and I loved reading about the differences, and discovering which demons were more evil than others. There were a couple that were just plain cute!
The pacing of this novel started of very slow. It was an average read at the beginning. That said, the book majorly picked up in the final few chapters. I am so happy I continued reading, otherwise I would never have met Ori, and I would never have read that awesome climax!
I’ve given this book an average rating, because Riley and Simon just weren’t doing it for me, and it took a while to get into. However, I still definitely recommend this if you’re a fan of demons and the paranormal. I’m about to pick up the second book in the series, Forbidden, after I’ve posted this review. Fingers crossed for more Ori, eh?