The Demon Star, we need to talk.

This book was... something else entirely. I'm going to try and pull apart all of the themes and I am sure I am going to miss one, there were just so many.

The Demon Star by Jesse Aragon is an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) I was so lucky to receive at the last minute from the publisher because I said yes to a totally different book. I was so excited about this one because the premise looks crazy and just up my alley. Demons, exorcism, living gods, revenge? Sign me up. I love a bleak fantasy

What I got, instead, was a little bit of every single genre I love, complicated characters, deep themes I never get to see in a book, and a fresh and unique take on storytelling that I just fell in love with. Let's start with the writing itself. Aragon is an action writer. Period. Cinematic, vivid, visceral. She knows how to get in your head and make you see exactly what she wants from you. I felt like I was alongside her characters in their breathless race to win against their demon "gods", I was shocked and horrified several times, I gasped, I punched the air. Whatever she was looking to convey, she did it.

There were some moments in the middle I felt we could have used a breather or a bit to pause and gather our thoughts, which did make me pause reading and feel a little overtired. Overall, though, I loved the pacing of the first 2/3. The last 1/3 had it's moments where it felt a little slower or more meandering, but I interpret that as the feeling of having a leash yanked after running full sprint. Of course it's going to feel slower and different after nonstop running. And honestly? Everything about the book is so wild and fun and engrossing that it didn't make my experience any less fun.

Now let's get into her characters. Oh boy, the characters!

I have so much to say!

Nobody in this book is a hero. I love, love, love that. I love it so much I can't even explain. Every single character was morally complicated, a disaster, right, wrong, evil, good. Everyone.

Jacen, our resident exorcist, was a complete disaster. Messy, complicated, addicted to faith and then adrenaline and never sure if he's making the right moral decisions. He chooses his paths and sticks with them to the bitter end. Jacen sees the gods for what they are and what they are doing to everyone and he chooses to stop being a mewling sycophant and weaponize his faith. Is he right? It's not clear. He is plagued constantly by whether or not he's making the right choices and he never knows if his choices are his, he just knows he's sick of the church's lying to him. He channels his own hurt about his discoveries into his actions and uses that to justify them. In the end, though, he stands at the edge of the world with Seth and Ysira and asks himself: What have I done?

Speaking of Ysira. Ysira, my love. What an amazing, complicated female main character. She has a son, a demon that regenerates her body forever, and has to decide what power means and what it will cost her. She is a horrible mother. Not maternal at all. But she is always considering what she's doing in the grand scheme of a greater good. Yes, she says awful things to her son, but Neri is the only one who can save them in their time of need and she has to decide if it's Neri or the world. Ysira is faced with a classic trolley problem and she is decisive. She acts. She is always the actor. I, personally, am also a decisive person and Ysira's character resonated with me hard. She doesn't know how to be maternal, how to love or be loved, how to take herself out of survival mode. Ysira recognizes that the only thing she can use in her world to keep herself and anyone she cares about safe is power. Nothing else will matter. She sets her son up to do the unthinkable for the greater good of their species and planet. But still, she stands with Jacen and Seth at the edge of the world and asks herself: Did I make the right choice?

Finally, we have Seth. Seth. My love. My lynchpin. Seth is the closest we get to a hero in this story. He loves Neri for Neri. Neri has been used and neglected and forgotten, powerless and pointless, but not to Seth. Seth loved Neri just because he was a curious and gentle kid who deserved to be loved. He fell in love with Jacen, a complete disaster exorcist who dealt with unimaginable grief, but was able to keep his heart open to him when Jacen came back to himself. Seth sees Ysira clearly and all of her pain and fear, but he makes a place for her in his heart she doesn't have to fight for. Seth is trying so hard to be good in this world where goodness is snuffed out like a candle. And he stands with Jacen and Ysira at the edge of the world and asks himself: Can I love you through your worst decisions?

Their relationship isn't so much about romance as it is about self-loathing and coping with impossible circumstances. Jacen and Seth love each other, they always have. For them, this connection is always where they wanted to be. Ysira is not in love with either of them, but she has love for both of them. The inverse is true. The three of them are the only ones who can be full present and together and understand what they all have done. It makes sense they would destroy themselves by leaning into an intensely emotional, volatile connection that has a foundation of destruction and usury and weaponization. Will it be lasting and strong? It's impossible to know. All we do know is they're three people who have to bear a horrible weight that nobody else can carry and it makes perfect sense they would descend into each other to cope.

Aragon talked so, so well about the theme of religious exploitation and the complexity of faith. Faith is something you are supposed to question every day, but in the White Church, you can be executed for it. Questioning your living demon gods results in a Harvest chip and you're never seen again. That stamping out of questioning has let to centuries of suffering, so when a new living god comes around and offers a better deal? Of course there's a group that decide the devil they don't know might be better than the devil they do. Ysira and Jacen allying to turn the church into their greatest weapon to save their people is smart and thoughtful and demonstrably true when we look at the history of religion and how it's been manipulated and bent and changed to suit the needs of conquering nations. She brings that to light in a way that doesn't feel forced or preaching or shoved down your throat--she's just frank and deliberate about it in this world and trusts her reader to take it out into their own.

I loved how she made this so messy. Is Naxal actually better than the Firstborn Empire? Are these small, violent blips in Neri just moments or signs of something else? When they consider the horrors of the Firstborn Empire, are they really opting for a lesser evil? When they discover the weapons of their enemies and consider harnessing them if they must, are they any better than them?

Nothing in this story is clean, nothing is forgiving. It ends with more questions than answers, but about the decisions they have all made and whether or not they were right. Aragon does a phenomenal job of making you consider right versus wrong, good versus evil, and if those things even exist in the first place.

If you're looking for something that's one big moral quandary and grabs elements of horror, science fiction, and fantasy? The Demon Star was a 4.5 star read for me and I think it will be for you, too.