The Dark Within Us

When Jenny goes to a party, she doesn’t expect to meet a demon called Luc and a succubus called Zillah.  The question is, how do they know her name and many other facts about her life?  It is a life that is falling apart as she has been thrown out by her mother and is sleeping on a couch at her Auntie Vee’s.  Not only that, but she has broken up with her boyfriend and he is at the party with someone she had always considered to be a friend.  The underworld is ruled by Luc’s father and he is the son of the original Lucifer.  The demons are banned from our world and live in a series of Circles, which seem to be related to their reason for being in Hell.  Seth Pyro (Luc’s father) wants to get hold of Jenny as he thinks she is the solution to getting out of Hell and taking over the earth, but is Luc doing his father’s bidding or perhaps he is trying to help Jenny?  With a wide range of characters, who can she actually trust and will she ever get her life sorted out.

This is a fascinating look at a modern version of hell and how it is linked to our world.  A fact that we discover part of the way through the book, and perhaps the reason that Jenny has problems with relationships, is that Seth Pyro stole her soul, when she was a young child.  It is this part of a person that links to empathy, understanding and relationships in general; however, according to the story, it is possible for the soul to restore itself and this seems to be happening to Jenny.  Whilst on her journey with Luc, she discovers people who are trapped in the underworld for eternity, even if they have atoned for their wrong-doing and she fights to have their cases looked at again.  I feel this mirrors situations in the real world, especially where the ‘sins of the fathers’ are carried down the generations.  I found myself really enjoying the story and seeing how the main characters develop, especially with their relationship.