(Disclaimer: Due to timing and writing purposes, I have only analyzed the first thirteen pages of this novel. Nothing I have written below is in any way related to the story after these particular pages.)

Today’s review is Demetori by Josh Hunt. Demetori is about Adel Demetori, the daughter of a remarkably powerful necromancer. The story begins right when Adel is about to run away from home and her abusive father. Demetori is an astonishingly engaging story, written par to novels such as The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Josh Hunt is an exceptional author, and I hope I can convince you to read their novels.

This story is remarkable, but it does have some trivial flaws. On the first page of the prologue, Adel’s mother, Gris, called her baby 'It'. I did understand who ‘it’ was, but it was not particularly explicit, leaving space for a reader to misunderstand who ‘it’ is. Gris calling her baby ‘it’ is meant to show the un-wanting she had towards her daughter, but the writing could be much clearer in explaining who 'It' is. Instead of saying, “It disgusted her a little, what it was, what it could be.” Josh Hunt could have described the features of the baby, calling her ‘it’. While this problem is not particularly significant, I still would like to see this issue, even minimally, fixed.

One thing that is clear throughout the thirteen pages that I have read is the extraordinary portrayals of emotions in this story. One particular example of this is the moment when the characters Lydia and Gris are silently aggressive towards one another. It is a fantastic scene and incredibly realistic. I am always astounded at the amazing work some Tapas artists are able to create, but I have never seen such realistic emotional portrayal in even some fully published novels. Writing a character's emotions down on a page without directly telling the audience which ones they specifically are, is a cardinal skill to have, and Josh Hunt has absolutely mastered it.

(Next paragraph contains a major spoiler)

As I wrote earlier, the main character, Adel, runs away from her father. She does this with the help of her new familiar, Lune. In this escape, Lune dies in a very heart-wrenching moment, and Adel is grief-stricken. One thing that I would have really loved to see was a bit more emotional development between Adel and Lune before Lune died. It isn’t a dominant issue at all, but I believe that if Lune and Adel were together a little bit longer, it would have created an even greater emotional impact on Adel and the audience. Otherwise, there truly aren’t any major flaws that I have seen in this novel.

This story flows very nicely. Every page moves at a good pace, and everything written contributes to the plot. I am very impressed with the writing in Demetori, and even more so, the story itself. Pacing and subtlety in writing have been a struggle for almost all authors, and reading a story that is paced well, is very rare, especially on online platforms such as Tapas. Pacing is the controlling of speed and rhythm in the telling of a story. If pacing is sped up or slowed down too much, it can deplete a reader's interest in the novel. I have read too many stories that are sped up at the beginning, causing the middle to be stretched out and making the story much less intriguing. (I have also seen the reciprocal) Through the limited amount of pages I read, it is clear that Josh Hunt paces their story very well.

Demetori is amazing; Its plot is interesting, its pacing is well-done, and the story is well-written. While I did hope for some parts of this story to be clearer, there were almost no issues I had with this story. I would absolutely recommend Demetori to anyone, and I hope I have convinced you all to read it.

Link to Demetori in the description