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The Demonologist: A Novel
The Demonologist: A Novel
The Demonologist: A Novel
Audiobook9 hours

The Demonologist: A Novel

Written by Andrew Pyper

Narrated by John Bedford Lloyd

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

Fans of The Historian won’t be able to put down this spellbinding literary horror story in which a Columbia professor must use his knowledge of demonic mythology to rescue his daughter from the Underworld.

Professor David Ullman is among the world’s leading authorities on demonic literature, with special expertise in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Not that David is a believer—he sees what he teaches as a branch of the imagination and nothing more. So when the mysterious Thin Woman arrives at his office and invites him to travel to Venice and witness a “phenomenon,” he turns her down. She leaves plane tickets and an address on his desk, advising David that her employer is not often disappointed.

That evening, David’s wife announces she is leaving him. With his life suddenly in shambles, he impulsively whisks his beloved twelve-year-old daughter, Tess, off to Venice after all. The girl has recently been stricken by the same melancholy moods David knows so well, and he hopes to cheer her up and distract them both from the troubles at home.

But what happens in Venice will change everything.

First, in a tiny attic room at the address provided by the Thin Woman, David sees a man restrained in a chair, muttering, clearly insane… but could he truly be possessed? Then the man speaks clearly, in the voice of David’s dead father, repeating the last words he ever spoke to his son. Words that have left scars—and a mystery—behind.

When David rushes back to the hotel, he discovers Tess perched on the roof’s edge, high above the waters of the Grand Canal. Before she falls, she manages to utter a final plea: Find me.

What follows is an unimaginable journey for David Ullman from skeptic to true believer. In a terrifying quest guided by symbols and riddles from the pages of Paradise Lost, David must track the demon that has captured his daughter and discover its name. If he fails, he will lose Tess forever.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 5, 2013
ISBN9781442359840
Author

Andrew Pyper

Andrew Pyper was born in Stratford, Ontario in 1968. He is the author of three novels, including international bestseller ‘Lost Girls’ (selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), which is currently in development by John Malkovich for a feature film adaptation. The film rights to ‘The Killing Circle’ have been sold to the award-winning producers of ‘The Last King of Scotland’. Andrew Pyper lives in Toronto.

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Reviews for The Demonologist

Rating: 3.5073099625730997 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

342 ratings42 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The demonologist of the title is Prof. David Ullman, who does not consider himself a demon specialist but rather a Milton scholar specializing in ‘Paradise Lost’. At the end of the school term, he is looking forward to a dinner with his best friend, Prof. Jane O’Brian, and then spending time with his 11 year old daughter, Tess. But before he can get out of his office, a thin woman, with colorless skin and a smell of the earth, urges him to accept a job: take a trip to Venice and witness something. All expenses paid. He rejects the offer, and hurries off. But when his friend gives him bad news, and his unfaithful wife gives him bad news on his arrival home, he changes his mind and takes Tess to Venice. While there, he witnesses a strange phenomenon, and his daughter falls from the roof of the hotel in the Venetian canals, body not found, presumed downed and swept away. The rest of the book is his quest to find the daughter he is sure is still alive, but held by beings he formerly thought were figments of the imagination. The journey takes him all around North America and into his past. It reminded me of a somewhat more literate Da Vinci Code: the professor who suddenly is thrust into the role of both sleuth and action hero, what with the clues he must figure out to get to the next stage and the race against time before his daughter is lost to him forever. It’s a tense journey. The book is not without its flaws. It gets boring in some stretches. The characters don’t have a great amount of depth; even David, whose past is explored during the journey, remains more opaque than I wanted. O’Brian is the person that I would have liked to have found out more about; she remains a flat character, a useful sacrifice in the quest. As a strong woman with nothing to lose, I expected more from her. But despite these flaws, the book is worth reading. The demon is the classic kind, not the romantic kind that falls in love with a human and turns his back on evil; that’s kind of refreshing these days.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It's a good book but not the greatest narrator. It's a fun read but nothing too scary.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Starts great but loses steam at the end. It is as if the author could not figure a way out of a plot that grew too big for him. Would be a 4 star but for the ending. Writing is solid and good plot speed - but again - the ending is most disappointing and feels very unfinished.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    If I could give this book a -5 stars I would. Very in premise, but the plot was all over the place. I would not recommend this at all. I actually want my 9 hours back listening to this.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Creepy story - just the kind I enjoy. The plot involves Paradise Lost by John Milton. Worth the read.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It started interestig but fell towards the end. The narrator voice did not helped.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Interesting premise, too many plot holes, and ending wasn't good imo. Worth a read/listen but pretty forget able
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoy demonic plot lines in horror/thriller novels. The impossible being possible gets me every time.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The flow of the book is a bit choppy. Not really anything new or noteworthy. Fairly predictable.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Strong start, then wimped out. Cold have been a better story, but good in a pinch.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    To put it frankly, The Demonologist felt incomplete. The main plot suddenly stops at the end, with out any real finesse or resolution. I thought, sure, this could be because it is the beginning of a series, and the plot's been stretched between a few novels? But now, it's two years later and no sign of a sequel. With out going into possible spoilers I'll just say that I read the book hoping it was going to improve, and it didn't. I left feeling unfulfilled. There are proper ways to make a novel fulfilling even if it's the first book in a series and works mostly as an intro to the characters. But this was not what Andrew Pyper accomplished. Overall, lackluster.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I couldn't finish it. I find his writing style to be cliched and thin. He devotes much of his energy and focus to plotting. His characters are drawn well enough but I found the narrative to be just too familiar (like I've seen these set pieces too many times before). It's more of personal thing. It's actually probably a pretty good horror thriller that just didn't hold my interest.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I've read everything Pyper has written and Lost Girls ranks up there as one of my favourite books of all time.

    That being said, I found The Demonologist frustrating. To me, the story felt rushed, or perhaps abridged. Conversations that likely should have gone on for a while were tightened up for maximum content delivery. Clues that were extremely (I felt) thin were presented and carried on as though they were not only the obvious answer, but the only answer.

    I know Andrew Pyper is capable of much more depth and also capable of wringing the most stunning revelations from the minutiae of life, because I've read Kiss Me and Lost Girls. I know he can dial up the horror, because I've read The Guardians.

    However, in this case, I just felt everything was held at arm's length.

    So, in the end, The Demonologist is an interesting story, but overall, not one of my favourites from Pyper. But that's okay, I know he's still got great stories to tell.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Demonologist is a horror novel that sneaks up on you and, before you've even realized you're a bit scared, has you awake and wondering in the middle of the night. That's the genius of this book--because as true to the book as the blurb is, it sounds a bit... pedestrian? familiar? expected? At least, that's how it was for me. I read the blurb over and over again, and kept thinking, 'This is either going to be very, very good, or fairly boring.' Well, on some level, I was right--it was very, very good.It doesn't traffic in jump scares, but in the slow, oncoming train type of scare that you can feel vibrating the pages and edging into your mind... only to make you think you're seeing things in the dark, hours after you've put the book down.Pyper's attention to detail and the believable crafting of characters, combined with his care for lore and suspense, make this a stand-out read that delivers far more than it promises. I'm rarely scared or creeped out enough by a book that I have to pay attention to when I'm reading it, for fear that it will keep me up, but that's what happened with this book. Though I do most of my pleasure-reading at night, I found myself carving out afternoon and early evening hours in which to finish the book. I don't know when that last happened, truthfully, but this book has stuck with me. I'd absolutely recommend this one to any horror reader, and I'll be picking up everything else Pyper has written (and anything he writes in the future).
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I have had this book on my TBR for years....years! I finally got around to reading it and I'm still up in the air about it. It is possible that I just wasn't in the mood at the time or (more possible) I just wasn't feeling this book. Either way, I was a bit disappointed. I described this as a mix of The DaVinci Code, Taken and Legion. It was also about 100 pages to long, in my opinion.Don't get me wrong, this book wasn't bad. I just found it dragged on and on in between the exciting and interesting parts. When it was interesting and creepy....it was really interesting and really creepy! I also think the ending was very well done. I would love to see a movie based on this.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed the literary side to this novel and the riddles and clues. That is what kept me reading this novel. I would not classify this as horror, maybe suspense, but certainly not horror. Tess was the most interesting character with her journal entries and insights. I wanted to like this book more than I did, but it did not live up to the description on the back.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Loved this horror story with a literary bent. Demonic possession, Milton's Paradise Lost, and a buddy road trip story (kind of). And Venice. You've got me there. Fun and touching at the same time, kinda scary but not too much. I actually think that's a good thing.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Every time I walked through BMV, which for those of you not in Toronto, is a FANTASTIC bookstore, I would pass The Demonologist sitting on one of the bookshelves. And every time I’d pick it up, carry it around, and then decide to put it back. Finally I grabbed it since I was obviously being pulled to it.

    I’ve never read John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and I kind of want to now just to see what parts could have been better in The Demonologist. Even without a complete contextual understanding, I did enjoy it.

    In the beginning of the book, David’s wife accuses him of never being present in the moment, that’s why she’s leaving him. I liked how this forced him to take his daughter to Venice, and the cirumstances around Tess disappearing force him to focus on nothing BUT the present moment. It reminded me of being stuck in a rut, and then finding something that awakens such a passion within you that you are compelled to do it. Regardless of how stupid people think it is, you have to statisfy this…craving to DO something that takes over. That’s how I see David’s mission to find Tess.

    The only thing that sort of confused me was the demons. At one point it says that they take over the identities of people who have died. Does this make them ghosts? Weird zombies? Can other people see them? If Aunt Fran died a week ago, would I have to worry about a demon taking over her body and seeing her in the grocery store? These are the questions I had.

    There were a couple of times when the demons took over living people that reminded me of Supernatural. They take over the body, but the person is still trapped inside. They’re just “meat suits” as Daddy Winchester would say.

    Overall, pretty good. I enjoyed it and it was a quick read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    David Ullman, college professor and noted scholar on demonic literature, such as John Milton's Paradise Lost. He is also a man frequently troubled by bouts of depression, which may be the reason that his wife has been having an affair with another professor for the last year. However, his love for his 12 year old daughter, Tess, sustains him. When his wife leaves him for her lover, he decides to accept a previous request for a mysterious consultation in Venice and to take Tess with him. Shortly after their arrival, his consultation leads to evidence of true contemporary demonic manifestation, which culminates in the demon-coerced suicide of his daughter.

    The unnamed demon wishes to be revealed to the world and believes David to be the one for this revelation. But first David must name the demon. If he is successful in naming the demon and revealing his presence to the world, David believes that his daughter will be returned to him. The solution to this puzzle is revealed in clues left by Tess' diary and from Paradise Lost, which precipitates a journey of discovery from one site of demonic activity to another, one that has a deadline. The Catholic Church, however, believes that it would be better to prevent the disclosure of demonic activity in the contemporary world and sends someone known as the Pursuer after him.

    At times, some of the character descriptions reminded me of The Exorcist; however, David's journey that drove him from Florida to Canada traveling from one episode to another of demonic activity reminded me of the television show "Supernatural." Anyone who enjoys being frightened by "things that go bump into the night" will enjoy this book and find themselves turning pages late into the night too afraid to fall asleep.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Not his best. Anticlimactic .
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Pyper is a fine writer whose stories always evoke strong emotions built through ambiance and places. In this novel, he chooses geographical places to illustrate fictional ones, with Milton's Paradise Lost used as a map, creating a puzzle which the reader tries to reconstitute with the characters.The themes aren't particularly interesting: the dark arts and the Bible as sources of horror have been fashionable for a while now, so while I found the story interesting, it's not what gripped me. For me, it was the transposition from the imagined to the real: whether Central Station as Pandemonium, Venice as a multilayered city of light and dark, or Fireweed Lake as an image for Hell and the River Styx.This is not my favourite from Pyper, but the writing is delightful and I enjoyed the read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Creepy story - just the kind I enjoy. The plot involves Paradise Lost by John Milton. Worth the read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A story of faith this novel follows a university professor who specialized in Milton's Paradise Lost as he tries to save his daughter from the devil. This is a story about a father's love, dealing with the past, and coming to terms with religion. A journey through Milton's epic poem as seen through the eyes of the professor, he must resolve his past and comes to terms with God in order to survive the journey.

    Pyper does an incredible job at portraying a non-believer on a faith quest. He has also succeeded in taking an epic poem (which is difficult and a slow read at best) and making it relevant in today's society.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    All the elements of a good story were there, but the author just didn't quite stick the landing. For most of the book, it seemed like he was coaxing the reader along unneccesarily. In 2013, you don't need to pretend that The Exorcist or any other of the myriad demonic possession books/movies don't exist. We know how it works.Overall, it was a decent story. "The Unnamed" would have been a better title, though.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I decided to read this after I had read and been very impressed by Pyper's The Wildfire Season even though my initial reaction on reading the review was that I didn't think it would be my type of book. In retroscpect I think that is true. This book is much more horror than I usually like to read but because it is Pyper it is a very literary type of horror.David Ullmann is an English professor who specializes in the work of John Milton and especially Paradise Lost. He is also a wounded soul. His wife is having an affair with another professor and his young daughter is exhibiting symptoms of the depression that has plagued him all his life. Then a woman offers him a substantial sum of money and a plane ticket to Venice to go to a particular address there and witness what he encounters. She is very mysterious about who wants him to do this or even why he was chosen. David initially decides to ignore the offer but after his best friend tells him she has incurable cancer and his wife announces that she is leaving him he decides that a trip to Venice is just what he and his daughter, Tess, need. Boy was he wrong! He opens a can of worms that results in his daughter disappearing. On his return to New York he becomes convinced that his daughter is still alive and that a demon wants him to do something that, if he succeeds, will bring his daughter back. He commences a road trip across half of the US and even into Canada with supernatural encounters along the way. His expert knowledge of Milton provides clues as to where he should head.Maybe it is because I have never liked horror but this book just didn't really work for me. I found the whole premise weak and the road trip just seemed to be there to pad the middle. It was scary though so if that's what you like then this book is for you.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An impressively written story of a father who battles supernatural forces to find and save his daughter. The main protagonist, David Ullman, is a carefully crafted character set in a gripping tale. I didn’t find it as terrifying as some of the reviews suggested it would be (when demons threatened I couldn’t help thinking of the TV show Supernatural) but that didn’t take away from the enjoyment.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    What to say, what to say. Well Pyper is definitely a good writer. His style sucked me in at first. But after a while it seemed like too much for me. I liked the character, David Ullman. I found him compelling. He is on a quest to literally beat the devil and save his daughter from, well I am not really sure. Hell probably. I think it is really me who has the problem. It is just too literary for me. His journey too symbolic. The evil here is just too vague. The end was not satisfying at all. If you like really well written books you might give it a try.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Last night I had the dream again. Except it’s not a dream. I know because when it comes for me, I’m still awake.

    Professor David Ullman teaches religious literature and is a scholar of Milton’s Paradise Lost and also of demons, but the irony about his studies is that David does not believe in demons or anything else. Outside the classroom David’s life is in turmoil. His wife wants a divorce and at the same time he receives a strange visitor at his office- a very thin woman with an unrecognizable accent. The woman represents a client with an invitation for David to come to Venice and witness a “phenomenon.” With the impending divorce David decides to accept the invitation and leaves with his daughter, Tess.

    Venice was meant to be a break from the troubles at home and for some quality time between a father and daughter, but David was unprepared for the evil that awaited them, and then he lost Tess in the canals of Venice. Frantic to get his daughter back, David embarks on a quest to save his daughter and in the process must become a believer or lose his daughter forever in The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper. This is a literary horror novel about a father’s love, and the struggle between good and evil.


    Has been described as “A fast-paced Exorcist-meets-Da Vinci Code.” which does the book no favours at all. This book's creeping, sly horror is much more subtle and insidious that the Exorcist and the Demonologist is far too frighteningly well written to be compared to a Dan Brown novel.

    Pyper writes almost too well and the novel is a sophisticated horror stuffed with literary references and some fantastic writing. The story slowly draws you in exploiting that instinctive common collective fear humanity has regarding Satan and all his works.

    The book has much strength but two factors stand out to make the novel worth reading.

    The first is Ullman and his inner ponderings; whether he is thinking about the demonic clues left for him or Paradise Lost (literally) gives the book real emotional depth
    The second is the inclusion of Paradise Lost itself and I thought the author showed great understanding of the text and used it to good effect rather than just as pretentious padding.

    However … I had some difficulty suspending disbelief therefore was not as fully engaged as I probably should have been and subsequently not as ‘frit'.I was constantly deliberating what the Unnamed actually wanted with this depressed, melancholy Milton scholar chasing his demonic clues all across America and the ambiguous ending didn’t help.

    However I there was much to enjoy and think this quote sums it up “The Demonologist holds a mirror to the reader and reveals the places where our deepest darkness lurks. Like Milton’s Paradise Lost, this is the story of the human condition, the fall, and the way back.”
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Two of my favorite writers, Gillian Flynn and S.J. Watson, blurbed this book, and I took that as good omen because these folks know what it takes to create a tale that will keep a reader up late and glued to the pages. And Maclean's declared it "a fast paced Exorcist-meets-DaVinci Code", which sounded hilarious in a way, but, after reading it, I have to agree.This is a story of a man, his daughter and something very demonic, and unnamed. The main character, Professor David Ullman, is an expert on Milton's Paradise Lost, and has a somewhat tongue-in-cheek reputation as a demonologist because of it. His marriage has just dissolved, and he's left with his young and very withdrawn daughter. So it seems fortuitous when a visitor comes to his office and asks him to travel to Venice to "witness a phenomenon"--bringing his daughter was fine and the money offered staggering. But the phenomenon turned out to be beyond hellish, and was now attached to him and his daughter. The professor is pushed into more and more terrifying situations in order to get them free, all the while appearing a madman to everyone else around him. This book is creepy, breath-stealing and pretty much impossible to put down. It's not for the faint of heart, but if you are up to it, it's a riveting read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Literary thriller based on Paradise Lost? Yes, please! But I'm sad to say that Andrew Pyper's The Demonologist didn't do much for me. The characters are undeveloped, what exactly is really going on is never really made clear, and the plot drags for long stretches. Sure, I wanted to find out what happened, so I kept reading with high hopes that the book would improve, but it never really did (in fact, the rushed ending was pretty awful). Since it seems fairly clear this one will be a movie someday, it may be worth waiting for that.