Repossessed

I'm a teacher for 7th graders and this book was instantly flying off my shelf. The first student who read it is a reluctant reader, and he finished in a week. I have a line of other students who want to check it out. I enjoyed the main character and his observations about life. The tone is well honed humor and the overall message invokes a sense of sweetness about life. Enjoy.

I love this new genre mixing magic and old elements of fantasy with modern-day teenage life. Charles de Lint does it so well, but he's a little dark for my tastes. This is just good, plain fun. I thought the things that interested a demon about life as a human felt very real and meaningful to me. It made me rethink my own life and what matters. I loved how the demon tried to get sex. Not so different from a regular teenage boy, it turns out. And the little brother--awesome!

I loved this novel. It will make you laugh out loud page after page as a fallen angel who escapes from hell and inhabits the body of a dead boy tries to make his way through the day to day of high school, friendship, and a romantic relationship. All of this is in the pursuit of earthly pleasures, but nothing works out quite the way our fallen angel hero plans. Beneath all the fish-out-of-water or demon-out-of-hell humor there are some deep explorations of faith and justice. Great voice and unique story. Highly recommended. YA Reader

The cover of this book led me to expect a kind-of fun, light adventure, but it really isn't. Kiriel the demon longs for time away from Hell and takes over the human body of a slacker-boy named Shaun. Potentially a comic set up. But Kiriel brings with him thousands of years of living in Hell reflecting sorrow and grief back at the damned souls; he feels joy at first encountering the wonders of the world while fearing his bosses from Hell will track him down and make him go back. Not really comic at all. Kiriel/Shaun is a very sympathetic hero who is in a rather desperate situation which, by the end, becomes heartwrenching. Yes, there are lots of funny parts, but as Shaun's love interest, Lane, notes, there's a well of sadness behind Kiriel's eyes. The author did a couple of things extremely well. The book is a first-person narration, and Kiriel's voice is terrific. This reader really felt his wonder at things like eating Froot Loops for the first time, or experiencing his first kiss. The relationships, particularly the one between Shaun/Kiriel and Shaun's younger brother, are so well done. The author also did a great job maintining suspense--Kiriel never gets to quite settle into his role because things keep knocking him out of it. Despite the pace, however, Kiriel has time to reflect on what is happening to him. I found the ending perplexing. This reader was really torn by it. On the one hand, we want Kiriel to be able to stay on earth and not return to Hell. Yet we don't want him to go to heaven, which is boring. Yet we're never quite allowed to forget that a human boy, Shaun, inhabited the body before. I think the ending the author chose was the right one, yet somehow I wanted more for Kiriel. Highly recommended, and more thought-provoking than you might expect from the cover.

As humans involved in our daily lives, we often take the world for granted. Our days are filled with boring, humdrum activities. A. M. Jenkins creates a new twist on the mundane in his new book REPOSSESSED. First, meet Shaun, age 17. He is about to take a step in the wrong direction - into the path of an oncoming truck. Next, meet Kiriel, a minor demon in search of a short break from the fires of hell. Put the two together, and you get a whole different view of daily life. Seconds before the actual truck/teen collision, Kiriel slips into Shaun's body. Kiriel, a demon who prefers to call himself a "fallen angel," sees the perfect opportunity to find that needed break from his dull duties. He wants more out of "life." He wants to feel it and experience it first hand. Once in Shaun's body, Kiriel is able to experience what he has only previously observed. This is his first actual look at the world through human eyes. Amazing! There's the feel and texture of everything from food, especially ketchup, to clothing against his skin. Fabulous! And that two-and-a-half hours spent in the bathtub make him wonder why humans don't constantly bathe. Kiriel finds himself wondering how humans can live such exciting daily lives and still express the desire for further adventures. To Kiriel the real world is not all about just the physical experience. As he deals with Shaun's family, a divorced mother and his younger brother, Jason, he learns that love and the emotional side of life can be an unexpected roller coaster ride of its own. A.M. Jenkins's demon makes us see what is really around us and perhaps makes us more understanding and grateful for how precious life is. Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"