The Demon Queen

As a baby, Jesse was found on an abandoned ship in the Pacific Ocean. He has been through many foster families in his life and was even held by Homeland Security because he had no background or identity. He ends up in Illinois with a new foster family who really seem to care for him. Any screw ups and he knows that Homeland Security will deport him. He does well at keeping out of trouble until a new girl arrives. Her name is Honor and she grew up with American parents in Bali. She chants at lunch, writes in Sanskrit, and makes weird sacrificial shrines to gods. Jesse befriends her anyway but keeps his distance because something seems off about her. Then he starts to see this strange old man around town who warns him that the demon queen is coming and only he can stop it. Soon weird things start happening around town and he is getting the blame. The ending gets a bit fantastical but the story is very interesting and mysterious. For fans of Cirque du Freak and other fantasy books set in a real world.

Richard Lewis' THE DEMON QUEEN tells of Jesse, a boy with a mysterious past who has been in and out of foster homes his whole life. When he earns the attention of Homeland Security after a case of mistaken identity, he finds the first clues to a strange past - clues which threaten his new foster home when Honor Clarke shows up and odd symbols and bird murders begin. Ages 12 and older will find it a fine fantasy story.

Move over Harry Potter. We muggles have a new secret world to discover. The Apocalypse is coming in the horrid form of a blood-thirsty Indonesian goddess and a mysterious boy with no family is our only hope. The provincial Midwestern town of Longview has no clue that the fate of the world hangs in the balance between a young girl named Honor and a boy named Jessie, two outsiders in their small, closed society. Not even Jessie knows the heroic role that has been forced upon him. Richard Lewis, who has given us exciting YA adventures in the Christian-Moslem conflict of THE FLAME TREE and the tsunami disaster of THE KILLING SEA, now takes on an other-worldly roller-coaster ride from the small island of Bali to the cornfields of America. This exciting page-turner will make you hope Jessie will come back again to save us in a sequel.

Jesse has spent the last fourteen years hiding in corners and rightfully so, having grown up in the foster care system of L.A. County, shuffled from one home to another. The recent discovery that there is no record of his birth in the United States has Homeland Security targeting him as a potential terrorist and under constant threats of deportation to Cambodia. Jesse is determined to stay out of trouble and maintain a low profile with his new family, the Mindells. The rolling cornfields of the Midwest prove no sanctuary, though, once Honor Clarke comes to town. Returning to her birthplace after years spent in Bali with her anthropologist mother, Honor is full of gruesome stories: from the accidental beheading of her father to her current explorations of black magic. Jesse knows Honor's just messing with his head; after all, things like voodoo death curses and Balinese demon queens don't really exist. The turbulent storms threatening to break across the horizon, a recent spate of bird massacres, Jesse's visions of a tobacco-smoking bald man, and one drunk college janitor claiming a smilodon skeleton came to life are just coincidences. Jesse can't possibly be the world's last defense against the primal force of evil Honor plans to unleash...can he? Richard Lewis' novel THE DEMON QUEEN is a complex mixture of fantasy, horror, and mystery grounded in the very real paranoia of post-9/11 life. What I love about this book is the credit Lewis gives his readers by confronting difficult situations head on; nor does he provide pat, easy answers. In Jesse, Lewis has created an intellectual hero, one who is reluctant to take up arms even when he suspects wrongdoing. Like many teens, he simply wants the freedom to go about living his life, without being hassled, and it's only when he sees no other option does he resort to a warrior mentality. THE DEMON QUEEN is a page-turning, thought-provoking read that will stay with the reader long after they are finished. Reviewed by: Cat