On the HahaFiction shelf
Practical Demonkeeping
Pine Cove · Book 1 · 1992
Travis O’Hearn arrives in Pine Cove hoping to get rid of Catch, the demon who has kept him young while making his life miserable. Catch sees the California town as a supply of meals. The residents have plans of their own, and an unwanted demon gives them plenty to contend with.
From the publisher’s blurb
“The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most of the people he meets.”Read the full description at Publisher description, Orbit / Hachette UK
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What makes it funny?
The local bar has changed its name from Head of the Wolf to Head of the Slug under pressure from animal-rights activists. A detective fears that failing to solve a case will leave him bagging convenience-store food. Their everyday preoccupations persist around the man-eating monster.
The comedy at work
The trouble spreads through a town full of flawed people pursuing their own schemes. Travis wants freedom from Catch, while the demon’s appetite keeps complicating everyone else’s plans.
Try this if…
A crowded cast and tangled supernatural complications are much of the appeal. Kirkus praises Moore’s amused treatment of the townspeople while finding the plot overly complicated.
Good to know
People are eaten, and the cast includes characters dealing with alcoholism and past abuse.
A few distinguishing details
- An unwilling keeper trying to lose his man-eating demon
- A California town full of competing schemes
More funny creature feature
Sources & further reading
- Kirkus review
Review
- Publisher
Publisher
- Bibliographic record
Book information
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