The Demon’s Deceit is the first book in Andria Carver’s “Divine Evolution” series, and it throws you straight into a gritty, supernatural underworld where addiction, trauma, and power all mix with the occult. The story follows Jeanie Bennett, a washed-up addict who wakes up to find herself under the control of Ms. Cummings, a wealthy, manipulative demon. Cummings offers her a deal, freedom from pain and fear, in exchange for becoming her unwilling assassin. What follows is a twisted dive into the world of the “Divines,” beings who exist beyond humanity, feeding on power, blood, and chaos. The story blends dark humor, philosophical reflection, and raw, uncomfortable honesty in a way that makes you both wince and laugh.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how real Jeanie felt. Her sarcasm, her self-loathing, the way she drifts between wanting to die and wanting to live again. The writing is sharp and punchy, and Carver knows how to make even the filthiest alleyway feel alive. There’s grit under every word, and I loved that the book doesn’t try to glamorize the supernatural. Instead, it makes demons bureaucratic, vain, and disturbingly human. Sometimes the dialogue felt very real, like overhearing someone’s breakdown in a dive bar. I liked that rawness, though. The pacing dips now and then, mostly when the lore gets heavy, but the character work keeps it grounded. I found myself laughing at Jeanie’s bleak humor and then suddenly feeling a lump in my throat when her grief crept through the cracks.

Carver’s ideas about divinity and morality are what really stuck with me. The book doesn’t hand you clean answers, it muddies everything. Who deserves redemption? What’s the price of feeling nothing? And can survival be noble if it’s built on someone else’s pain? These questions hum beneath the action and the blood. I liked how Carver never lets Jeanie off the hook; she’s messy, flawed, and maddening, but she’s trying, and that made me root for her. The mix of horror, dark comedy, and emotional honesty gave the book an unpredictable rhythm that made it feel alive.

The Demon’s Deceit feels like a gritty mashup of Neil Gaiman’s dark whimsy in American Gods, Gillian Flynn’s raw, damaged characters, and the cynical bite of Chuck Palahniuk’s storytelling, all wrapped in a supernatural noir that’s entirely its own. The Demon’s Deceit is a wild story that I heartily enjoyed. I’d recommend it to readers who like their urban fantasy dark, their humor twisted, and their characters broken but fighting.

Pages: 273 | ASIN : B0FLVVHS8J