American Monsters (Demon Road Trilogy #3)

Book: American Monsters

Author: Derek Landy

I was really excited to read this book as it’s the final book in the Demon Road Trilogy and I really wanted to see how Derek Landy wrapped everything up. I have to say though, that unfortunately I was a little underwhelmed. The plot was confused and seemed to jump around a lot, there were new characters introduced all over the place, which I think is a big no in the last book of a series and it just all seemed a little messy to me. Don’t get me wrong, there were good parts to this book as well, but it’s definitely the weakest instalment in the series. Here is a short synopsis of the book:

Bigger, meaner, stronger.

Amber closes in on her murderous parents as they make one last desperate play for power. Her own last hopes of salvation, however, rest beyond vengeance, beyond the abominable killers – living and dead – that she and Milo will have to face.

For Amber’s future lies in her family’s past, in the brother and sister she never knew, and the horrors beyond imagining that befell them. 

The gross out factor did not go down in this book, the bogles may be the grossest monsters I’ve ever read about, they were horrible! I felt sick for about the first three chapters not gonna lie and there are lots of other gross and creepy things that happen throughout the book. I have come to accept however that I’m never going to get through a Derek Landy book without being grossed out! The clown especially freaked me out, I really hate clowns!

It was interesting seeing Amber doing her job as the Shining Demon’s representative, but I did feel like she moaned a lot during this book which I didn’t really appreciate and I found the whole thing with her demon self (it makes more sense when you read the book) slightly weird. She also did a lot of stupid things whilst being the Shining Demon’s representative and I just wanted to yell at her to stop.

There were a few new characters introduced who I didn’t feel were important to the story, like Clarissa, this homeless girl that Amber meets, I didn’t understand her function. Also the Gundersons, I had no clue who they were and Sutton and Byrd, the FBI agents (they might have been introduced in Desolation, I honestly don’t remember), I didn’t understand why they were there either and I felt like in the last book Derek Landy shouldn’t have been introducing all these new characters. It also really bugged me that we still don’t have a map! This is a road trip book, I need a map damn it!

There were lots of good action sequences but I felt like there were so many of these that I sometimes got confused as to exactly what had happened and sometimes a story was introduced and it felt like it was never really resolved (like with Elias Mauk and his house full of people he was going to kill, I don’t really know what happened there?).

I loved seeing Kelly and the gang back again, as I really liked their addition in the last book and I was excited to see what happened with her and Amber. The resolution of the gang’s storyline did not make me happy (damn you Landy) but I did love what happened with Amber and Kelly, it was really nice to see a lesbian storyline as I feel like you don’t really see that too much (or at least I haven’t read many books with lesbian couples) and I feel like they really complement each other well. There were a few twists and turns that I didn’t see coming which I really liked.

I was so glad that there was more of Glen in this book as I love Glen and I felt like that helped with the humour in this book, which I thought was much improved from Desolation, I found myself laughing out loud more often than I had in the last two books. I didn’t understand how Glen knew Amber was a lesbian though unless I missed something in Desolation. I loved that the dynamic between Glen and Milo from the first book was brought back her also as it was one of my favourite things from the first book.

Whilst Amber’s character did annoy me at points during the book, I really appreciated that in this book, Landy finally showed her being more comfortable in her own skin and accepting herself the way that she is because it’s something I’ve been wanting all series!

I liked that we finally got to see Amber’s brother and sister in this one but I would have appreciated it if instead of all of the random plots that didn’t really make sense, Landy had focused more on Amber finding out her brother and sister and killing her parents, the plot kind of seemed to go in lots of random directions until we finally got to the end point and it wasn’t really cohesive.

Everything was wrapped up okay in the end, the characters all did what they needed too and everything, but it all just felt a little anti-climactic. When Skulduggery Pleasant ended I was really sad, but this just felt……like okay it’s over? I mean I’m very mad at Derek Landy for what he did to a certain character whose name I’m not mentioning, but other than that, I didn’t feel much about the ending of this book. The last chapter also felt really out of place.

Overall, this last instalment was pretty underwhelming, whilst I felt like the humour was better, the plot felt confused, everything felt too rushed and the ending was incredibly anti-climactic, it’s not what I expected from the conclusion of a Derek Landy series at all, The Dying Of The Light was so much more explosive. I think the book could maybe have benefitted from being a tad longer and a little more focused and maybe the fact that this one came out so soon after the last one kind of hindered it. Unfortunately, a very underwhelming conclusion to what has been a very mixed trilogy.

My rating: 3/5

My next review will be of the latest instalment in the Throne of Glass series, Empire of Storms (EEEEEE!).