The Boy Who Could See Demons by Carolyn Jess-Cooke

The Boy Who Could See Demons

Carolyn Jess-Cooke

Demons - psychological, paranormal and historical - inhabit this emotionally tense story about a troubled young boy, his suicidal mother and his grieving psychiatrist. When Alex‘s mum is ill, he meets Anya who wants to get to the truth behind Ruen, a menacing shape-shifting creature who visits him. This debut novel, tackling issues such as mental illness and Schizophrenia, violence and poverty, is sinister but heart-warming, bleak but engrossing.

Extract
He is showing his teeth like Woof does when he's cross; his face is turning bright red. Then he changes into a monster right in front of me, his short skinny arms bursting out of his shirt and turning dark and shadowy and his eyes rolling back in his head. He grows so tall that his head bends against the ceiling and instead of his funny, purplish monster-skin he looks like thick black smoke with eyes and a hole like the middle of a tornado where his mouth should be. And in the middle of that hole are four long fangs. Then he turns and lunges towards me and I shout, 'Ruen!'
Parallels
  • Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Green
  • Finding Alice by Melody Carlson