A great fun read. You'll never look at demons the same way again.

Ehhhhh..... I finished it, so it wasn't absolutely horrible. Did not hold my attention very well, a bit hard to follow. Thank you for the opportunity to read it though!

Demon with a Comb-Over by Stuart R West is a book I was so thrilled to get from NetGalley to read. This book starts right away with the fun and suspense and this is how it works all the way through the book. One minute I am laughing and the other I am cringing. A comedian is bombing on stage one night and picks on the wrong guy to get the crowd going. It is a guy with a comb-over. Come to find out, this guy is a demon and he didn't find this a bit funny and proceeds to make our comedian, Charlie, pay for the comb-over joke in the worst way. Hell on earth. From there on, it is funny and frightening through the book. Charlie also has a young girl he shares custody with his ex-wife with. He has to protect her from the demon. He still has to do the shows, protect his daughter, help his mother, and avoid the demon. A great plot that was an emotion roller coaster but a hell of a lot of fun!

Review of DEMON WITH A COMB-OVER by Stuart R. West

This is a sprightly and hilarious, yet sad, novel. High recommendation from a reader who doesn't do humour: I frequently chuckled, smiled wryly, and yes, even laughed out loud! Charlie Broadmoor is a feckless comedian-by-choice, product of middle-class parents, poor, divorced, with 50-50 custody of daughter Serena, and an aggravating, spacy, ex-wife Celia. Charlie really wishes his comedy career would rocket, but instead of lots of laughs and profitable gigs, Charlie picks on an audience member one night and gets way more than he bargained for. Charlie mocks the man's comb-over, only to discover, this isn't a man, he isn't human: he's the demon Kobal, formerly demon of mockery; and Kobal is infuriated. He's sending Charlie straight to hell, but first he's detouring through Charlie's life, pestering (and deleting) his neighbors, friends, and family!

This was a hard one to rate. I’ll be honest, I read this more out of curiosity than anything. I wanted to know how you could mix comedy with horror and make it work. Turns out, you can't, at least not in this case.

Don’t get me wrong, in the beginning it was working quite well. I was enthralled. Good straightforward writing, and humorous. I kept wondering, “oh no, what’s going to happen next?” The horror was just on the edge of corny, but was working for the story as a whole. A good 3.5, maybe averaging up to 4 stars.

But then Charlie (our protagonist) gets sucked into hell for the first time, and it’s jolting. Everything up until that point had been satirical, at times depressing but with a funny lilt to it. After Charlie gets sucked into hell things get serious, and it turns into more of a horror story. Granted, it’s supposed to be a horror story, but the transition just wasn’t smooth, and from that point on I was plain and simple depressed.

There were some side-characters that majorly slowed down the story as well, and while this book is quite short, every scene with these guys made the book feel like it would never end.

There were two angels who I’m sure were meant to be comic relief, but instead took up space, sending us round and round on a boring carrousel with monochromatic ponies….And Sylvia…Oh Charlie, seriously? Sylvia is this gorgeous blond who’s interested in Charlie, and “thinks he’s funny”. *shakes head* you can see the “twist” with her coming from the get go, which perhaps is the point, but every time she came on stage I caught myself rolling my eyes.

While Charlie wasn’t the most likeable character, he was interesting enough, and his daughter makes you smile, while his ex-wife is just plain batty. Thinking back on it, there really are NO likeable women characters, there might be something to be said about that, but we’ll leave that be for now.

Anyway, while there was potential to be had in this first book, it ended up falling flat…sad really.

As for the added feature of “The Book of Kobal”, that’s just what it was: an add-on. I suppose it was interesting in its own right, but the way it was written was more like a draft for a more complex and interesting story.

In the end I MIGHT suggest this book to someone. Maybe a comedian if I knew one, out of irony's sake. But yeah...probably not.

Charlie is having a bad day a really bad day . He is a comic but honestly not a good comic. He is bombing at being a comic , Until the night he picked on the wrong person . Don't ever mess the guy with the comb over , he might just be a demon that can make your life a living hell.
    So begins the twisted tale of Charlie and his dissent into hell . The author takes a very humorous take on the horror twist . I like how the author added humor to the horror genre in a good mashup. The main character Charlie is such a fun character to read . He is such a messed up mess and it takes awhile for him to realize that he is being tortured by a demon . He just goes about his business and while bad things are starting to happen . Kobal is the demon who takes on Charlie . He is one grumpy demon. He has had a hard life and is taking it out on Charlie .
   The story has a great mash up of horror and humor . The author takes us on a ride that mixes humor , tragedy . horror and drama . The characters are well written and the story is fast paced . You will be rooting for the good guy . But honestly you start to think he isn't going to come out of it alive . You will be embroiled in the characters and the story . I will say this you will have to read the book to see if Charlie and his daughter make it out alive . Also what happens to Kobal . You will be surprised .

This book was both funny and horrifying--nice combination! I enjoyed it--you might too! Give it a shot.

Excellent combination of dark humour and sheer horror. Very readable with excellent characters. Once started I found that I had to keep reading to see what was going to happen - always the sign of a good book for me!

Good plot but humorless

I had mixed feelings about this book. The book is divided into two parts, the first about a stand-up comic as the protagonist, with the demon as the antagonist. Then came the second part which gave the back story on the demon. Author Stuart West tells a very interesting story which made me want to find out how it turns out so I couldn’t put the book down. However, I also found the story was one of never-ending gloom, totally devoid of what I consider humor, and with several scenes of mayhem overdone. So I ended up skipped a lot of the book to see how it ends. So while overall, I appreciate the plot, I did not enjoy the book.
Disclosure: I received an advance reader copy of this book for review purposes.

I read the novel as a possible film property. While the premise might hold cinematic potential the execution wasn't really there for a film treatment. I was rather surprised at the end of the novel when the author then started another section on the demon which I didn't read and had no interest in.