The Gates

When my lovely wife Tina brought this home from the library it hit me that our tastes in fiction are overlapping more often. This book has been on my To Be Read list since I saw it on the New Books table. I have already read the author's previous foray into fantasy, The Book of Lost Things, and found it imaginative, witty, dark, and exciting. (That was two years ago.) Tina read that one too and thought it perhaps a little too dark. Pshaw! This one could be aimed at a younger audience – there are some obvious YA flourishes – although, it was not classified as such by the megastore and/or publishing bureaucracy.
The plot centers on a young boy named Samuel Johnson, who happens to witness his neighbors inadvertent opening of a portal to Hell in their basement. His neighbor, Mrs. Abernathy becomes possessed by an arch-demon working for The Great Malevolence. Samuel endeavors to stop her/it. The story cooks along with nary a dull moment and is chock-full of droll wit. In fact, while my wife was reading it (and glued to it), she kept chuckling from one page to the next. A good laugh always promotes a book to the top of my To Read Next list so when she finished it, I put aside my current reading matter and dove in. Such a fun story. It works in the Large Hadron Collider, a horde of demons, and judicious use of a cricket bat.
This would be awesome source material for an animated movie.
After reading this, I wondered what the author's other books might be like. I did a little research. He's got a series of books featuring a tormented cop that you'd find in the crime thriller section. The subject matter of these appear to be seriously dark and gruesome. I might check one of them out.
But in the meantime, I'd recommend The Gates for anyone looking for a witty, horror-lite romp.