Blogger Book Fair: Guest Post N.R. Wick

Welcome N.R. Wick.

Hi all! It’s a pleasure to be here today. I thought it would be fun to talk about my top five favorite fictional demons from books, movies, and I even have one from a video game. Now, it was really difficult to choose only five, but here we go!

First is Randall Flagg from The Stand, which I suppose is both a book and a film. Now, on the surface, he’s pretty much one of the least imposing demons on my list, but what he accomplishes and how is pretty crazy. Flagg is THE bad guy, or “the devil”, everything bad and evil pretty much happens in his name and he even makes appearances in other Stephen King books. I mean, this guy frightens children and crucifies people who disobeys him just to make a point to the rest of his followers. He is the master of manipulation and even turns a woman crazy after impregnating here. Flagg is crazy.

The next demon on my list is the lamia from Drag Me to Hell. This movie is great, but the lamia is twisted and frightening, though sometimes ironically amusing. When a gypsy woman invokes the lamia to torture the sweet, innocent Christine, her life starts to crumble around her. The lamia can posses people and goats, but not just in the Supernatural way… no, in the most terrifying, crawl on all fours and jump scare sort of way. Also with the shudder-inducing drool. The lamia even possesses a man and dances him around in the air like a marionette puppet. Freaky.

Even though the lamia is good, I want to move to Leland Gaunt from the book, Needful Things. While he has similarities to Randall Flagg, he deals on a much smaller and more intimate level. His time is spent in a little shop where he exchanges people’s greatest desire. In exchange, they pay a small amount of money and must play a prank on another person in town. Gaunt clearly knows things he shouldn’t and uses this knowledge to pit people against each other. He, too, is a master manipulator. Eventually, the town goes crazy and trades their souls for weapons in order to keep their greatest desires “safe.” I mean, it’s genius. Gaunt does everything pretty much indirectly, and that’s what’s so disturbing about him and what he does.

Next, we should talk about the demon from Paranormal Activity. I know, we don’t even see it in any physical form! And yet, it’s a great terrorizer. The demon provides a false sense of security by implying that the couple were merely haunted by a ghost rather than being terrorized by a demon. It’s funny, once we realize that the entity is a demon rather than a ghost, it instantly become more frightening. Ghosts can turn out pretty harmless, but a demon? Never. What has a demon haunting ever ended well?

For our final demon, and my favourite, is Alessa from the Silent Hill games (not the movies). I’m obsessed with this game series, so it makes sense that she’d be the top of my list. Now, if anyone is a fan and reading this, there may be some argument on whether or not Alessa is an actual demon. Clearly, I believe we can call her one and not be inaccurate. She was destroyed by the cult people of the town, betrayed by her mother, and between the bad juju that the town of Silent Hill is built on and Alessa’s hate and despair, she creates a horror filled with monsters and disturbing imagery. She is considered the Mother of God for a cult, but their “god” is actually a demon. Between her developed psychic ability and the power of where the town exists, she makes for a fairly terrifying source of evil, even though a lot of it is due to unfortunate circumstance rather than the idea that she was just born and died evil.

So, that’s it for the top five fictional demons according to me. I hope you all enjoyed!

Land of No Angels The Ascension marked a demon apocalypse that decimated the human race and forced survivors into hiding. Sixteen year old Rebecca Ashford and her younger sister, Errol, have spent the last year hidden in their family's tornado bunker. When the sound of a screaming baby wakes them in the middle of the night, they attempt to save the infant and Errol is poisoned by a demon. With only a week until the poison consumes her, Rebecca must trust a mysterious survivor named Fox to help her find a cure. Together, they confront demons and other monsters while Rebecca struggles to learn magic that will help them locate the ingredients needed to save her sister.

Land of No Mortals Seventeen year old Rebecca Ashford and her younger sister Errol have finally found safe refuge at Crown Haven, a witch-led survivor colony. Rebecca should be thrilled by the secure place to live and the human contact after spending a year hiding in their family tornado bunker, but ever since her friend Fox left she's been plagued by guilt strong enough to mess with her newfound witch powers. When demons destroy Crown Haven, Rebecca uses her power to locate the only person who may know how to fight back. Instead, she discovers that Fox is in danger. She and Errol must rescue him and enlist his help in their quest to learn what caused the demon apocalypse and find a way to take back their world. As Rebecca struggles with her feelings for Fox and with controlling her power, she fights to stay alive and defy the demonic oppressors to protect the people she loves.

Land of No Demons Having embraced her role as a High Witch in the post-apocalyptic Midwest, Rebecca uses her magical powers to locate imprisoned or hidden survivors. She and her comrades trek through snow and bitter wind to battle demons in order to rescue the dwindling human population. Even though developing her power has become effortless, her relationship with Fox is more complicated than ever. After a demon informant reveals a plan to summon the creator of all demons, known as The First, Rebecca and the other High Witches must use their powers to heal the dimensional weak points and send him back to his tomb. If they fail, the human race will never recover. Join Rebecca, Fox, and the other survivors of the Ascension as they fight their final battle against evil in the third book of the Dark Ascension series. N.R. Wick writes fiction for young adults and children. She loves everything magical, fantastical, and supernatural, especially if it's dark. N.R. Wick has a Bachelor of Arts in Pictorial Arts from San Jose State University, where she studied Illustration and Digital Media, and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. She currently teaches college level writing and lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, Andrew.

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