A Demon Inside by Rick R. Reed
Since the first chapter I thought Hunter was not really up to his name; or maybe he was and for that reason he was also fated to experience a nightmare. A Demon Inside more than a paranormal novel is an horror: young and wealthy Hunter is all alone in the world; he is also heartbroken and of course he decides that he wants to detach himself from the world inside Beaumont House. Doesn’t matter that his parents died on the property, that his grandmother on her death bed told him to burn down the mansion, as soon as he is able to do that, he goes living there. And of course despite all the signs, and the proofs, that the mansion is haunted, he blindly searches for other reasons, almost driving off Michael, the one that probably is able to help him.
There is really no mystery on what is happening, even if the practical side of me wanted to find some other reason, but starting from the title, A Demon Inside, and the prologue, a creepy antecedent happened at the middle of the XIX century, the reason why Hunter should have been followed his grandmother’s advice was clear. But Hunter is also the typical hero/heroine of some Gothic romance of the ’70, those novels with a scared woman in flimsy dresses running away from a looming mansion, almost always by night of course: even if you take them by the hand and explain all the wrong reasons why they should not go into that house, they will do exactly that as soon as you will turn your shoulders.
Hunter shares also another trait with those women, he is innocent and the last of his family; those characteristics make him both easy prey of villains, but also easy to suspect when someone tries to lend them an helping hand. More or less Michael is a good man (and of course he is not "simply" an handyman, the counterpart male hero of a gothic romance has always to be something more), and he is also very friendly with Hunter, two gay men almost same age living near each other in a small town, they seem fated to be together, but of course Hunter is questioning everyone and everything, and the strange happenings in the mansion don’t help.
Sincerely if I was Michael, probably I would have been less patient than him with Hunter; more or less until the last page, Hunter is questioning Michael’s real reason, even when it’s clear that he is only trying to be a good friend and possibly a lover. Don’t know if this is maybe a reaction from Hunter’s side having always lost anyone he has loved, his parents, his grandmother, even his first lover. It’s like he was taught a lesson, if you love someone you will lose him, so much better if you don’t.
And in any case it’s not that Hunter, in the end, will really learn his lesson; despite everything he is unable to completely detach himself from that place, it’s like he is double bond with the area, ready, and willing, to be possessed by “it”…
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