Synopsis
As Seen on Amazon
From the creator of the Jersey Devil comic book comes a story about four cousins cursed by their ancestors, brought together by destiny and trying to keep South Jersey from going to Hell.
In 1732, Mother Leeds gave birth to the infamous Jersey Devil, which has roamed the Pine Barrens ever since.
Or so the story goes…
The truth is, Mother Leeds was a witch and opened the portals to Hell unleashing hundreds of devils into woods. But the villagers next door in Abe’s Hat noticed and formed a secret hunting society to track down the fiends and send them back to the Abyss. Their descendants continue the Hunt in secret to this day.
So grab your pork roll, put on your Piney Power hat and join the hunt, because the Galloway cousins are coming to save you whether you like it or not.
Book Review
The Pineys: Book 1: My Cousin, the Piney is a book by Tony DiGerolamo. Its about a group demon hunting – correction: devil hunting – new jersey hillbillies known as pineys, all part of the complex and large Galloway family.
Before I go into the review, I just wanted to say the following. To be honest, given my pollical leaning is center left, I wasn’t sure at first about the book, given DiGerolamo’s twitter account giving off a clear right-wing politics vibe. This wouldn’t have been worrying to me if it wasn’t that one of his books was explicitly a political satyr favoring the right. Because of that I was worried that he would leak politics into these Piney books, and that given my political leaning it wouldn’t be enjoyable. But my fears were unfounded, and I am glad about that. This has taught me a valuable lesson that even people with differing political leanings to mine, can write books that I can definitely enjoy. And I did definitely enjoy this book.
Now onto the review proper.
The Pineys: Book 1 follows the story of Lewis Cognata who finds himself caught in the middle of a demon hunt – correction: devil hunt – gone wrong. It is a story filled with humor, interesting twists and turns that would be entertaining even on rereads, love that might be questionable, and of course demon slaying – correction: devil slaying. However for any parent out there, given the dirty language of this book, I’d say give it a read first before you let you kid or teen read it, just to be certain your okay with the dirty language in it.
The book is fast paced, almost too fast paced sometimes. I found myself having to reread some parts because I unintentionally read through them too fast due to the excitement and urge to move forwards the book gave me. The chapters also end in ways that made it difficult to put down. As an Author I know that is great writing, even if readers often both love and hate it when that happens. Either way, high points for that.
I’m also impressed by the creativity of DiGerolamo when it comes to the demons – correction: devils – that are seen throughout the story. The interesting abilities, characteristics, and general demeanor of the demons – correction: devils – give the fight against the demons – correction: devils – a lot more depth and fun. The dynamic between the characters is also fun. There is the fact that not everyone who is on the same side as each other gets along. This unfortunately is not often seen in fiction, as arguments are far harder to write, but DiGerolamo does a good job at writing them.
Because of how good this book is, it still earns 5 stars from me. I loved the premise, the humor, and the hijinks. It was a fun read, and I look forward to reading and reviewing the next book in the series in a few weeks.
On this site I tend to hand out bonus stars. Bonus stars are when an author goes above and beyond what they should do, and does something spectacular and amazing. So lets go over the list of bonus stars:
X - Creativity with Presentation - More Info: https://www.eveloniistudios.com/post/what-i-mean-by-interesting-presentation
X - Outstanding level of notable diversity and representation among the characters
⭐ - Hooked from the very start
X - Extreme in-depth world building
X - Big emotional feels
⭐ - High Levels of Excitement
⭐ - Keep on Guessing
So that's 3 out of 7 Bonus stars.
You can follow the Author on Twitter at @TonyDiGerolamo
You can find the book from Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XVCWVCK
That's all from me fellow book lovers.
~ Caleb Teal, Author and Founder
Edit 1: Implemented the Bonus Stars system