Review of “A Devil’s Prayer” – Luke Gracias
When a young single mother’s only
daughter Siobhan, drowns in her swimming pool, a strange man resuscitates her after
the paramedics give up. But he is gone before she could say thanks. A few
months later, she is declared as the winner of lotto worth millions, after
which meets with an accident which escalates to brutal mugging, rape and
attempt to murder leaving her as a mute quadriplegic and in care of her mother
who strives to make ends meet.
Albert Einstein said that “Evil
is the absence of God”. Her silent prayers are left unheard by the God, until
one night, that strange man, who she know knows is the Devil himself, proposes
a deal which she couldn’t refuse. She, at night is gifted with the ability to
move around, and kills her six friends who she now knows were involved in her
assault for their souls in exchange for the devil to grant her good health and
the soul of Siobhan who he saved earlier. The deal is made and fulfilled. However,
she is tricked by the devil into giving birth to the Devil’s daughter, Jess, a
fact she realises years later. It comes light that as per ancient prophesies the
Devil’s child, when of age, would lead to mass destruction resulting in
apocalypse. She, as the deal maker, is the only one who can save the world now.
She abandons her family and becomes a nun to find a way out of the consequences
of making deals with the devil and raising his progeny.
After six years of estrangement, Siobhan
comes to know of her mother’s suicide in a monastery of a faraway country. She must
secretly follow the clues left by her mother in form of a Confessional to
finish what she started which is a race against time since Jess is already
seventeen and has regular communication with her father. To add to her quest,
there are strange monks in red garbs who follow and threaten her wherever she
goes while running away from various unknown threats which may lie in her path.
I picked it up thinking that it
would be horror with abandoned graveyards and spooky ghosts. But it is much
darker in a demonic way. The theme is not unique but the historical facts, their
representation and linking its context with the story-line is astounding. The codex, the testament, the hidden passages, history of the past manifestations
of Devil, the locks and secret keys all these keep you riveted. The chase and
the quest are thrilling and exhilarating. It is commendable how the author has
related the impending catastrophe to global warming and climate
change in the present day context. It makes the work much more realistic and
quite possible in a parallel universe scenario. There are brutal scenes where
the mother is attacked and feel for her. Chill goes down your spine every time
the Devil visits her to entice her into believing him and making that deal.
There are many questions that
pose in the minds of the readers at the end of the book. There is a need to
know whether the girl is able to fulfill her mother’s quest. Does she get her
hands on the Devil’s Prayer, which has the answers to all the questions? After
reading it, there is an urgency to find answers to all these questions. Waiting
for Part-2 already to know how Siobhan gets sucked into this fight against evil
while saving the world.
Book Courtesy: WritersMelon
