Thoughts of an Aspiring Teenage Writer

“A demon is sick of doing his job in hell, and decides to take an unauthorized vacation by hijacking a teenage guy’s body and using it to experience physical life.”

That is how A.M. Jenkins, the author of “Repossessed” and “Night Road” (and many other books, but these two are the only ones I’ve read) described her book.

And before I go on to talk about the book, I can’t help but point out how eye-catching and awesome her one-sentence summary is! I bet she used it for her query letter. (In the query letter you send to agents and publishers, you have to include a one-sentence summary of your book. I had a lot of trouble with this… D:)

Repossessed has far exceeded my expectations (Yeah, yeah, I know, I probably said the same for “Night Road”…) But it’s true! Especially because the cover had me convinced that it’d be about some evil Demon wracking havoc on mankind:

And although this cover DID capture my attention and caused a reflex action in which I grabbed it and shoved it into my library bag, but it also made me hesitant to read it in fears of being exposed to just plain silly and utterly pointless immorality.

But then I opened the page and was greeted by the awesomely rich and complex voice (not physically) of Kiriel, a “Fallen Angel” (He says so himself that he prefers that name, and not Demon). Kiriel, as mentioned above, is a sort of mirror in the way he relentlessly reflects the sins and crimes of the people in Hell so that they exist in constant misery and regret. After thousands of years of experiencing second-handedly life on Earth, he gets curious and ventures up, searching for a body. And lucky him, there happens to be a moody, reticent boy who is just seconds away from being hit by a bus.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Kiriel DID NOT technically ‘hijack’ the body. The boy (whose name is Shaun) would have died anyway. Kiriel chose him specifically because he decided that he would be doing the boy a favor by saving him and keeping his body alive.  At least, that’s what he told himself over and over again to ward off the obvious guilt and grief that constantly seemed to bind him like shackles.

NOT that he was depressed and mopy all the time. No, Kiriel was too busy exploring to worry. (He only worried about those kinds of stuff at night, in bed.)

I have to say that “Repossessed” has really altered my perception of life. It was very amazing and thought-provoking to “see” the world through the eyes of a non-human. I think Jenkins did an excellent job in pointing out the fact that people often are too caught up in their own petty affairs to experience and live life.

One of my favorite ways that she did this is when Kiriel, in his new body, takes a bath…for 2 1/2  hours. HAHA. The boy’s family was all like: What the heck is up with our son?!
The mom’s immediate conclusion: le gasp. He must me in love! Aw…how cute.
Uh…WRONG. More like, your son just got body-snatched by a random demon.