Title: The Demon Catchers Of Milan
Author: Kat Beyer
Release date: August 28, 2012
Publisher: Egmont USA
Pages: 288
Source: ALA

Mia’s ordinary life is disrupted in the most horrifying way possible when she is possessed by a hungry and powerful demon–and only saved by the arrival of relatives from Italy, the country her grandfather fled many decades ago. Now her cousins Emilio and Giuliano say the only way to keep her safe is for her to come back with them to Milan, to live, to learn Italian, to fall in and out of love, and to master the family trade: fighting all demons with the lore of bell, book, and candle. Milan is not what Mia expected, but it will change her forever, in this stunningly well-written novel about an American girl who, fleeing an ancient evil, finds her only salvation in her ancestral home.

The Demon Catchers Of Milan is a very unique young adult novel but one that I had a few too many issues with.  While it’s definitely a new twist on the traditional demon story, I found myself rather uninterested in the story and the characters.  However it was still an enjoyable, quick read.

Mia knows nothing about her family’s history of demon catching.  Her father has kept Mia and her sister away from all of that and so when a demon possesses Mia she has no idea what is going on.  She is forced to go to Milan to stay with her extended family and there she begins to learn her history.  The history aspect was by far the most fascinating part of the story.  Milan is a place rich with history and Mia spends quite a bit of time exploring that history.  While I would have enjoyed a bit more of the actual setting, reading about the history of the setting was interesting enough for me.

The writing in The Demon Catchers Of Milan really turned me off of the book and I don’t exactly have a concrete reason for it.  Normally there is one certain thing I can pick out about the writing of a book that makes me dislike it but I honestly can’t explain why I didn’t enjoy the writing in this one.  I was severely bored with the writing and it just didn’t draw me in.  I think part of it had to do with the fact that I didn’t really care for any of the characters but there was just nothing spectacular with Kat Beyer’s writing.

As for the characters, I never connected with any of them.  Mia up and leaves her family and then barely spends any time talking to them or even mentioning missing them.  If I left my family for a place out of the country I would spend a lot more time emailing, skyping, and talking to them than Mia did.  They were just mentioned in passing a few times and there were a handful of emails.  Then there’s the whole demon catching business.  Mia knows nothing about demon catching, she’s kind of a wuss, and out of nowhere she decides that she really wants to catch demons with her family.  Her family clearly knows what they are doing when it comes to the demon catching business but they don’t exactly know how to handle Mia.  They are all a little standoffish with her and sometimes they just seemed kind of rude.  None of the characters were well developed and I never connected with any of them.

Oh and one thing that I really didn’t like is that almost nothing regarding the demon is resolved.  I was told that The Demon Catchers Of Milan is a standalone and if that’s true it’s one of the worst standalones I’ve read.  I honestly have no clue what the point of the book was seeing as they never even caught the demon from the beginning of the book.  I hope there is a sequel to this one just so there might be some resolution.

Overall, The Demon Catchers Of Milan fell flat for me.  There were very few things I liked about it and I’m kind of amazed I even finished it.  If you’re at all interested in this book I suggest picking it up from the library instead of buying it.

Looking for more reviews of The Demon Catchers Of Milan?
Radiant Shadows’ review
My Life As A Notebook’s review