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Running with the demon

George Wilson, Terry Brooks

Ages 14–18

Readers rate it 3.8 (87 on Hardcover)

420 pages · Released 1997

Content report card

Running with the demon parent’s guide: what’s inside

Medium confidence

LGBTQ+ themes

What it offers

Educational value

A note for parents

Running with the Demon is an urban fantasy that pits good against evil in a contemporary American setting, centering on a 14-year-old girl caught between a demon and a Knight of the Word. The novel features moderate violence, supernatural horror elements, and dark themes about the future and moral choices, making it better suited to mature teens than younger readers. While it explores positive themes of courage and fighting for what's right, the scary and mature content—including visions of hellish futures and demonic corruption—places it above middle-grade fantasy.

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From the publisher

Twenty years ago, Terry Brooks turned fantasy fiction on its head with The Sword of Shannara, the first fantasy novel to make the mainstream bestseller lists, and the first in an unbroken string of thirteen bestselling books. Now, in Running with the Demon, Brooks does nothing less than revitalize fantasy fiction again... Twenty years ago, Terry Brooks turned fantasy fiction on its head with The Sword of Shannara, the first fantasy novel to make the mainstream bestseller lists, and the first in an unbroken string of thirteen bestselling books. Now, in Running with the Demon, Brooks does nothing less than revitalize fantasy fiction again, inventing the complex and powerful new mythos of the Word and the Void, good versus evil still, but played out in the theater-in-the-round of the "real world" of our present. On the hottest Fourth of July weekend in decades, two men have come to Hopewell, Illinois, site of a lengthy, bitter steel strike. One is a demon, dark servant of the Void, who will use the anger and frustration of the community to attain a terrible secret goal. The other is John Ross, a Knight of the Word, a man who, while he sleeps, lives in the hell the world will become if he fails to change its course on waking. Ross has been given the ability to see the future. But does he have the power to change it?At stake is the soul of a fourteen-year-old girl mysteriously linked to both men. And the lives of the people of Hopewell. And the future of the country. This Fourth of July, while friends and families picnic in Sinnissippi Park and fireworks explode in celebration of freedom and independence, the fate of Humanity will be decided . . .A novel that weaves together family drama, fading innocence, cataclysm, and enlightenment, Running with the Demon will forever change the way you think about the fantasy novel. As believable as it is imaginative, as wondrous as it is frightening, it is a rich, exquisitely-written tale to be savored long after the last page is turned.From the Hardcover edition.

Shelved under

  • American Science fiction
  • John Ross (Fictitious character)
  • Nest Freemark (Fictitious character)
  • Fiction
  • Ross, john (fictitious character), fiction
  • Fiction, fantasy, general
  • Demonology
  • Precognition
  • Good and evil
  • Knights and knighthood
  • Teenage girls
  • Illinois, fiction

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ISBN 9780345379627 · Ballantine Books

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