Customer Reviews
Another Gem by Christopher Moore 
2008-08-10
Christopher Moore may be know for the humor in his writing, but he is also a very good storyteller. This is evident in "Practical Demonkeeping", which was actually one of his earlier works. Sprinkled with great one-liners and absurd situational humor, it is tough not to enjoy this one.
Travis O'Hearn was trying to be a good seminarian when he accidently came to be the master of a demon from the underworld. The demon, known as Catch, has an insatiable appetite for eating humans. But Catch is only visible to other people besides Travis in his eating-size, which is three times his regular size. Travis has been trying to escape his obligation to Catch for a very long time. As Travis nears 100 years of age, he is running out of people that could help him as he searches for the candlesticks that may hold the solution. Love, aging, and theology cross pathes as the plot moves toward the solution. Yet I found myself surprised that Moore did not better exploit one potentially awkward romantic twist at the end.
Some readers have suggested that the story "jumps around" which is a product of the style of writing in this book. Readers see the story through the eyes of different characters. The format certainly does not take away from the story. If nothing else, it prepare the reader for when everything comes together at the end. The end will not be what the reader anticipated in the beginning of the book.
Jumps around a lot; a fun read 
2008-01-22
If you remember Pulp Fiction or Playing by Heart for jumping between any of several plot lines and wondering how they relate, this story isn't quite that intense, but you get the idea. There are a lot of characters and you feel invested in all of them by the story's end... even the bad guy. This book wasn't as funny as Lamb, which is really great, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
What is so practical about keeping demons? 2008-01-07
Christopher Moore's Practical Demonkeeping
This novel was a surprisingly quick read, it is short and although not action packed, it manages to keep your attention from beginning to end. The writing style is very casual and humorous, slightly vulgar but not so much as to gain an "R" rating or to turn off the casual reader. There are drugs, but they are not glorified, there is sex, but it is not explicit and there is profanity, but it is not overwhelming.
The story itself is simple enough, one man (Travis) is cursed with being the "Master" of a Demon by the name of Catch, who is not entirely under his control and tends to eat people when he so chooses. Augustus Brine, the small town owner of a bait, tackle, and fine wine shop is suddenly visited by the king of the Djinn who charges him with finding the Demonkeeper and sending Catch back to where ever it is that the Demon naturally inhabits. The story follows not only Travis and Augustus, but also most of the small town of Pine Cove. Although this is a short book, you will find yourself introduced to more characters than seems possible, and wonder how on Earth this litany of characters will intertwine and affect the story by the end of it all. In this Moore does a fantastic job of never spending too much time on the characters that go nowhere, and managing to include everyone in the ending.
As I stated before, this is a quick and easy read, my only complaint is that in order to get to the resolution, Moore does break down into a long and over involved exposition by one of the characters (Travis) that I felt could have been either broken up better through the story, or told a bit more naturally. In the end the resolution makes the story work and certainly doesn't let the reader down. The journey is a fun one and you have the opportunity to meet several very real characters along the way. No one is perfect, and no one is truly evil. In all it is a very human experience told through a very supernatural tale.
No More Cookie Monster For You! 2007-11-05
Christopher Moore's first book Practical Demonkeeping isn't exactly like his new stuff like Lamb, Fluke, or You Suck!, but it is an excellent book in my opinion. This book takes you to one of Mr. Moore's favorite places to take you, Pine Cove. The story is similar to Bloodsucking Fiends and A Dirty Job considering how it is very supernatural. The story starts off with The Breeze getting eaten which puts his friend Robert in trouble with the police. The culprit of the crme against The Breeze is Catch who is forced to follow around Travis who gets romantically involved with Robert's wife. While this is happening Augustus Brine encounters Gian Hen Gian king of the djinn, and Augustus is told to find and stop Catch. This book is great and if you haven't read it then you should read it very soon.
"A prune in a Carmen Miranda costume" 2007-10-08
This book isn't exactly laugh-out-loud funny. Too many people are devoured by the demon for it to be tongue-in-cheek...unless it's the demon's cheek and our tongue we're talking about here. However, "Practical Demonkeeping" is witty, shading into heavy irony. It is blackly humorous as in the scene where the demon coughed, "...and a red spiked heel shot out of his mouth and bounced off the windshield, spattering the glass with hellish spit."
You might guess that the red high heel once belonged to a woman, but it's not that kind of novel. As a matter of fact it belonged to a motel night clerk named Billy Winston who was a transvestite from the waist down (the parts that the motel customers can't see below the counter). Most of Moore's characters have some redeeming characteristics, even the scum-bag drug dealers and pool sharks, and I was really sorry when the demon ate Billy.
Even the demon whose name is Catch has his likeable moments--usually when he's reading Cookie Monster comic books and in between snacks. He also has a sense of humor, the kind of humor you'd expect from a cat toying with its next meal.
Some of the book's real humor comes from a second supernatural creature, the King of the Djinn who has been chasing after Catch ever since the glory days of King Solomon--except for a few thousand year time-out in a lead jar at the bottom of the sea. He expresses himself in phrases such as, "By Aladdin's lamplit scrotum," and "Tell us where the Seal of Solomon is hidden or we will have your genitals in a nine-speed reverse action blender." The true hero of "Practical Demonkeeping," owner of Pine Cove, California's bait, tackle, and fine wines shop thinks the King of the Djinn looks like "a prune in a Carmen Miranda costume." Nevertheless, this unlikely pair teams up to do a bit of demon-hunting.
Wickedly funny. That's the term I'm searching for. This book with its winos, pagans, wrinkled-prune Djinn, and hungry demon is wickedly funny.
Imagine Carl Hiaasen or Bill Fitzhugh Writing Horror/Supernatural Novels and You've Got Christopher Moore! 2007-09-17
In Christopher Moore's ingenious debut novel, we meet one of the most memorably mismatched pairs in the annals of literature. The good-looking one is one-hundred-year-old ex-seminarian and "roads" scholar Travis O'Hearn. The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most of the people he meets. Behind the fake Tudor fa?ade of Pine Cove, California, Catch sees a four-star buffet. Travis, on the other hand, thinks he sees a way of ridding himself of his toothy traveling companion. The winos, neo-pagans, and deadbeat Lotharios of Pine Cove, meanwhile, have other ideas. And none of them is quite prepared when all hell breaks loose.
Twisted in all the right ways! 2007-09-12
This was a great book. Very sick and twisted, but in all the right ways. It made me laugh out loud at parts, and I absolutely couldn't help loving the demon Catch (despite the fact that he eats people on a regular basis!). Very witty, totally enjoyable. This is the first Moore book I have read, and I will defintely be reading more!
Demons 2007-07-12
Another original take on a monster book - good even for those with a weak stomach - he has a way of making even the gruesome & scary seem like fun
Needs more demon 2007-06-25
This was the second Moore book that I've read (A Dirty Job: A Novel being the first). While overall I enjoyed this book, I felt that it suffered from not having a clear main character that the story could revolve around. This was compounded by developing characters that were "removed" in short order. By far the funniest parts of the book are those with the demon and ultimately there were not enough of those to go around.
Very funny 2007-06-03
Okay, now I was not splitting my sides laughing at these books of his but the concept, the outrageous titles and his very good writing made me buy all of them. I will say they made me smile the whole time I was reading them, they touched my heart and I can't wait for the next one. I did order all of them and I have not been disappointed in any of them. He makes you believe these things exist in his world. Has funny characters. I like them.
