Incarnation bestows free will and the Antichrist is waging a teenage rebellion!
Lucas doesn't want to grow up to be like his father. What teenager does? But for Lucas it's not the same because his father is the devil himself and Lucifer expects his incarnated son to embrace his destiny as the Antichrist.
Lucas has other ideas. A California high school is the perfect environment for an adolescent boy with special abilities to play down being 'different' and seek friends, rather than followers, but what teenager could resist using his powers to get to class on time or deal with the school bully?
When a local group of self-styled Satanists kidnap the girl he loves, how far will Lucas be willing to go to save her from the very people who seek to enlist his aid?
Excerpt
"Yeee-Haaaa!" a young, male voice shouted out the passenger side window. The wheels on his side had lifted slightly off the ground through the turn.
Three other young men lurked in the shadow of a clump of trees on the far corner of the parking lot, watched the spectacle with disgust. They were no more than teenagers, dressed in black jeans and matching long, black duster jackets that identified them as 'alternatives' or 'Goths'.
"Can't you make them flip over or something, Lucas?" A tall, muscular boy with ebony skin asked in a deadpan voice.
Lucas flipped his longish black hair out of his dark eyes and scowled.
"You know I don't like doing that stuff, Cassius. It plays into His hands."
"But they're going to hurt someone!" Cassius insisted. "You don't have to kill them, just take their toy away. Back me up, Skev."
Professional Reviews
Unexpected delight.
This wasn't at all what I expected. It was a thoroughly entertaining YA book that was full of action, teen mishap and intrigue.
I admit, the reason I hadn't picked it earlier was the title, without my reading the blurb, led me to think I was going to get a dry political or preachy dystopian tome.
The cover appeared moderately menacing too - not lending to the " Coming of Age of the AntiChrist" rather than the "Coming of the AntiChrist" It was something else.
Lucas is the Antichrist, or son of the Devil. This doesn't seem to faze his classmates other than the fact his religious girlfriend's parents won't let him take her to the Prom.
Most laugh it off or tease. Why? For starters, he doesn't plan of using his powers except for dealing with a bully. He has friends but one, Skevin has fallen in with some wannabe Satanists who are using him to get to Lucas and his father.
It might not have been an issue of note until this cult of crazies kidnap Abigail, the religious girl so they can sacrifice her and gain favor with Lucas and Dad, despite the fact that they could have just asked.
Now it's on and faithful friends help out. There's a Hispanic kid named Jesus who is helpful, and a few others who help find and free Abigail from one upsetting event to the next.
When we meet old Scratch himself he seems more father and laid back than evil, lending to a few other questions but not much terror. I do think it's a fun read and would like to see more.
A good read
This was a pleasant surprise. I'm not a fan of the book cover and wouldn't have picked the book up had the author not brought it to my attention. After reading the blurb and sampling a chapter, it caught my attention, so I decided to give it a shot, and I'm really glad I did because it turned out to be an enjoyable book.
Lucas is the son of the Antichrist and everyone knows it. Whether not they truly believe it, however, is a different story. Lucas is unlike his father in every way and he plans on keeping it that way - well, he plans on utilising his powers to get about his day and settle scores with the school bully, but that is where he draws the line. Despite his heritage, Lucas manages to live a semi-normal life as a high school student living in Los Angeles. He has a small group of friends (some might say followers) dedicated to standing by his side at all costs (except maybe when their life is on the line - yes, I am pointing fingers at Matthew and Skevin - particularly Skevin, who sold him out to join a Satanic cult). Then there's Abigail Kinsley, the human girl Lucas has a crush on, who also appear to be infatuated by him, even though her parents have forbade her from attending the school dance with him. All in all, Lucas is living life to the fullest. That is until he's targeted by the Satanic Cult Skevin joined, who kidnap Abigail in a bid to sacrifice her to the devil with Lucas's help. No one ever said life would be easy being the son of the devil.
This was an interesting story. I liked the creativity and originality of the story. It's unlike anything else I've read. Usually the character with the superpower usually goes about hiding it from the world, but not Lucas. Every chance he gets to reveal he’s the son of the Antichrist, he takes it. This reminds me a little of the TV show Lucifer, who goes about telling everyone that he’s really the devil except no one believes him. It’s a similar scenario here. Despite the skepticism, there’s the sense that deep down, people know Lucas is truly the son of the devil, but they won’t allow themselves to believe it out of fear. I did like the characters in this story but there wasn't anything really fascinating about them that made me fall in love with them or made me care much what happened to them. It could be because I didn't really know anything about them. They were very two dimensional, which was a shame because I think they would make great supporting characters as they had good banter with Lucas and they meshed well together. They just needed a bit more depth. We need to know something about them other than the fact that they know Lucas is really the son of the Antichrist and they value his friendship. Being the one to betray Lucas, I was expecting more character development with Skevin’s character so to better understand his decisions. There’s room to explore these characters, especially Lucas’s character.
The other problem I had was with the length of time it took for the action to kick off. The actual story took some time to initiate, so most of the time, we were presented with normal high school drama without a clear identification of the objective of the story. It took too long to get into the heart of the story and when it did, it ended too quickly. I think the objective of the story should have developed from an earlier stage, that way the conflict would have been more challenging and deemed more life-threatening. It didn't appear as though Lucas had much to overcome. Everything seemed almost too easy for him. It's fine to be all-powerful, which Lucas appears to be, but what does he have to lose? Yes, he liked Abigail and cared for his friends, but he let things go so easily that it seemed as though he didn't really care for them. Maybe he doesn’t care for them. I mean, he is the son of the devil. I needed more depth to figure out who these characters were and what their stories truly were.
The book definitely piqued my interest, and I see a lot of potential for growth here. There is a profound story buried within the pages. I think it just needs a little tweak here and there to come out of its shell some more. I’m not sure if there is a sequel, but it would be interesting to see where this story leads.
