I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

It’s Black Friday—and the apocalypse is on sale!

Ever since the world filled with portals to hell and bloodthirsty demons started popping out on the reg, Jasper’s life has gotten worse and worse. A teenage nobody with no friends or family, he is plagued by the life he can’t remember and the person he’s sure he’s supposed to be.

Jasper spends his days working as a checkout clerk at the Here for You discount mart, where a hell portal in aisle nine means danger every shift. But at least here he can be near the girl he’s crushing on—Kyle Kuan, a junior member of the monster-fighting Vanguard—who seems to hate Jasper for reasons he can’t remember or understand.

But when Jasper and Kyle learn they both share a frightening vision of the impending apocalypse, they’re forced to team up and uncover the uncomfortable truth about the hell portals and the demons that haunt the world. Because the true monsters are not always what they seem, the past is not always what we wish, and like it or not, on Black Friday, all hell will break loose, starting in aisle nine.

Short and Sweet

A few years ago portals to hell opened all over the world, and on a regular basis demons pop out of these portals. Jasper works at Here For You Mart, which happens to have a portal in aisle nine. This portal is guarded by the Vanguard and Jaspers crush Kyle happens to be a vanguard. When Jasper learns that he and Kyle are both having visions of the apocalypse they decide to work together to stop the impending doom.

Characters

Jasper: Our main character in this book is Jasper and we only see things from his POV. When the portals opened Jasper lost his parents but he doesn’t remember much. We learn that Jasper has amnesia and the only way he can piece things together is from the tidbits that other characters give him. I don’t really know how to describe him if I could relate him to a movie character it would be Columbus from Zombieland. He wants to figure things out about himself and save the world but there’s just something about him that I can’t put my finger on. I want to describe him as a going with the motions kind of character and the only thing that really gets him motivated is knowing that Kyle is also seeing the visions that he is.

Kyle: Kyle is Jaspers love interest and she just happens to be working at the mart as a vanguard. When we meet Kyle she seems cold towards Jasper, but when she learns that he’s also seeing visions of the apocalypse they start to work together. I don’t remember anything special about Kyle, I think she was just there for a romantic interest and to help progress the story about Jaspers amnesia.

Romance: The romance was okay. Kyle is the piece of the puzzle that helps Jasper remember things and it turns out there may have been something between them before the portals started opening. I did like learning more about these two and their past together. I will say I don’t think the chemistry between them was jumping off the pages, it felt like a relationship of convenience.

My Thoughts

The premise of this book was interesting and I liked learning more about these portals and the demons coming through, and also how people were going on living like normal. Jasper has a roommate Lara who is actually a demon but she’s cool so he hasn’t reported her and fun fact she’s a plushy cat. The book starts off great it makes you want to know more about what’s going on, but I think when Kyle and Jasper teamed up and they follow leads and try to stop the apocalypse it started to become predictable and the writing was no longer exciting but flat.

Overall

This book had a premise that’ll draw you in. It’s fun to think about how Black Friday was when people would line up and just act without thinking, that’s what this book brings. I do think there are people who will like this book but for me it was only worth reading once, and I think its due to the pacing and how the climax wasn’t as exciting as it could have been but I did like the ending.