Andín dal Rovi, the girl of Susan Jane Bigelow's THE DEMON GIRL'S SONG, wants to get out of her small town and attend university in the big city. But her father has declared he can't afford to send both his children, so her brother gets to go even though he'd rather practice his fiddle. Her life gets more complicated when she finds herself sharing her head with a thousand-year-old demon who has been emperor for the past millennium, moving from head to head as the rulers change. She escapes her small town in hopes of a big adventure which turns out disastrous. Turns out the demon not moving into the new ruler's head was no accident, and she and her demon passenger are exiled. So, all she wants now is to go home.

A ghostly woman visits Andín's dreams, hinting that there is some task she must accomplished. As she travels her world, meeting friends and foes along the way, she starts to piece together that her world is in jeopardy, and she may have a chance of fixing it.

The romance in this tale was unique and refreshing: Andín falls for the wife of a foreign diplomat and not only because a male demon is in her head. Very few young adult novels tread in this territory, and it's a shame as young lesbian girls need advice just as much as young heterosexual ones and want to read stories in which they might star without having to play roles they don't understand.

Bigelow's characters come off the pages nicely as do her descriptions although she spends a bit too much time with the demon delving into his past historic experiences. But this is a minor quibble. I'm glad this book is a stand- alone novel as there aren't enough of those these days with every book being the beginning of a new series although I do hope to explore more of Bigelow's work.

Book Summary

More than anything, Andín dal Rovi wants to escape her small town life, helping her father in the store, watching her younger brother prepare to take the place at University she’d longed for.

Instead of escape, she gets a thousand-year-old demon stuck in her head, and she loses everything – her home, her family and her country.

In the quest to regain her identity, she finds herself racing against time to uncover the secrets of her world – and save it from utter annihilation.