Review ~ Requiem for the Devil, by Jeri Smith-Ready

Set in modern-day Washington, D.C., Requiem for the Devil depicts the end of the Devil's ten-billion-year career. For the first time in his existence, Lucifer falls in love, and this event threatens to transform his identity and perhaps even his destiny. Gianna O'Keefe is the woman who drags him out of his ancient despair and points him toward possible salvation. Yet Lucifer's path from evil is neither straight nor smooth.

Pursuing love means betraying his fellow fallen angels, the loyal friends who once followed him to damnation. Divine and infernal forces seem to conspire against his and Gianna's union. Lucifer's empire crumbles around him as he dares to defy the natural order and question his fate.

I've been turning this one over in my mind for over a day now. This is a tough, tough review to write. Not because I didn't like it, I loved Requiem for the Devil. I think this is so hard because I don't think I can adequately explain this book. But I feel this book deserves a review, however inadequate I may be.

Quite simply, Requiem is a story of the transformative power of love, and redemption. There has never been a "bigger baddie" than the devil. To take the ultimate scary, bad guy and turn him into an actual character with layer upon layer of issues, took a massive amount of skill and to me, courage. I was not prepared to face the way "Louis"/aka Lucifer was portrayed. Basically, it's the ultimate study in Daddy Issues. Jeri Smith-Ready was able to take Louis and make him into a son who made horrible mistakes, was forsaken by his Father, and though he acts and claims to hate his Father, deep down wants that love. I feel like my brain was scrambled just getting that thought out coherently because it is the antithesis to everything I've been taught about the devil.

I had a friend who said her friend wouldn't read Requiem for the Devil for religious reasons. But this book is SO not anti-religion. Gianna, with whom Louis falls in love, is deeply religious. I just feel, as in so many situations in real life, that if you can first of all, Calm Down and go into the book with an Open Mind, you'll be surprised. Requiem is not anti-religion, it simply questions, which I love because I happen to question everything, and ultimately, it's actually a religious affirmation.
I have, until now, left out the woman responsible for Louis' transformation, Gianna. Once again, Jeri Smith-Ready has done a brilliant job with her female lead. This is my third series (this isn't a series, but you get what I'm saying) of her's and each one has smart, tough, take-no-crap women. Gianna is a political player in Washington, D.C., fighting for the poor. She goes toe-to-toe with the most evil being in existence. She is passionate, funny, and imperfect. She will definitely go down as one of the most memorable characters I've read.
It should go without saying that I cried. Duh, right? It just wouldn't be a Jeri Smith-Ready book if there wasn't sobbing and blubbering going on. She know how to bring it every time. Requiem for the Devil came out in 2001, years before Shane and Ciara; Logan, Aura and Zach. But it is as worthy of your time as any of her other books.
Favorite Quote:

"I can only beg the muse of history to include this among my legacies - that I loved Gianna as well as I
 could."
"If Heaven is the sun, then Gianna was the moon for me - a pale, brilliant reflection of God's love in
 the midnight of my long, dark existence."


(Recommended for Adult Readers.)

Paperback, 387 pages

Published April 15th 2001 by Warner Books

You can purchase Requiem for the Devil at:

Constellation Books (where you can order a signed copy) | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

~From GoodReads