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demon-road-musings · 8 months

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I'd be really interested in reading a summery of the last book if you could <:

Hi! Here is my chapter by chapter summary of the book! Sorry it took so long, and that it is so long, I just really wanted to do a detailed one, also for my own reference.

I will post a couple paragraph long one later for people who don't wanna read all that garbage and just wanna get the gist of the main plot points lol, but I really wanted a version that covers all the sideplots as well, so this version is more for people who wanted to read the book but cant for whatever reason. Feel free to send in asks if you want any extracts of specific scenes, or if you want something explained more in depth. Spoilers, obviously!!!

Chapter 1 - 3. We meet Amber in a department store, on a mission to collect an offering for the Shining Demon from a man named Paul Axton (as she is now the Shining Demon's representative, following the last book). Axton has dozens of creatures called Bogles as pets, and they tie Amber up and lay eggs on her (leading to the quote in my blog's title). Axton refuses to give his offering. Amber escapes, leads the Bogles to the alcohol section and gets them drunk as they cant resist alcohol, then goes to find Milo, who is tied to a display table.

Chapter 4. Amber brings Axton to Astaroth (the Shining Demon) and asks Astaroth when she will be able to pursue her parents, as Astaroth wants her to hunt them down for him, but he keeps giving her other jobs before she can get close. Astaroth tells her to be patient. She raises her concerns about hallucinations she's been experiencing since consuming the vials of Astaroth's blood that she received from him in Book 2. She drinks the vials for strength and has 2 remaining. Astaroth tells her the blood will drive her crazy, but that it does not bother him as long as she is useful to him. Amber leaves Hell.

Chapter 5. Amber joins Milo in the Charger, he asks her about the conversation with Astaroth and Amber lies and says that Astaroth said the vials are safe. They discuss plans to hunt down Amber's parents and backstab Astaroth. Amber snaps at Milo because she thinks he's lecturing her about being Astaroth's representative and reminds him that she wouldn't be a representative if Milo hadn't gotten himself kidnapped by the Hound in Desolation. Milo asks if Amber regrets saving him, if she thinks he deserves to be in Hell, and Amber softens and tells him no.

They book into a motel, and while they are in the lobby, a young girl comes in and steals Amber's bag.

Chapter 6. Amber chases after the girl and reclaims her bag. The girl's name is Clarissa and she's homeless. She has a very bold, lighthearted personality and manages to somehow convince Amber to buy her a meal. Amber and Clarissa eat together and Clarissa opens up about how she ran away from abusive step parents. While Clarissa is in the bathroom, Amber hallucinates her demon self telling her that Glen's death is her fault. They finish their meal and Clarissa is about to leave when Amber offers to pay for her to have a room for the night.

Chapter 7. In her room, Amber sees vampire Glen on the roof of the motel. She goes onto the roof and tries to reason with him and get him to stop following her, but he doesn't respond to her and eventually steps off the roof and disappears. Amber goes onto her In The Dark Places forum and finds that her friend, Balthazar's Arm Candy, is not online, so she sleeps. She has a nightmare about her dead brother, James, trying to save his girlfriend Molly from Amber's parents. She then dreams about a funeral home named after a man called 'Stromquist' before waking in the motel room. She gets up and searches the room, feeling paranoid, and finds that the mirror is a two way mirror. She throws an ashtray and smashes the mirror to reveal a passageway behind, and then discovers large blood stains on her mattress

Chapter 8. Amber goes through the passageway, finding it connects to every motel room. She finds herself looking into Clarissa's room, and sees Clarissa is awake on her bed. She manages to open the two way mirror and go inside, and explains the situation to Clarissa. She smashes Clarissa's mirror to reveal the passageway and the motel manager is standing in the passageway watching them. He runs off and Clarissa and Amber follow, but Amber gets her leg caught in a bear trap that is laid out in the passageway and is in agony. She hallucinates her demon self telling her that she is going to die. Then, while Clarissa isn't looking, Amber shifts and wrenches the bear trap apart. Her and Clarissa continue and encounter the manager again, this time armed with a chainsaw. Amber punches the manager, he loses control of the chainsaw and slits his own throat with it.

Chapter 9. Amber meets Milo in the diner for breakfast. Clarissa left the motel earlier that morning. Amber tells Milo about the previous night and about her new friendship with Clarissa and they start driving towards Amber's parents. They stop at a restaurant and Amber has a cheesecake slice to celebrate her 17th birthday. Amber falls asleep while driving and dreams about a vampire undertaker. James tells her that he grew claws yesterday, and Amber's demon self tells her that Astaroth's blood is causing her to dream about memories of James from 1914.

Chapter 10. After a few days, they are very close to Amber's parents when Amber gets a gut feeling that she needs to turn around and collect an offering. She tries to resist and begins to feel intense pain.

They go to collect the offering, which happens to be from Elias Mauk, Milo's pre-amnesia friend. Amber uses Elias' own hammers to break his knees and nose as revenge for breaking her fingers and collects his offering.

Chapter 11. While back on track to catch up to Amber's parents, they stop to get some lunch from a convenience store. Amber hears two FBI agents, Sutton and Byrd, asking the store owner if he has seen a man and a young girl driving a 1970 Dodge Charger and leaves the store quickly. Milo theorises it is due to the dead people they tend to leave in their wake.

Chapter 12. In the Charger, Amber hallucinates her demon self, who questions why she hasn't confided in Milo about her recent hallucinations. Milo comments on the Peterbilt truck behind them that is tailgating the Charger. The truck turns on its headlights to reveal red beams, just like the Charger's, indicating the truck belongs to a Demoriel demon. The truck rams the Charger and it spins into the fields next to the road. Milo waits to check the truck is gone and returns to the road, concluding that the Hound bringing him to Hell in Desolation allowed Demoriel to access Milo's location again.

They continue towards Amber's parents, going off of Amber's gut instincts from Astaroth, and eventually arrive at Stromquist's funeral home. They try to enter, but a blood barrier has been put on the door, meaning only Amber can enter. She goes in and meets Stromquist, the undertaker vampire, who informs her that the blood barrier was not to get her alone, but to get Milo alone. She runs outside to find Bill, Betty and Milo pointing guns into each other's backs.

Chapter 13. Amber's parents offer her the chance to work together to defeat Astaroth and get her out of her representative contract, allowing the three of them to be family again. Amber laughs. Milo suddenly shoots Betty and Bill lunges at him. Milo knees him in the face and is shot twice by Betty. Then, dozens of people begin emerging from the trees, firing arrows. Bill and Betty take off. Both Amber and Milo are shot by arrows and they split up and run into the forest to escape the hunters. It turns out Amber's parents have partnered with a cannibal family that live in the forest, and were relying on them to kill Amber if she refused their offer.

Chapter 14 + 15. Amber is caught and tied up by the cannibal family, the Gundersons. The mother explains to her that they intend to use her to replenish their gene pool. One of the Gundersons drinks a vial of Astaroth's blood that Amber dropped and dies. The mother is overcome by grief and attacks Amber, who breaks free and kills her and another son. Amber runs to the Charger, where Milo soon joins her, being chased by the final son. He is about to shoot them with his arrows, when the FBI agents suddenly arrive on the scene and shoot him. As they continue to fight with him, Amber and Milo take off in the Charger.

Chapter 16. Amber has a dream about James and his girlfriend, Molly, running from Bill and Betty. He is caught and eaten. She wakes in a hotel and meets Milo outside by the Charger. He discusses the best course of action with her, and she gets annoyed with him for suggesting that she shouldn't completely shut down the offer to team up with her parents. They talk about what would happen to their friendship if they manage to backstab Astaroth and her parents, and Milo suggests that they might be able to live normal lives and be 'friends' rather than 'a team', which makes Amber extremely happy. They drive all day and Amber collects an offering in the evening.

Chapter 17. Amber suggests to Milo that they stop at the In the Dark Places convention in Montana, as her parents are going by there. Milo suspects it might be a trap, or that it will waste time, and is extremely reluctant but agrees. Amber gets Milo to stop the Charger so that she can pee in a field. She's walking back to the Charger, listening to a tractor get closer, when a pair of red headlights open up behind her – the Peterbilt. Amber runs through the corn until the Charger up in front of her and she scrambles in. Milo turns off the engine, the Charger hidden by the corn, until the Peterbilt drives away, and then follows after it. They drive behind the Peterbilt, a while back, and Amber watches in horror as the demon driver stops the truck to let a hitchhiker on: Clarissa.

Chapter 18. They stop at a motel. Amber hallucinates her demon self blaming her for Clarissa being in danger. The next day, Amber and Milo begin to close in on Amber's parents and Amber realises they are in the In The Dark Places (ITDP) convention building. Milo and Amber split up to search different areas of the con.

In the convention, Amber bumps into Warrick, who tells them that Kelly, Ronnie, Linda, Two and him are at the convention to investigate reports of a ghost of a ITDP fan called Brewer, who is killing off fanfic writers that have written fics supporting a ship that she doesn't like. She travels through the internet and possesses people, and they are worried that Brewer is going to attack the author of ITDP next. Ronnie and Linda join Warrick and greet Amber, and Linda announces to Warrick that she is leaving their group to lead a more relaxed life. Ronnie tells Amber that Austin and Officer Lucy Thornton from Desolation Hill are doing well.

Chapter 19 - 21. Amber leaves the group and goes to find her parents. She bumps into Kelly, who greets her somewhat coldly, and they discuss Brewer. Kelly thinks Brewer can possess someone if they touch someone who is already possessed. Kelly insults Amber, calling her the 'Devil's lapdog' and they go to the ITDP author's dressing room to stand guard. Amber sneaks into the dressing room as Kelly distracts the guard. She talks with the ITDP author and tells her that she may be in danger. The author becomes extremely agitated and misinterprets this as a threat. Kelly enters the dressing room and, now possessed by Brewer, attacks the author with a pair of scissors. Amber holds her back and the author runs. Brewer starts rambling angrily and gets onto the topic of body image. She mentions how she was fat when she was alive, and shames Kelly for being so thin, and Amber tries to reason with her, relating to her by discussing her own body image problems. Brewer confides in Amber the importance of the ITDP characters to her, how they helped her through loneliness. Then she lets Kelly's body go and goes to the afterlife.

Chapter 22+23. Amber compliments their teamwork and Kelly yet again criticises Amber for being a representative. Amber explains to her again what little choice she had in the decision and her intentions to backstab Astaroth, and Kelly goes silent and then apologises and goes to get the others. Amber logs on to the ITDP forum and Balthazar's Arm Candy tells her that he is at the convention and to come to Corridor 12A.

Amber excitedly goes to Corridor 12A, only to find Betty standing over the corpses of Warrick, Ronnie, Linda and Two the dog.

Betty reveals that she has been Balthazar's Arm Candy all along, and explains she killed Kelly's friends to show Amber the stakes. She tells Amber that they have kidnapped Kelly, and that they will give her back if she delivers Astaroth to them so they can eat him and gain his powers. Amber has 6 days.

Chapter 24. Amber and Milo are in the Charger. Milo tells Amber that she is not at fault for the deaths. Amber questions if Milo should even help her to kidnap Astaroth or if he should just run, as everyone close to her seems to die or be put in danger. Milo dismisses her concerns. Milo calls Buxton, who advises them to go and see Abigail at the Dark Stair, and get her to set them up with custom chains that could restrain Astaroth. Milo starts driving and Amber has a nightmare about her dead sister, Carolyn, who tells her that Kelly will be dead soon. Molly bursts in and drags Carolyn away to escape Bill and Betty, leaving Amber alone in her dream.

Chapter 25-28. They stop at a motel. Amber is in her room, shifted into her demon form. Milo raises the possibility that Amber is using her demon form to allow her to suppress her emotions about the day, Amber gets extremely defensive, basically calls him a smartass, and storms out of the room without reverting. She goes to a nightclub pretending to be in fancy dress, beats up a couple of guys, and is arrested while still in demon form.

She breaks out of her cell, knocks a cop out, and is about to leave when one of the prisoners yells at her, calling her a bitch. She almost murders him and then the cop, all while hallucinating her human self watching her. Then, just as she is about to kill the cop, she decides against it and just leaves. She returns to the motel, reverting to human, and apologises to Milo, who tells her to not let her emotions consume her, but to use them as learning tools. Amber decides she wants to abstain from shifting for a while.

Chapter 29-33. The next day, Abigail says she will be able to get the chains to them if they go to a town and defeat a serial killer ghost clown that has been terrorising the townspeople for years. They agree, and go to the town, with Milo mentioning to Amber that he has always had a phobia of clowns. They witness the ghost, Buddy, murder a kid, and eventually manage to trace the reason for his preoccupation with the town to an old lady in a comatose state that they find in the walls of one of the houses. Milo theorizes Abigail is using the old lady to sustain her life force, and that the old lady is attracting Buddy to the town. As they are still in the house, Buddy arrives and attacks them. Milo and Amber are struggling to fend him off, and are quickly losing the fight, when vampire Glen appears and takes on Buddy, saving them. They take the old lady with them back to the Dark Stair.

Chapter 34. Abigail admits she never even tried to uphold her end of the deal, so does not have the chains. Amber threatens to kill the old lady, which would kill Abigail in the process, and Abigail becomes agitated, but tells Amber there is no way to make the chains within their 6-day time limit. They give up and begin to leave. Abigail, bitter about the power Amber now has over her, tells her that Glen is burning in hell, as all vampires go to hell.

In the Charger, Milo suggests just stealing Kelly back rather than bothering with Astaroth’s kidnapping. Amber, preoccupied by Abigail’s mention of Glen, asks Milo if there is a way to get Glen back from Hell. They discuss the possible existence of Heaven and God. Amber thinks again about all the people she has hurt, specifically Clarissa.

In a motel, Amber prepares to go to Hell. She shares her worries about shifting with Milo, and he reassures her that her demon self is still her.

Chapter 35 + 36. Amber goes to the Blood Dimmed King’s palace, getting directions from BigMouth (Fool’s assistant, previously Edgar Spurrier). In the Blood Dimmed King’s palace, she meets a priest who leads her to the Damned souls. She finds Glen’s soul and leads him out of the palace. On her way out, she sees Kirsty, Grant and Imelda’s souls in a cell. Kirsty begs to be freed and Imelda tells Amber she is proud of her, and does not want to be freed because she wants to pay for her sins.

Chapter 37. Amber and Glen are captured by creatures of Hell and brought to Astaroth. Astaroth is extremely angry at her disrespect to the Blood Dimmed King, and is about to order Amber and Glen to be put in Hell, when Amber blurts out her parents' plan. Astaroth is very amused and tells Amber that he and her will play along, with Amber delivering him to Betty in chains, and then he will break free of the normal chains and kill Bill and Betty. Amber brings Glen’s soul back with her, and when she arrives in the motel room again, he has vanished. Milo thinks Glen’s soul will have gone to heaven.

Chapter 38-40. In the Charger, Amber and Milo discuss the plan, and how to kill both Astaroth and her parents. Milo notes that if Amber goes along with Astaroth’s plan, she will still be a representative by the end. An unknown number requests to FaceTime Milo’s phone, and it is Bill and Betty. They show Amber Kelly, alive, and Amber hangs up when Bill asks for an update on Astaroth.

Amber has a nightmare about Carolyn being eaten. She wakes in a motel room and goes to a Subway to cure her insomnia. Clarissa walks in and Amber takes her to her motel room hurriedly. Clarissa seems disoriented, in a trance-like state, and is muttering about the Peterbilt truck. Amber questions her repeatedly, and she mumbles something about still being in the truck before stabbing Amber, saying that this is the only way for her to get out. They fight, and Clarissa confirms that the trucker is primarily after Milo.

Amber knocks her out and goes to Milo’s room to find he has been taken. She jumps into the Charger and finds the Peterbilt, following it to a field. The trucker summons Demoriel, the Demon that Milo cheated, and Amber tries to reason with Demoriel (Milo is knocked out). The trucker attacks Amber, and Glen descends from the sky and kills him, delivering a very edgy speech about his vampiric powers. Ambers tells Demoriel that if he lets Milo go and releases Milo from his demonic contract then Amber will backstab Astaroth, who Demoriel hates. Demoriel agrees, and removes Milo from his contract, taking away Milo’s debt to him, but also his powers and connection to the Charger.

Chapter 41. Amber takes unconscious Milo back to the motel. Clarissa has vanished and Glen is very excited to be back on Earth, saying he can’t remember much about his afterlife. He vows to only drink blood from bad people, and tells Amber he’d like to stick around and help them, as much as he can being nocturnal.

Amber finds Milo awake in his room and explains to him that his contract has ended. Milo doesn’t talk for a while, but then tells Amber that she has given him his life back, as he doesn’t have to run anymore and can finally grow old. Then, he tells Amber that he has a plan to backstab both Astaroth and the Lamonts.

Chapter 42-43. They make their way back to Orlando, to Amber’s house. Amber hallucinates her demon self while in a gas station bathroom, who mocks her and asks if she thinks she’s going to go insane once she drinks Astaroth’s last vial of blood. Coming out of the gas station, Amber runs into Byrd and Sutton, the FBI agents, again. They talk to her, telling her they’re part of a foundation set up by James’ girlfriend, Molly, to stop monsters like Amber’s parents, and want to help her. Sutton reveals that James is his great grandfather, making them related. Amber tells them she has a plan, and they leave. Milo and Amber go to get Astaroth and then continue the drive to Amber’s house.

Chapter 45. Astaroth is in the Charger’s trunk, chained up. Night falls and Glen climbs into the car. Him and Milo briefly greet each other for the first time and Glen rambles about the weather in Ireland before abruptly bringing up Milo’s loss of powers, noting the irony of Milo now being the only powerless one, while Glen was originally the normal one – Milo does not appreciate this. Glen asks if he will have to use his ‘vampire powers’ on Amber’s parents and Milo tells him to shut up.

They arrive at Amber’s house to find another blood barrier on the door, allowing only Amber to go in, with Astaroth. Amber reflects on her childhood in this house, and Betty’s lack of maternal actions towards her.

Chapter 46. Amber finds Bill, Betty and Kelly in the living room. They ask how she captured Astaroth, and she tells them that he agreed to be chained up, thinking the chains were normal chains and intending to trick Bill and Betty. Betty finds this very amusing, but Amber reminds her that she could be lying. Betty dismisses it, and they release Kelly to Amber. Bill and Betty descend on Astaroth and eat him, and Amber goes outside to find Stromquist stopping them from leaving. Amber beats him up and is just about to kill them when Bill and Betty come out of the house, strengthened by Astaroth’s blood, and kill him for her. Amber’s parents demand Amber take over Hell with them. Amber begs them to leave her alone, but they have her travel to the Shining Demon’s palace with them.

Betty is in the middle of planning out her throne as Duchess of Hell when Astaroth comes storming into the palace. It is revealed that Bill and Betty actually ate Naberius, Astaroth’s estranged brother, not Astaroth. Bill attacks him and, to the surprise of Amber, Astaroth and even Bill, manages to severely injure him. Astaroth reaches up and rips Bill’s head off. Betty is grief-stricken. Then, the priest that helped Amber save Glen enters, revealing himself to be the Blood Dimmed King. Astaroth bows to him. The King sees Astaroth’s injuries and kills him, then tells Amber to leave Hell. Amber does, and Kelly runs into her arms.

Chapter 50 + 51. Just as Amber begins to think everything is over, Betty bursts from a circle of flames and attacks her, screaming. She screams at Amber about how ungrateful she is and smashes Amber into the wall, chasing her up to her childhood bedroom. She breaks Amber’s ribs and jaw and takes her by the horns in an attempt to twist her head off. Instead, one of Amber’s horns break off. Betty is about to kill her when Sutton steps into the room, having passed through the blood barrier due to being Amber’s relative, and empties his gun into Betty. Betty falls but then staggers towards him to kill him. Amber lunges at Betty and drives her severed horn into Betty’s neck, killing her.

Chapter 52. Amber holds Betty’s body and cries. Then, she leaves the house, and Kelly rushes to comfort her. Milo tells her that he never had any doubt that she could do it. Byrd walks up to them with Sutton and they begin to talk about their foundation. Byrd explains that she joined the foundation because her mother and brother were murdered when she was young and she has been searching for the killer since. Then, she shoots Milo in the chest 3 times. Amber drops to her knees beside Milo screaming, and starts frantically telling him that he’s going to be okay, that they’ll get him into the Charger to heal. Glen reminds her that Milo’s contract has ended. Byrd rambles about how Milo ran her family off the road and Amber leans closer to Milo and tells him that he is a good man, and that he has changed. She then sharply orders him to stand up. Glen tells Amber that Milo is dead, but Amber insists on getting him to the Charger. They put him in there and Amber sits outside and cries. In the morning, they open the Charger and Amber begins to sob again.

Chapter 53. One year later. Amber and Kelly are now travelling America together with the Charger and the help of Glen, tracking down killers.

#demon road #derek landy #milo sebastian #amber lamont #glen morrison #american monster spoilers #american monsters

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