Nataliya's Reviews > Brimstone and Marmalade

Awwwwwww.... I mean, MWA-HA-HA!!!!!
I mean, MWA-HA-HAwwwwwww....

"Mathilde didn’t want a demon. She wanted a pony.
“Ponies are expensive,” Mathilde’s mother said. “How about a nice little demon instead?”

Yes, few things are worse than ending up with a pet demon instead of a pony for your birthday. Mathilde sure thinks so. After all, ponies are made of adorable cuteness, right? (Or at least such seems to be the message the establishment - I feel very grown-up using a big word like 'Establishment' in the review of this cute, sweet and sadly adorable story - aimed at little girls who expect princess-like gifts. Blergh.)



Ix'thor is a Miniature Dark Lord, sold as a pet in this otherwise ordinary world where little demons are suitable first pets for little girls who really want ponies but are not responsible enough yet for that. A demon who is pretty much like a cute little hamster. Except looking like a floating robe with sharp clawed hands. And with the all-caps "voice like the truck that picked up their garbage in the morning, only smaller. A voice that tinily bellows, "IX’THOR DEMANDS SACRIFICE!" when the demon is hungry for a bit of a 'grub soul'. And with the unbelievable in its cuteness evil adorable laugh and the belief in its all-consuming power and invincibility.

"How could anyone think that a demon was better than a pony?"

A silly question, really. Just one look here will suffice for the answer.

If you've ever been a kid stuck with a pet that eventually wins your heart, or have a soft spot under your outer cynical crust, you will probably find this adorable and sweetly quirky, and the ten minutes it takes to read this short story will be ten minutes you won't regret. And if you do regret taking some of your time for this story - well, then Ix'thor probably already owns your soul, somewhere in his (adorably) demonic domain. MWA-HA-HA!!!

"The cage had changed since the last time she’d seen it. Ix’thor had moved around the pebbles at the bottom and stacked them up into a high-backed chair. He had taken apart his cardboard box and used it to build a little tower. Another piece of cardboard had been fashioned into a wide, diamond-shaped sword with tiny skulls carved into the blade. In the dim red light, it looked like every pebble in the cage had been worn down slightly to resemble hundreds of itty-bitty multicolored skulls."

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Read the story in its adorable and quirky entirety here, on Tor.com: http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/10/br...

(Special thanks to karen for her review that pointed me to this adorable demon cuteness!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... )