I’ve been thinking about this novel for months, and I still can’t figure out out how it feels so fresh and original, even though it’s built from such familiar components. Will Kennedy is a slightly off-the-rails underachiever who could have a bit part in almost any Richard Linklater movie without sticking out. He has the hackneyed gift/curse of being able to see dead people, but what really haunts him — at least to start with — is the ghost of his marriage.
Somehow Stewart took what sounds like a premise for an eminently missable TV show on one of the also-ran networks, and crafted a novel that’s laugh-out-loud funny, gripping, moving, and even insightful. And, oh, yeah, scary.
Stewart’s prose style is lean, spiced with the occasional sharp metaphor — “it was a muggy ninety-two degrees out, and the whole city smelled like a crawdad boil,” — but I think mostly what makes Perfect Circle work so well is how authentic Will Kennedy’s voice is. Despite having a supernatural power, he seems very real.
Needs More Demons? Nope. But I need to read more Sean Stewart novels.
Needs More Demons Or Not 