Dandelion

By: Alex Bledsoe

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 9 hrs

Publisher's summary

Reverend Deacon Elder does the Lord’s work in his own unique way. A former marine with the ability to detect and cast out demons, Deke goes where the need—and the evil—is greatest.

After receiving a terrifying warning of a botched exorcism, Deke shows up in Somerton, Tennessee, ready for battle. The demon possessing sixteen-year-old Carlyss Bolerjack had only partially been driven out, and Deke must convince a traumatized Carlyss to submit to a second exorcism.

But there’s more than one demon in Somerton. A powerful evil going by the name “Dandelion” has sunk its claws into Linda Scote, the local mean girl who was more than willing to invite the demon in.

As Deke tries to save both women, he’s opposed by both a bogus tent-revival evangelist and Linda’s slacker cousin, who may harbor his own demon. He’s helped by Carlyss’s social worker, who draws the line at believing in true evil, and another minister who’s seen demons up close. But what part is played by the giant twenty-four-hour TLC-Mart outside of town, which hides its own sinister secret behind bright lights and insipid jingles?

©2022 Alex Bledsoe (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Entertaining by my favorite author.

While on a personal level I like Alex, he and I are on different sides of the political spectrum. I could have done without the pontificating. I am a refugee from so much of the southern religious community and I understand it very well.
That being said, I waited to listen until it was daylight outside and I’m glad I did. This was creepy as could be. The narrator SR is always spectacular in his reading. I’m grown up enough to know everyone is not going to agree with everything so I was not offended by anything here. Just creeped out.

TLC Mart

I too dislike “TLC Mart” and feel that it is evil. I can appreciate the authors imagination. Deacon Elder was an amazing character. I just wish it could’ve ended with Danny getting dealt with by authorities. The action and suspense in this book were tantalizingly. I couldn’t stop listening. 

Prepare for Chill Bumps

You won't regret listening to this hair raising story. There's no better combination than a story written by Alex Bledsoe narrated by Stefan Rudnicki!

Another good book

Alex Bledsoe is becoming one of my favorite authors. I have 2 more books to listen and I have listened to all of his collections.
Stephan Rudnicki does a fantastic job narrating. Alex Bledsoe did a nice job making his characters relatable. Personally I like how the sex or sexy scenes are not pornographic. There is a lead up, flirting and then the sex part are skipped over. It leaves more room for the story.

The story could end here but I am thinking there may be a few sequels to this story I would like to see Deacon’s next adventure.

excellent read

a page turner and one of the best, most realistic thrillers I have read in a long time. I look forward to the next time we see Deacon!!

Enjoyable contemporary demon hunter story

Great narration as always from Rudnicki. Enjoyable demon hunter story with some interesting contemporary social commentary/satire on big box stores and modern society.

Downright Offensive

I really enjoyed this author's Eddie LaCrosse series of novels so I did not hesitate to pre-order this title.

Instead of the supernatural thriller promised by the publisher synopsis, I discovered enough hateful racial and ideological stereotypes in the first 2.5 hours of listening that I felt morally obligated to turn it off and seek a refund from Audible to ensure this author did not receive any royalties to further promote or promulgate this trash.

To be clear, racial and ideological stereotypes are unacceptable no matter which demographic they are used to denigrate, no exceptions. In the first 2.5 hours of Dandelion; you are inundated by character and venue descriptions relying on nothing but stereotypes and which are straight out of the Critical Race Theory manifesto. The 'American Girl' doll, which the author characterizes as (loosely paraphrased) only existing to benefit white suburban girls. The local McDonald's restaurant which was robbed three times in the last year, each time by white people. The white Southern Baptist father of a teenage girl who sits in the basement every night cleaning his guns, watching Fox News, and drinking until he passes out. The white uncle who makes sexual advances towards his underage niece and her friends and who laments that 'those blacks who came to our church need to be put in their places' and 'those Mexicans are taking all of the good jobs. And in each of these instances as several others I don't mention here; the author is very clear and determined to make the reader know what color skin each character in the book has ... over and over and again.

And finally the straw that made me hit the 'request refund' button was the scene where the demonically possessed teenage girl walks into her house where Fox News is on the television and states (again loosely paraphrased), 'no demon or spawn of Satan could spread as much hate and divisiveness as Fox News.' Seriously? The author is trying to write an entire novel about how awful demons are and how they will destroy the world if not forced back into hell, but then he is unable to control his completely uninformed political bias by stating that a cable news channel is way more evil and threatening than the 'ultimate evil of demons and Satan'.

You will probably want to skip this book unless you are a casualty of the U. S. public school system and are completely unable to think freely and critically. If however you have been indoctrinated from an early age and believe all of this hateful racist rhetoric from the left, then feel free to jump in, you will feel right at home.

Again, I truly enjoyed the Eddie LaCrosse series by this author, but in reflection I believe those books benefitted from being in a fictitious setting which afforded the author no opportunity to display his woefully uniformed opinions pertaining to American socio-political issues.

Stefan Rudnicki does an awesome job with this poorly written garbage. His narration skills are really the only reason I was able to tough it out as long as I did.