My Roommate From Hell by Cale Dietrich Book Review

I’ve been a fan of Cale Dietrich ever since his Love Interest days. Can’t believe that was almost ten years ago! Four books in, I’ve noticed a pattern he has, of his protagonists being, well, probably a fair bit like him? I see a bit of myself in a lot of his heroes. They tend to be introverted, timid, and needing a little push to be themselves.

So our main character this time is a freshman in college named Owen. He seems to be taking courses related to IT. His dream is to have some kind of job with stability, preferably at one of the big giants like Google. I can’t help but worry if he ever does get there, he’ll see a lot of inner evil workings and want to quit. But then again, his parents haven’t been very lucky with money lately, so in this case, maybe money is more incentivizing than imagination. And his first day there, his first year gets thrown on his head when he is surprisingly paired up with the literal prince from hell, Zarmenus. Heaven and hell were discovered to be real recently, and there’s a first-ever exchange program at this school, with someone from Earth going to a school from hell, and Zarmenus is the vice versa.

Owen is hesitant to share a room with him, especially since it becomes clear Zarmenus is messy, has magical horrors follow around, and isn’t bashful in the slightest when it comes to bringing over boys at 3 in the morning he’s hooked up with. But if Owen can stay as Zarmenus’ roommate for one semester and show that humans and demons can coexist, it would be very beneficial to the school, to the world, and to Owen due to the privileges he could be awarded with. And with that, we have Dietrich’s latest work, My Roommate From Hell.

Let me get what I didn’t like out of the gate. Sequels don’t seem to be Dietrich’s thing, in that he hasn’t written one yet, but I would be totally fine with continuing this story, because by the end I felt there’s much more these characters could do. As I kind of mentioned before, Owen starts off a very reclusive character, and nothing’s wrong with that, but here he comes across as a bit overly bland. His enthusiasm with his classes and teachers seemed a little corny, and he doesn’t seem to have much of a back story on why he’s interested in his field of study. Also, there’s this cult of people who are against the exchange program and any support whatsoever of looking at the people from hell like people, and they’re around until they’re just not. If we ever get a sequel, I’d love to see this order do more havoc that Owen and Zar would have to fight back against.

But now back to what I do like. Owen faces some calamities, both normal and abnormal, about having a roommate who’s a slob, a player, and is like a magnet for the horrific and creepy, and they reminded me of the worst case scenarios I imagined when I was assigned roommates. Zarmenus is a multi-layered character, who clearly enjoys living life on the wild side and has a lot of self-worth but is far from a jerkweed to his introverted roommate. The side characters are fun to be with and are great examples of friends people deserve. Finally, and this is the dealbreaker for most LGBTQ books, it’s pretty darn cute. Cute to the point where as Owen and Zarmenus are trying to put up a facade, it’s obvious that as their differences are about to make each other better, that it won’t be that way for long.

In the end, My Roommate From Hell is not groundbreaking but it’s good enough. A series in this world is one I would gladly be on board with. I hope one day Cale Dietrich decides to expand and make sequels to his works. For this and The Love Interest, one just isn’t enough.

My grade: 3 stars out of 5