Running With The Demon by Terry Brooks is an urban fantasy/fantasy thriller and the first novel in his Word and Void trilogy.  It is the ninth novel set in his Shannara universe, though chronologically it is the first, the events in it taking place more than two thousand years before The Sword of Shannara which was his first novel.

The novel, which takes place over the Fourth of July weekend, tells the story of Nest Freemark, a fourteen-year-old girl being raised by her grandparents in the fictional town of Hopewell, Illinois (there really is such a place as Hopewell, IL., but this Hopewell is actually based on the city of Sterling, IL., Brooks’s hometown).  Nest has a secret:  she has the gift of magic.  Along with the sylvan, Pick, and her mysterious protector, Wraith, she has to help maintain the balance between good and evil in Sinnissippi Park, one of the places on Earth where magic still resides. Read the rest of the review here. No spoilers. I promise.