Ashley and the Occult is a dark comedy young adult fantasy series written and created by Ella Day. It's morbid, witty, yet carries a cartoonish mentality that dictates the tone. Think of it like a if Ren and Stimpy went through a mall goth phase and wrote a mix between Death Note and Fairly Odd Parents.
The series follows 14-year-old Ashley Danvers after she happens upon a demonic spellbook called a Grimoire at a hokey paranormal goods store. The egotistical, vindictive, and easily bored Ashley uses the powers of the Grimoire to make her life easier or otherwise spice things up by summoning demons to do things like finish her school projects, manifest goodies like candy and free video games, or hypnotize all the boys in school just to get back at some mean girls that said she could never find a date. Of course, most of the time these spells and summonings end up backfiring on her, forcing Ashley to take some responsibility and pick up the pieces. If we’re lucky, she’ll even learn a helpful moral at the end (though chances are she won’t). Her repeated use of the Grimoire ends up digging some unsavory characters out of the woodwork, though, drawing them to her like a moth to the flame. Turns out she’s not the only one interested in the book, and most of them are in it for a whole lot worse things than acing their math tests.
Joining Ashley is Scelus, a demon bound to the Grimoire as its keeper, and Nathan, Ashley’s best (and only) friend who seems to be the only one that thinks all of this is a really, really bad idea. They form a classic comedic trio of the schemer, the follower, and the complainer. Ashley will come up with some “clever” use of the Grimoire, Scelus will goad her into doing it, and Nathan will try his best to minimize the damage. Side characters include Ashley’s oblivious family, her bitchy guardian angel, the fanatic owner of the paranormal goods store that Ashley bought the Grimoire at, and a religious cult all named after dick jokes.
Yup, this isn’t really meant for kids. At all. A major plot point for the first novel revolves around Ashley going around town and collecting as many used pads/tampons as she can to use in a summoning ritual. That religious cult I mentioned earlier? A running gag with them is them being in very specific denial over being pedophiles (if the “cult” thing didn’t tip you off already, they’re supposed to be bad guys). Ashley in the Occult welcomes dark comedy of all shapes and sizes, from vulgar gross out humor to exaggerated, off color villains to poignant social commentary. It would be right at home on Adult Swim, or perhaps maybe a vintage 4chan thread.
Ashley and the Occult is stil currently in development, with a lot of work on it being done behind closed doors. Publicly, its prologue and first chapter have been made publicly available, as well as some bios of the characters.
Author Ella Day has worked on young adult fiction since 2021, and is well known in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fandom as the author of Iron Touch , winner of the 2022 Fanworks Award for Best Prose.
