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tatyanavogt's review against another edition
2.0
Sooo, this book was a bit upsetting cause I was expecting some kind of haunted house story. A slow uncovering of history accompanied by spooking/scary happenings inside the house. I thought it was a horror book filled with dark histories and creepy connections.. Instead I got a slow boring and dry 'true crime' style novel that wasn't very engaging. (and I like true crime). I didn't get what I signed up for and what I got wasn't super interesting.
This is about a writer who buys a house with a troubling past so he can research the bad stuff that happened there. He talks to people and makes speculations on how things went down. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it if I realized thats what it was going to be about but in general it was pretty boring and I found myself drifting off constantly while reading.
This is about a writer who buys a house with a troubling past so he can research the bad stuff that happened there. He talks to people and makes speculations on how things went down. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it if I realized thats what it was going to be about but in general it was pretty boring and I found myself drifting off constantly while reading.
haleyshaver's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't hate it but honestly it was kind of slow. I preferred reading about the woman who murdered two of her students because they broke into her apartment more than I enjoyed reading about the actual Devil House. When Darnielle was writing about the past of the Devil House I found myself speed reading through it just so I could get to the parts where they talk more about the teacher and her students and the lives they lived that brought them to the ending they got. The book also weirdly ended with a random narrator that we had never met before? I don't know, maybe this just wasn't my cup of tea.
alossforworms's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
jmrainzy's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
librarypictures's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
eitheror's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
alissa417's review against another edition
I think will recommend it a select few - I just recommended it to one person in conversation already - but it's only been 5 hours since I finished and I'm just not sure yet. I need more time. I felt the 6th section out of 7 (all so different) was the strongest writing and most likely story to stay with me for some time.
literarycrushes's review against another edition
3.0
Going into Devil House by John Darnielle, I expected (based solely on the vintage-mass-market-looking cover, eeeek) a literary horror novel or something with an elevated Stephen King-like plot. While there are elements of classic horror here, at its core, the novel is an exploration of the exploitative nature of the true-crime genre.
While I don’t read a ton of true crime novels, I’ve been really into watching YouTube videos about all these cold cases that were recently solved using advancements in DNA technology. Many of the murders were major news stories for a couple of weeks before people lost interest without any new leads to hold onto, but then you see the bittersweet moment for the victim’s families who are still dealing with their loss ten or twenty years later. Devil House follows a similar narrative as readers are told about the grisly murders in the sensationalized style before going back and getting reintroduced to the characters as real humans with individual personalities and lives separate from *victim* or *murderer.*
It’s an incredibly complex and ambitious novel that I was unsurprised to learn took the author over five years to write. It experiments with structure in ways I’ve never seen before, including an entire section written in Old English language and font, which was a cool idea in theory but tedious to actually read. Overall, though it wasn’t a favorite, I enjoyed reading it.
While I don’t read a ton of true crime novels, I’ve been really into watching YouTube videos about all these cold cases that were recently solved using advancements in DNA technology. Many of the murders were major news stories for a couple of weeks before people lost interest without any new leads to hold onto, but then you see the bittersweet moment for the victim’s families who are still dealing with their loss ten or twenty years later. Devil House follows a similar narrative as readers are told about the grisly murders in the sensationalized style before going back and getting reintroduced to the characters as real humans with individual personalities and lives separate from *victim* or *murderer.*
It’s an incredibly complex and ambitious novel that I was unsurprised to learn took the author over five years to write. It experiments with structure in ways I’ve never seen before, including an entire section written in Old English language and font, which was a cool idea in theory but tedious to actually read. Overall, though it wasn’t a favorite, I enjoyed reading it.