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literarypenguin's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
What a brilliant and gripping dark academia novel! I went into this book not knowing what I was going to expect but I can safely say this book surprised me.
I adored the characters in this book in particular I loved Tess as a character. She is headstrong, sarcastic and very driven. She is super protective of her little sister and spends most of her free moments playing her cello. She was content at spending most of her time alone until she runs into Eliot Birch, a young man from Britain who has a fascination for magic and witchcraft. Eliot was a great character as well, one of the things I loved about him was how much he did care about people and wanted to help them.
The dynamic between Eliot & Tess was very well developed and brilliantly written. The romance was set up wonderfully and it didnt feel fast or slow at all. It was very believably and almost felt realistic. The banter between them was very good and had several funny lines too.
The atmosphere was one of the high points of this book, it had a great dark and creepy vibe surrounding it. It was a perfect dark academia read!
While it is a YA novel, it didnt feel young. It felt like something people of all ages could pick up and read and enjoy it. I greatly appreciate that aspect of this book most of all.
I highly recommend this if you ever need a good dark academia read or a creepy read, pick this one up you won't regret it!
I adored the characters in this book in particular I loved Tess as a character. She is headstrong, sarcastic and very driven. She is super protective of her little sister and spends most of her free moments playing her cello. She was content at spending most of her time alone until she runs into Eliot Birch, a young man from Britain who has a fascination for magic and witchcraft. Eliot was a great character as well, one of the things I loved about him was how much he did care about people and wanted to help them.
The dynamic between Eliot & Tess was very well developed and brilliantly written. The romance was set up wonderfully and it didnt feel fast or slow at all. It was very believably and almost felt realistic. The banter between them was very good and had several funny lines too.
The atmosphere was one of the high points of this book, it had a great dark and creepy vibe surrounding it. It was a perfect dark academia read!
While it is a YA novel, it didnt feel young. It felt like something people of all ages could pick up and read and enjoy it. I greatly appreciate that aspect of this book most of all.
I highly recommend this if you ever need a good dark academia read or a creepy read, pick this one up you won't regret it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Terminal illness and Body horror
anniereads221's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Self harm, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit
Moderate: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Misogyny, and Terminal illness
Minor: Infidelity
elishasbookreview's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, and Gore
marinable_books's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Death of parent
marta_correia's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Terminal illness, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse
abookishwasp's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
what the fuck is that last page? no just no i dont care i did not just read that. that line doesnt exist.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Death of parent and Vomit
elwirax's review against another edition
dark
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? Yes
2.0
The marketing for this book was almost everything I could've asked for: enemies to lovers, dark academia, ghosts and demons but it didn't deliver anything to make me care about the characters or plot. I was not convinced by the romance, it was very insta lovey and made me cringe more often than I could count. The dialogue and monologues felt very repetitive, melodramatic and on the low end of YA which isn't what I was expecting going in.
I was hoping for more worldbuilding especially on the witch aspects ( are there more of them , are there administrations to control them? etc) but nothing was explained and Eliot's magic almost seemed useless. This leads me to the point that The Devil Makes Three suffers a lot from a pacing issue. It takes 40% for things to start getting somewhere and even then it dragged. Additionally,certain resolutions were just too simple considering the things they had to go through.
I was hooked on the idea of a horror novel set in a boarding school and therefore, expected the book to focus on the horror aspects. However, the romance overshadowed this to the point that even the Devil/ Truth character seemed underdeveloped and rather childish. I suppose this is my time to stop expecting too much from YA horror.
Overall, It's a shame I didn't end up enjoying The Devil Makes Three as much as I'd hoped. The only thing I liked was the open-ended epilogue and that's about it.
I was hoping for more worldbuilding especially on the witch aspects ( are there more of them , are there administrations to control them? etc) but nothing was explained and Eliot's magic almost seemed useless. This leads me to the point that The Devil Makes Three suffers a lot from a pacing issue. It takes 40% for things to start getting somewhere and even then it dragged. Additionally,certain resolutions were just too simple considering the things they had to go through.
I was hooked on the idea of a horror novel set in a boarding school and therefore, expected the book to focus on the horror aspects. However, the romance overshadowed this to the point that even the Devil/ Truth character seemed underdeveloped and rather childish. I suppose this is my time to stop expecting too much from YA horror.
Overall, It's a shame I didn't end up enjoying The Devil Makes Three as much as I'd hoped. The only thing I liked was the open-ended epilogue and that's about it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm, Chronic illness, Child death, and Death
em1115's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Death of parent, Cancer, and Blood
loony_lucy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Death, Gore, Murder, and Self harm
tallangryplanet's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I was a bit wary of reading this book because of its classification in horror, but it ended up being a pretty good read. There were some scary parts and a feeling of tension throughout the book, but it was lighter than I expected.
The story follows Tess, a high school student who works in the school library during the summer, and Eliot, the son of the headmaster, as they accidentally release a demon and scramble to prevent it from completely ruining their lives. They come from very different backgrounds and in the beginning it seems like they'll never get along, but as they're forced to work together they find they're more similar than they thought.
As someone who isn't very familiar with the horror genre, I didn't expect most of the twists in the story, but they still felt coherent and most of them made sense in retrospective. Waiting for the next one was never boring and it kept me almost constantly on edge. I was also completely rooting for the main characters and hoping for them to finally catch a break, although I did feel slightly disappointed when I found out one of the main motivations for the protagonist. Parents arguing about finances didn't seem as much of a big deal for Tess to completely prevent her sister from seeing them . However, I did like how she evolved throughout the story so it wasn't that big of a deal.
I did notice that some parts of the setting and characterization didn't really fit with the ya category, but it made more sense after finding it was originally meant to be an adult book. This is really the only aspect I didn't like, as the characters felt too old to be in high school, because in everything else they were easy enough to relate to (as a musician, Tess's obsession with having to practice was like having a mirror held up to my face).
All in all, it was a very enjoyable read, and I might even pick it up again in the future. Even if you're not a big horror fan, it's light enough that it won't be too scary but still tense enough to avoid being boring.
The story follows Tess, a high school student who works in the school library during the summer, and Eliot, the son of the headmaster, as they accidentally release a demon and scramble to prevent it from completely ruining their lives. They come from very different backgrounds and in the beginning it seems like they'll never get along, but as they're forced to work together they find they're more similar than they thought.
As someone who isn't very familiar with the horror genre, I didn't expect most of the twists in the story, but they still felt coherent and most of them made sense in retrospective. Waiting for the next one was never boring and it kept me almost constantly on edge. I was also completely rooting for the main characters and hoping for them to finally catch a break, although I did feel slightly disappointed when I found out one of the main motivations for the protagonist.
I did notice that some parts of the setting and characterization didn't really fit with the ya category, but it made more sense after finding it was originally meant to be an adult book. This is really the only aspect I didn't like, as the characters felt too old to be in high school, because in everything else they were easy enough to relate to (as a musician, Tess's obsession with having to practice was like having a mirror held up to my face).
All in all, it was a very enjoyable read, and I might even pick it up again in the future. Even if you're not a big horror fan, it's light enough that it won't be too scary but still tense enough to avoid being boring.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury