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whatellisreadnext's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
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
4.0
๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐บ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ด ๐ข ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต? ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ; ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ณ; ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ?
We follow Chandler, a true crime writer, who has just started his latest project, moving into a house that the locals call 'The Devil House'.
I may sound like a broken record if you follow my stories, but the first thing I want to say about this book is that it isn't a haunted house novel, and I'm so glad I knew this going into it initially. This is a study on true crime and how it affects the people left behind.
I personally thought this was brilliant, it was weird and messed up and surprisingly emotional towards the end. It went to so many places I didn't think it would, and I found myself so engrossed in this story even though whilst reading I wasn't entirely sure it had a point, I just enjoyed being in it. And when it came to the ending, I felt full on bamboozled in the best way.
The only reason this didn't get a 5 star rating was because it took a lot of brain power at times and was pretty dense writing wise. It just didn't have that effortless 5 star feeling, but it came pretty damn close. I think if you enjoy all things macabre, you'll definitely enjoy Devil House.
Thanks so much to @scribe_uk for the gifted copy!
We follow Chandler, a true crime writer, who has just started his latest project, moving into a house that the locals call 'The Devil House'.
I may sound like a broken record if you follow my stories, but the first thing I want to say about this book is that it isn't a haunted house novel, and I'm so glad I knew this going into it initially. This is a study on true crime and how it affects the people left behind.
I personally thought this was brilliant, it was weird and messed up and surprisingly emotional towards the end. It went to so many places I didn't think it would, and I found myself so engrossed in this story even though whilst reading I wasn't entirely sure it had a point, I just enjoyed being in it. And when it came to the ending, I felt full on bamboozled in the best way.
The only reason this didn't get a 5 star rating was because it took a lot of brain power at times and was pretty dense writing wise. It just didn't have that effortless 5 star feeling, but it came pretty damn close. I think if you enjoy all things macabre, you'll definitely enjoy Devil House.
Thanks so much to @scribe_uk for the gifted copy!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Vomit, Murder, and Blood
davidrb's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Probably not that good, but it means the world to me. I think maybe it got written for me to read right now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Gore, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
alylentz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really enjoyed this! Such a thoughtful look at horror and crime, the purposes of storytelling and the concept of truth. It is definitely focused on character over plot and experimental in places, but there are also some really shocking moments of gore and horror, so I don't quite agree with those saying this isn't a horror novel... I think it is, it's just a character-driven one. I'd recommend this to readers who enjoyed Reprieve and House of Leaves.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Blood
mmccombs's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.5
I might have to come back to this rating and review because honestly I donโt know how to! This was not what I expected but thatโs not a bad thing, I think itโs just a story I will have to turn around in my mind a few more times before I have clear thoughts. The format was so interesting, I could tell that Darnielle was enjoying himself which makes for a fun read! I was maybe a little confused about the old English and the knight stories in there, but it made for compelling through lines about storytelling and โtruthโ and place as it relates to history. I really liked this one but am also still trying to figure it out I think??
โWhat happens when somebody tells a story that has real people in it? What happens to the story; what happens to the teller; what happens to the people?โ
โWhat happens when somebody tells a story that has real people in it? What happens to the story; what happens to the teller; what happens to the people?โ
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, and Violence
blackmetalblackheart's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Devil House is such an intriguing and well thought out novel. The way it dives into the heads of people and events is captivating. I felt like I was behind the scenes of a true crime investigation. The couple times it switches tone and style is weird, but feels like it belongs. The pacing kept me hooked. The flipping between crimes to delve into further backstory works great. And the voice being used matches the concept perfectly. The novel introduced me to ideas and took me to places I was not expecting. It was a cool experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Gore
ksheaffs's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Mental illness
acarter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
4.75
Full disclosure: I am a huge TMG fan and a very ambivalent true crime fan, so DEVIL HOUSE was basically constructed for me in a literary laboratory. Every blurb notes this novel's ambition, for good reason -- Darnielle attempts (and pulls off) something very complex and formally daring. The novel defies summary, which is part of the point; it tells a story about true crime writer Gage Chandler, who is tasked with writing a book about 'Devil House,' where a gruesome unsolved murder took place during the Satanic Panic. And yet, it's also a story about telling stories, about what happens to the people involved (however peripherally) in a narrative when it gets set down in words. The payoff of the novel, which really comes after the halfway mark and crescendos in the final pages, is high, but less-intrepid readers might give up before getting there. This isn't a novel for those looking for a straightforward horror story or a true crime tale, but for people who are willing to go with Darnielle through some formal leaps and bounds to pick apart what it means to tell a story, it's an incredibly compelling, worthwhile read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Gore
Moderate: Domestic abuse
skudiklier's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
4.5
This book is about murder and a true crime author, to an extent, but it is more accurately about what happens when you tell a story that has real consequences for real people; it's about truth, and sensationalism, and voyeurism. It has horrifically graphic violence, which is not my thing at all, but I feel like it would be hard for any reader to come away from this book with an uncomplicated love for true crime.
Devil House is one of those books that's hard to really talk about without spoiling the ending. Every chapter complicates the story further, until the synopsis seems barely what the story is really about at all. It's made me think about the meaning of truth as some pure ideal, and about what the point of telling any story is. I'm a writer of poetry, not prose, but I think this book will still impact how I think about writing moving forward.
I don't like true crime, and if I didn't read everything John Darnielle writes, it's very likely I would never have been interested in this book. Some parts were indeed more gruesome than I would have liked, but overall I'm glad I read it.
It also is of course written well, in the same style as Darnielle's other novels. There's a lot of second-person narration, which I think works well in this context. I wrote down a lot of quotes that I really enjoyed (and the only reason I'm not sharing any is that this review is long enough already).
Mild spoilers ahead, in my central complaint of the book:
Update from a few months after I originally wrote this review: I took the below section out of my B&N review now that the book is out, because I think in the actual book this chapter may be less distracting. It has a different font to signal something weird is going on (which I didn't have in my eARC), and it does connect to things in the book of course, so I was just too caught up in how weird it was I guess. I'm leaving the below just in case, but feel free to ignore it.
Several chapters take place in different time periods, with different narrators and main characters, but nearly all of them are still obviously connected. However, there's one chapter in the middle that is about an entirely different thing, and written in a different style; it almost feels like a different book altogether. You could argue that there are minor things linking it to the rest of the text, but it still feels very odd. And to top it all off, that chapter ends in the middle of a sentence.
Because I was reading an ARC, I genuinely wondered if the chapter simply weren't finished, if no one noticed it wasn't complete before letting readers like me have access to the book. But near the end of the book, a character is reading the manuscript Chandler has for Devil House, and it ends in the middle of a sentence, confusing the reader. This led me to believe that perhaps this odd chapter in the middle of the book is actually meant to end that way, and the reader is supposed to be confused.
I can appreciate this on a stylistic level, and in hindsight I can see how this chapter may relate to the rest of the book. I also have a lot of respect for John Darnielle, and am generally inclined to think any weird stuff he does is genius. But I have to say that that chapter may lose some readers (it's not short and there's no payoff), and may frustrate more. I look forward to reading interviews with Darnielle about this book, in the hopes that he might explain this decision in a way that justifies the negative aspects.
(Again though, I'm still not 100% convinced it was intentional. Maybe it would feel different for a reader with a fully published copy.)
Devil House is one of those books that's hard to really talk about without spoiling the ending. Every chapter complicates the story further, until the synopsis seems barely what the story is really about at all. It's made me think about the meaning of truth as some pure ideal, and about what the point of telling any story is. I'm a writer of poetry, not prose, but I think this book will still impact how I think about writing moving forward.
I don't like true crime, and if I didn't read everything John Darnielle writes, it's very likely I would never have been interested in this book. Some parts were indeed more gruesome than I would have liked, but overall I'm glad I read it.
It also is of course written well, in the same style as Darnielle's other novels. There's a lot of second-person narration, which I think works well in this context. I wrote down a lot of quotes that I really enjoyed (and the only reason I'm not sharing any is that this review is long enough already).
Mild spoilers ahead, in my central complaint of the book:
Several chapters take place in different time periods, with different narrators and main characters, but nearly all of them are still obviously connected. However, there's one chapter in the middle that is about an entirely different thing, and written in a different style; it almost feels like a different book altogether. You could argue that there are minor things linking it to the rest of the text, but it still feels very odd. And to top it all off, that chapter ends in the middle of a sentence.
Because I was reading an ARC, I genuinely wondered if the chapter simply weren't finished, if no one noticed it wasn't complete before letting readers like me have access to the book. But near the end of the book, a character is reading the manuscript Chandler has for Devil House, and it ends in the middle of a sentence, confusing the reader. This led me to believe that perhaps this odd chapter in the middle of the book is actually meant to end that way, and the reader is supposed to be confused.
I can appreciate this on a stylistic level, and in hindsight I can see how this chapter may relate to the rest of the book. I also have a lot of respect for John Darnielle, and am generally inclined to think any weird stuff he does is genius. But I have to say that that chapter may lose some readers (it's not short and there's no payoff), and may frustrate more. I look forward to reading interviews with Darnielle about this book, in the hopes that he might explain this decision in a way that justifies the negative aspects.
(Again though, I'm still not 100% convinced it was intentional. Maybe it would feel different for a reader with a fully published copy.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking, Violence, Murder, Blood, Body horror, and Gore
Moderate: Sexual assault and Vomit
Minor: Pedophilia
I cannot overstate how graphic some of the descriptions of murder and gore are.
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