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ahen's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
ending was brilliant
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Violence, Death of parent, and Medical content
l_lilly_05's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death of parent, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, and Child death
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
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
kaetheluise_nckl's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Violence
Moderate: Alcoholism, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury
blood, human sacrifice, possession leading to degradation of mental state
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