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lilymoon01's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
stuffhanreads's review against another edition
4.0
After a while, I’ve finally finished The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn, I will admit it surprised me. With a title like that, you would assume there’d be some talk of the devil somewhere and you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking that. One of the characters we see chapters from, has pretty much birthed a devil like creature which in turn attracts all the animals in Deer Valley to their old dilapidated house.
I really did enjoy reading this book, Stevie our main character sees things that aren’t there. Making him what we would call an unreliable narrator. And I absolutely love unreliable narrators, it makes the story so interesting. Nobody believes Stevie, not even his mother, while as the reader I didn’t think there was much wrong with what he was seeing in terms of the actual creature. As I read Rosemund’s chapters which also mentioned her son.
As for the ending, it made sense, since nobody believes Stevie to be sane, so of course he would be put away for doing what he did. But, my question is, why didn’t anyone intervene with it? His mother, his aunt and his stepfather all saw Jude go to attack Stevie, or was that another hallucination?
Overall, I rate this great novel a 4/5 stars, I can’t wait to read more books by the wonderful author.
I really did enjoy reading this book, Stevie our main character sees things that aren’t there. Making him what we would call an unreliable narrator. And I absolutely love unreliable narrators, it makes the story so interesting. Nobody believes Stevie, not even his mother, while as the reader I didn’t think there was much wrong with what he was seeing in terms of the actual creature. As I read Rosemund’s chapters which also mentioned her son.
As for the ending, it made sense, since nobody believes Stevie to be sane, so of course he would be put away for doing what he did. But, my question is, why didn’t anyone intervene with it? His mother, his aunt and his stepfather all saw Jude go to attack Stevie, or was that another hallucination?
Overall, I rate this great novel a 4/5 stars, I can’t wait to read more books by the wonderful author.
shaelynn's review
slow-paced
2.0
So slow it was boring and hard to get through. It had some really good and interesting parts and that made me push through but the ending ruins it. It doesn’t have to have a happy ending but come on!
I get that Stevie is supposed to be an unreliable narrator but there wasn’t anything proving he was being unreliable other than he most likely has undiagnosed schizophrenia. This is my second book by this author and both have left me so dissatisfied after reading. I wouldn’t recommend this read and I don’t think I’ll pick anymore from this author.
I get that Stevie is supposed to be an unreliable narrator but there wasn’t anything proving he was being unreliable other than he most likely has undiagnosed schizophrenia. This is my second book by this author and both have left me so dissatisfied after reading. I wouldn’t recommend this read and I don’t think I’ll pick anymore from this author.
libbyizzy's review against another edition
3.0
The first part of the book annoyed the hell out of me, then the second part picked up and the ending was a mess. I liked it enough for 3.5 stars
shaeg77's review against another edition
4.0
Loved this! A bit disappointed with the ending but it wasn’t terrible.
vespurr's review against another edition
3.0
I am having a hard time rating this one because honestly, I feel like Ania's writing is so good, and I WANT to love this book. However, I found a lot of the plot of this book to be cliche and tropey, and it felt super slow moving. I think it could have been edited down a bit, and the story would have flowed better. On top of that, I find that I frequently struggle with Ania's endings. Without going into details or giving spoilers, I just sometimes feel that I've put the effort into reading these stories, and the ending shouldn't let me down so hard. I suppose that's just personal preference, but it feels bad.
The hardest thing for me with this one was the (minor spoiler??) animal cruelty throughout. I'm the kind of person who tends to be very "do whatever to the people, but don't you dare hurt the dog!" In my horror. And fair warning: there's a whole lot of animals not faring well in this book.
But overall, I still found it compelling enough to want to keep going, and I have been enjoying working my way through Ania's backlist!
The hardest thing for me with this one was the (minor spoiler??) animal cruelty throughout. I'm the kind of person who tends to be very "do whatever to the people, but don't you dare hurt the dog!" In my horror. And fair warning: there's a whole lot of animals not faring well in this book.
But overall, I still found it compelling enough to want to keep going, and I have been enjoying working my way through Ania's backlist!
jenmarie96's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
lochlinn13'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? It's complicated
4.25