Reviews

Devil Is Fine by John Vercher

lexi_paws_and_pages's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.5

barnes_and_noel's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

What a beautifully written story. To be honest, this book took me a couple chapters to get into, but once I did I was so intrigued. This is a book that I think is best going into semi-blind, so I’ll be vague here.

The magical realism elements thread throughout the story in such a delicate way, that I often didn’t really know what was real and what wasn’t; given the MC’s situation, I’d say this was the point. There were also a couple points where things got kinda spooky, and I loved the psychological push & pull that I was taken on. Race plays a big part in the plot in a multitude of ways, and I think the commentary there was nuanced and thought-provoking. The past timelines with the narrator and his son were emotional and complicated, and I enjoyed getting this other side of the story. This is a book to take your time with.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon for the advance copy.

no_more_shelf_control's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 DEVIL IS FINE by John Vercher and narrated by Dion Graham is one of the best books I have read this year.

I feel profoundly inept to express why this is such an incredible story.

The biracial narrator begins this journey at a funeral, speaking to the one who died. He does this throughout the novel as he processes this grief, all while going to and claiming a plantation left by sorts to him through the death of his white grandfather. We slip back through memories to understand how we got here, and at times slip elsewhere, but that is telling too much.

There are deeply moving meditations on being biracial, a father, a writer of Color, legacy, responsibility, & transformation. It encompassed all emotions, whipping from heartbreak to hilarity, and from heavy realism to a very blurred sense of surreal. I loved it all. This was an incredible feat of storytelling with gorgeously written prose.

I was so grateful to receive both the digital ARC from @celadonbooks & the audio from @macmillan.audio through @netgalley and the combination was superb. I may even go get a hard copy of this one as it will definitely be a favorite. This does publish on June 18th, and a pre-order would be worth it.

The audiobook was next-level. All of the emotional outpouring of this man came through in a way that made me feel it. I was wrecked, I was scared, I was searching, and I was transforming with him. 

booked_with_julia's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Such a beautiful novel. 
After losing his son, a biracial author inherits land from his white grandfather. It is told as he is speaking to his dead son while dealing with grief, the past and fatherhood. They discover gruesome details on the property which was a plantation. 
This book blends literary fiction, mystery, paranormal and magical realism. There are heavy topics and it’s beautiful and heartbreaking but I will be thinking of this novel for a long time. Especially when I see a jellyfish. 

lnb's review

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4.0

 loved this - the horror/fantasy part of this was a surprise to me, and I didn't hate it but it's definitely not my typical thing. beautiful story of grief and trauma. 

samrockrocks's review against another edition

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4.5

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The writing was excellent. I was completely drawn in throughout the story. I think just about anyone could enjoy this and find ways to relate. The paranormal/fantasy/horror (I'm not good at classification) might be off-putting to some but the grief, wanting to find connection, feeling like a failure, identify issues, etc are relevant to most of us. 

I read this as an ebook and now I want to get a physical copy so I can highlight all my favorite quotes. 

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy. 

bookreviewswithkb's review

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emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

thank you SO much to @celadonbooks for sending me an early copy of this one - out on June 18th! 

i’m having trouble articulating how i feel about this book; i don’t know if i have the right words to describe it. our main character is a flawed father, who identifies as a biracial Black man, trying to raise his Black son through all of the struggles of his own identity, that make him resent his son and drive a wedge between them. this wedge comes fully to life with the inheritance of a plantation where human remains are uncovered, and our main character starts on a journey to search for his soul 

this book is BRILLIANT - it is witty and moving and absolutely heartbreaking. the prose is breathtaking. i don’t know y’all, you just really need to read it 

“there are so many means for me to stitch the wound we suffer together, but i have convinced myself that the edges are too old, the skin necrotic, too fragile to knit, no matter how much thread i use.”

i now want to immediately read Vercher’s other fiction novels, Three-Fifths and After the Lights Go Out. i didn’t know i was sleeping on such an incredible author 
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nordstina's review against another edition

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4.25

Devil is Fine is hard to pigeon hole into a genre-on the surface it is about a man dealing with grief after the sudden death of his son. The unnamed narrator, a biracial professor receives a letter that he has been deeded a piece of beach property after it was originally to be given to his son. He does not really want this land as it is tied to a family member he had a challenging relationship with and travels south with the plan of selling the land quickly. Upon stepping foot on the property, he finds himself blacking out and weird occurrences begin. You see, this land comes from the white side of his family and was a plantation, where his ancestors enslaved others. The history of the property is in that ground. The book gets deeply weird at times and the lines around reality are blurred. As a reader one cannot pick apart-- how much of what the narrator feeling is inherited trauma, how much is side effects of pills and alcohol he is taking? He has a lot of unprocessed trauma with regards to the loss of his son and finds himself speaking with him.

This is an interesting look into the psyche of a biracial individual struggling with his identity. His potential tenure track position is being threatened as his proposed new book isn't selling due to the changing interest in publishing and what "black" books should be. Meanwhile, there is already a hot new thing in the publishing world, and the narrator, in a drug addled state writes a piece of auto fiction that his agent is thrilled by. This whole section about his job and the world of publishing has strong shades of Percival Everett's Erasure. 

This book was weird, at times darkly comedic, but a moving look at generational trauma. It's trying to tackle a lot of complex themes, but I think it worked overall. Would highly recommend.

Thank you to Celadon Books via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

thecriticalreader's review

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The Run-Down: Devil Is Fine is an ambitious and intriguing literary endeavor that rests on an uneven foundation.
 
 
Review: 
Devil Is Fine by John Vercher feels like it was written by an English professor. Vercher eschews traditional narrative constraints in favor of a metatextual, genre-defying, and highly unique novel about fatherhood, grief, slavery, and identity. The first forty percent of the book focuses on the protagonist’s grief over his teenage son, who died unexpectedly. His grief is fraught with the knowledge that he, in many ways, failed to be the father his son needed as he grew up. After a brief flirtation with the campus novel, Devil Is Fine takes a turn into surrealism and horror when the biracial narrator discovers he has inherited a plantation that contains the remains of several West African slaves. Steering through this horror and magical realism, the story bends time to return to the narrator’s grief and family life before entering satirical territory. The story ends with appropriate ambiguity and symbolism one would expect for such a novel.
 
Undergirding the diverse generic territories this novel traverses is the author’s deep understanding of the novel’s main character, a flawed man who is struggling to fit into a world that seems to have no place for him in it. Vercher’s grasp of his main character’s psychology and past is what allows this book to work as well as it does. Particularly poignant is his portrayal of the narrator’s tumultuous relationship with his son, his son’s mother, and alcohol. This stellar character work, however, is not enough on its own to support the novel’s ambition. The interactions between the characters frequently feel unrealistic and forced, especially when the book makes sudden shifts between the genuine and the satirical. There are also several major plot developments (not including the ambiguous supernatural happenings) that make little sense upon closer examination, and they appear shoehorned in for effect rather than organic components of the story. As a result, Devil Is Fine is an ambitious and intriguing literary endeavor that rests on an uneven foundation. I encourage readers to pick it up to form their own thoughts about this unique text.
 
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

tidyhippie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5