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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
When Devils Sing is a young adult horror novel set in a southern town cursed by three devils.
Neera, Sam, Isaiah, and Reid are all connected to another teen, Dawson, who disappeared from their rural town in Georgia. Each of them begins to realize that there’s something deeply wrong with Carrion—and that it’s tied to the cicadas that return every thirteen years. According to local folklore, three devils are making terrible bargains with the townspeople, and these sinister deals may be connected to Dawson’s disappearance.
I chose the audio version of this one because I was especially looking forward to Isaiah’s podcast about the creepy South—I just wish there had been more of it! There were a few plot points I wanted more explanation of, like the bargains, the history of the devils, and the significance of the cicadas’ return. Honestly, I’m not sure I fully grasped everything that was going on, and the conclusion felt a little rushed. That said, I liked the eerie atmosphere and the cast of characters from diverse and challenging backgrounds.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎧 Audiobook narration notes: The audiobook is narrated by Michael Crouch, Anjali Kunapaneni, Jennifer Pickens, and Landon Woodson, who all do an excellent job voicing the youthful characters from varied backgrounds.
Disclosure: Rating based on an advanced listening copy provided by Macmillan Audio. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
The audiobook and the multiple narrators are what made this an above average read for me. It had decent pacing and I didn't realize this was a YA and while it would have been much better if it weren't YA, it didn't make me hate it.... which I normally hate YA.
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The pacing between part one and part two didn’t truly work for me. Part two felt so rushed and deserved a slower development as opposed to part one. This definitely could’ve been longer.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
**Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group\Henry Holt and Co. for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph
Posted on: 11 June 2025
4.2 (rounded down to 4) out of 5 stars.
(Okay I know I’m mildly late posting this, I’m so sorry. Life happens and then illness happens, sometimes all at once. Anyways, here is my belated review!)
Wow, okay, I have no idea where to start with this (and I mean that in a terribly good way!) This book hit all the right points for a good southern gothic read. I really loved the atmosphere of it, the story, and I especially loved the lore! Like wow, I’d read a book about Old Carrion and the devils any day, Xan Kaur!! Please, give me ten more of these!
I think having this book lined up after a previously failed ARC was great. It was a nice palate cleanser (except for the T*sla mention.. what’s up with those lately?? That makes 3 books this year! What happened to snobby boys and their rich dad’s Rolls Royce or smth??) It was an overall win for me otherwise though. I enjoyed the writing and the characters a lot, some more than others but all pretty high up on my list. I do think it leans a bit more on the slower-paced side of things early on though. It’s a slow build up that takes time to introduce and further connect the four main characters together. I genuinely love stories like this though, where the plot is building separately and then slowly gets threaded together. Like wow, I love love love how Kaur did this.
The ending wasn’t the same as the beginning though. It felt a little more rushed than the first half. Things were kinda solved a little too easily and the ending is an almost unfinished/unanswered sort of ending? It’s not bad, but it just didn’t have the same sort of slow detailed pacing as the beginning. We have all the parts already, so it just keeps rolling and rolling without really slowing down enough to show how we’re steadily getting to a resolution.
That has to be one of my only complaints, really. Otherwise, I loved this story about a town’s deal with the devil. I loved the lore about the devils too, and how they interact with the characters. It was moody and atmospheric in all the best of ways. Usually, it gets hard to separate characters from each other especially when there’s so many moving pieces, but I think Kaur did an exceptional job with juggling everybody and their pasts and families. There were distinct enough voices for the main crew that made them engaging, and I feel like they truly followed through with how they would’ve reacted (as in their actions did feel connected to what I’d imagine the characters reacting if that makes any sense?) I’d even say that the more minor/background characters also had distinct voices enough too, so they didn’t really blend into each other too much. Even the devils were different, which was an aspect I really loved. They had bits of lore to unravel too, pawns to the story in of themselves which added another element to the book.
Without saying much more that might spoil the plot, the book was amazing. I think the last YA horror novel that had me so entranced like this was an Erin Craig read, so truly I cannot wait to see more from Xan Kaur! If this is only a debut, I can’t even begin to imagine just where her later works will go! If I had the time, I really could’ve just binged this. I wanted to, really! As the pieces start to connect, it’s hard to put it down because you can’t help but want to see what more will be revealed! Despite the weaker ending/events leading to the ending, I still highly recommend this if only for the fact that it’s a good southern gothic!
CONTENT WARNINGS:
Car accident, blood, injury, physically abusive parental figures (abuse on page with not-overly-detailed scenes and lots of allusions to abuse), alcohol, alcoholism, mentions of violence due to inebriation (no on-page details, alluded to), death, fire injury, boiling water injury, murder mention, gore, animal cruelty, animal death, suicide mention (on-page discussion/character’s thoughts of it with minimal details), confinement, kidnapping, drugging
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicide, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Child abuse in that the children are minors (one character is recently 18 and iirc the other is around 13)
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I just need to wrap all the kids in this book in blankets and take them as far away as possible from almost all the adults in their lives.
This was such a good and moody southern gothic. There's plenty of mystery with a side of supernatural.
The story is told through PoVs of four main characters, Sam, Isaiah, Neerah, and Reid. The author skilfully manages the introduction of the characters, to ensure we are invested without feeling like the exposition on who they are is one big info dump. All the characters feel unique, with their own motivation and once they start teaming up it doesn't feel like the book just needed to get there but rather like a natural progression in these character's developments.
My favourite parts were definitely the devils we got to meet and the mythology that comes with the town. That short story of how the town came to be could have been a book on its own that I would have happily read.
The book slows down a little at the end for me, it feels like it loses a little of its own stakes, but honestly I would happily follow these four on more mystery solving adventures.
This was such a good and moody southern gothic. There's plenty of mystery with a side of supernatural.
The story is told through PoVs of four main characters, Sam, Isaiah, Neerah, and Reid. The author skilfully manages the introduction of the characters, to ensure we are invested without feeling like the exposition on who they are is one big info dump. All the characters feel unique, with their own motivation and once they start teaming up it doesn't feel like the book just needed to get there but rather like a natural progression in these character's developments.
My favourite parts were definitely the devils we got to meet and the mythology that comes with the town. That short story of how the town came to be could have been a book on its own that I would have happily read.
The book slows down a little at the end for me, it feels like it loses a little of its own stakes, but honestly I would happily follow these four on more mystery solving adventures.