Reviews

Devil House by John Darnielle

ymer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

i really enjoyed this book. i also really enjoyed house of leaves, which is kind of the only thing i can compare it to. this is not a linear story that feeds itself to you, it requires a little effort to engage with (a bit like complex jazz music that doesn't immediately make you want to dance but is fascinating enough to keep listening.) it rewards you. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder, and Violence

readingwmiles's review against another edition

2.0

The cover and initial concept were the only things I liked about this much-anticipated book. The reality was so underwhelming. I never understood what people meant when they said a book was overwritten until I read this. Yikes. It didn't feel like there was a main plot here. The initial concept was interesting, but it felt like Darnielle took the most tedious and least interesting path to explore it. Each part of the book was completely different in tone and it felt incredibly meandering. The constant perspective shifts were incredibly distracting and didn't add anything to the narrative. For the last 20% or so I was so tired of trying to keep up and I just wanted it to be over. This author is just not for me.

abbylaceyxoxo's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

amorrelles's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

anredman's review against another edition

I'm rating this a one star book, but I've elected not to make the actual star rating. This book is probably great, but it is very much not for me, which is my failing and not the author's fault. I will recommend this book to a lot of folks I know. If this author has short fiction, I'd love to read it.

Rarely do I highlight in books, but I did highlight several insightful lines that stopped to make me think, or re-read or reconsider, or that were just so fucking cool how could I not mark them?

The story the author was telling was of no interest to me, and the theme of castles and knights not just fell flat, but seemed like a conceited stretch. The fussy, obsessive addition of geographical details and property sales was tedious as hell. The ending, man, that's not the route for me.

However, no one can touch this author's use and inclusion of observation, mostly on the human condition, memory, our ties to places. It's beyond sublime. Reading about the inner thoughts of the main character delighted me to no end, I'll probably flip through this book idly for years to come.

But I won't read it again.

mwood1879's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

fourwhitetrees's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

kelcaro1's review against another edition

5.0

I would very much like to battle the people who decided to market this as horror. Its not. This is a sad book that digests and ruminates on the mind of those who write true crime and what happens to the people who are not part of the story they tell. This is a book that dwells on the concept of ownership and belonging. It talks about what defines a victim and the nuances of victims who then commit violent acts. It is weird at times and disjointed, but at the end of it you get a very clear picture on the nature of truth versus belief and how people lead themselves to the conclusions they want to accept.
This was in short: a very good book.

bamsabbath's review against another edition

4.0

I enjoyed it. I liked the slow, methodical approach Gage had to constructing and writing the piece. How he could see the skeleton of the house beneath the shiny veneer and polished sales pitch. The way he built up to the house, how he slowly threaded the White Witch story in only for it to diverge completely into how she butchered those boys to protect her home. Then, the Monster House. Fact versus fiction. Alex’s name carved in the booth of some old video shop where creeps watched porno and his friends created a funhouse. His own writing process, the film they’d made about his previous project, the sentiment he extended towards each piece he was trying to piece together.

Unreliable narrators are fun. The Gage at the beginning of the novel versus the end was stark in contrast. His POV versus an outside perspective and a box piled with a manuscript he swears is non-fiction but somewhere along has morphed into something different. The sentiment he felt for the house and the people who these grisly acts had shaped. The letter from a bereft mother that made him question everything. Made him act.

This book was a lot of snippets and reels cross threaded together, like some sort of multi-media project. It was a perfect October read!

sparaplant's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0