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ved_z18's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
jasmine256's review against another edition
1.0
The book kept my attention for the first couple of chapters, but after that, it was all downhill. I felt like the title misled me, the story was completely different from what I thought it was going to be.
directorpurry's review against another edition
1.0
CW: spousal/partner death, attempted rape, child death
Someday I will read a historical thriller featuring archeology that doesn't make me laugh or cry for bad reasons, but today is not that day.
In the end, this was just Kit Marlowe slander/pro-Catholic Church propaganda, and I am the audience for neither. I mean, I knew very early on I wasn't going to vibe this book, but in the last 50 pages or so the villain gives a little speech about trusting in man over God and the heroine is like " :0 yOu DoN't TrUsT iN gOd?!" and I was like, "Okay, yep, I'm the villain of this story."
It wasn't poorly written by any means, but it also wasn't the best book I've ever read. I really disliked the way Elisabetta was portrayed - once you make your MC a nun, I really feel like it's inappropriate for the author or other characters to mention frequently how sexy she is.
What I really don't understand is why the Satanists (?? Lemures?? Demon-things?? idk man whatever they were) had to play such a long con. I mean, I certainly wouldn't have had the patience. It all seemed very convenient lol.
I wish this had been labeled more clearly as a Christian fiction book because then I would have quit before I started it, rather than laugh my way through.
This is another victim of the Kindle clean out saga where I read or DNF (and then usually delete) all the free books I accumulated on my Kindle when I was about 16/17.
Someday I will read a historical thriller featuring archeology that doesn't make me laugh or cry for bad reasons, but today is not that day.
In the end, this was just Kit Marlowe slander/pro-Catholic Church propaganda, and I am the audience for neither. I mean, I knew very early on I wasn't going to vibe this book, but in the last 50 pages or so the villain gives a little speech about trusting in man over God and the heroine is like " :0 yOu DoN't TrUsT iN gOd?!" and I was like, "Okay, yep, I'm the villain of this story."
It wasn't poorly written by any means, but it also wasn't the best book I've ever read. I really disliked the way Elisabetta was portrayed - once you make your MC a nun, I really feel like it's inappropriate for the author or other characters to mention frequently how sexy she is.
What I really don't understand is why the Satanists (?? Lemures?? Demon-things?? idk man whatever they were) had to play such a long con.
Spoiler
I mean, like hundreds of years ago they were like "There will be 112 popes! :P " and then did nothing about it for hundreds of years. And it all rested on a poorly planted bomb? Really? They should have started their group project sooner.I wish this had been labeled more clearly as a Christian fiction book because then I would have quit before I started it, rather than laugh my way through.
This is another victim of the Kindle clean out saga where I read or DNF (and then usually delete) all the free books I accumulated on my Kindle when I was about 16/17.
dtaylorbooks's review against another edition
4.0
THE DEVIL WILL COME switched around between present day Rome, ancient Rome and 16th century England to tell a story that was exciting, suspenseful and had me flipping the pages to find out what was going to happen next.
Actually I was a little surprised by how much I did like this book. I can’t say why; I don’t really have a good reason why it surprised me. But it did. Maybe because the main character was a nun and my sardonic religious upbringing has hindered me when it comes to just letting religion lie and let the story be told. But I was able to here and Elizabetta’s story was an interesting one and she really kept the religion to a minimum. She wasn’t interested in bearing God down on anyone or teaching anyone (aside from her students) any kind of lesson. She just was. I can get behind that.
I can also get behind her reasons for becoming a nun, which made her character more palatable to me. People turning to religion after a major personal disaster is something I’ve seen before (not to the extent of a nunnery but just becoming very religious) so I get it and I respect that. The fact that she kept it out of people’s faces and in turn stood firm in her values and beliefs despite the outside world’s pressure on her was admirable. She’s such an intelligent woman and while I do think it’s sad that she left her secular work behind she’s still in a position to keep using her intelligence and passing it on to younger generations. I liked that.
All of the history that Cooper incorporated into the story was definitely interesting. Turning the concept of the lemures into an evil force to be reckoned with was kind of neat. I like the notion of making a myth into a reality for people to fight against. Although I kind of feel bad for people who do have vestigial tails because THE DEVIL WILL COME paints them as emotionless psychopaths that are truly the work of the devil because of their tails. Granted someone like this is so incredibly rare (if the Repository of All Knowledge (Wikipedia) is to be believed then only 23 cases have been reported since 1884) I doubt it’s something that’s going to cause a stir. But it’s something I could see the church getting twisted about. The devil had a tail and now these people have tails? It’s not unfounded to have people believe their own hype in any direction.
Cooper kept the story interesting. He combined the past with the present, doomsday prophecies and political sabotage to keep the reader on their toes. Nero was a crazy guy to begin with so it’s not a stretch of the imagination to have him be involved in something like the Lemures and I liked how he was incorporated into that history. I don’t know about Marlowe as a person but hiding coded messages in his work to lend to the whole conspiracy on a grander scale was fun reading. And then it all came together in the present day as this ancient cult Voldemorted a prophecy because dammit they were going to make it all be right.
It was a fun, fast-paced read set in a place I don’t see a lot of in my readings (Rome, past and present plus the addition of the Vatican) and taking the whole religious conspiracy angle to a different place. It felt unique, not like something I’ve read before, and the ending left me wanting more. How could I not with that ending?
4
I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Actually I was a little surprised by how much I did like this book. I can’t say why; I don’t really have a good reason why it surprised me. But it did. Maybe because the main character was a nun and my sardonic religious upbringing has hindered me when it comes to just letting religion lie and let the story be told. But I was able to here and Elizabetta’s story was an interesting one and she really kept the religion to a minimum. She wasn’t interested in bearing God down on anyone or teaching anyone (aside from her students) any kind of lesson. She just was. I can get behind that.
I can also get behind her reasons for becoming a nun, which made her character more palatable to me. People turning to religion after a major personal disaster is something I’ve seen before (not to the extent of a nunnery but just becoming very religious) so I get it and I respect that. The fact that she kept it out of people’s faces and in turn stood firm in her values and beliefs despite the outside world’s pressure on her was admirable. She’s such an intelligent woman and while I do think it’s sad that she left her secular work behind she’s still in a position to keep using her intelligence and passing it on to younger generations. I liked that.
All of the history that Cooper incorporated into the story was definitely interesting. Turning the concept of the lemures into an evil force to be reckoned with was kind of neat. I like the notion of making a myth into a reality for people to fight against. Although I kind of feel bad for people who do have vestigial tails because THE DEVIL WILL COME paints them as emotionless psychopaths that are truly the work of the devil because of their tails. Granted someone like this is so incredibly rare (if the Repository of All Knowledge (Wikipedia) is to be believed then only 23 cases have been reported since 1884) I doubt it’s something that’s going to cause a stir. But it’s something I could see the church getting twisted about. The devil had a tail and now these people have tails? It’s not unfounded to have people believe their own hype in any direction.
Cooper kept the story interesting. He combined the past with the present, doomsday prophecies and political sabotage to keep the reader on their toes. Nero was a crazy guy to begin with so it’s not a stretch of the imagination to have him be involved in something like the Lemures and I liked how he was incorporated into that history. I don’t know about Marlowe as a person but hiding coded messages in his work to lend to the whole conspiracy on a grander scale was fun reading. And then it all came together in the present day as this ancient cult Voldemorted a prophecy because dammit they were going to make it all be right.
It was a fun, fast-paced read set in a place I don’t see a lot of in my readings (Rome, past and present plus the addition of the Vatican) and taking the whole religious conspiracy angle to a different place. It felt unique, not like something I’ve read before, and the ending left me wanting more. How could I not with that ending?
4
I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
speesh's review against another edition
2.0
That feeling that one day you're gonna want those hours back. The hours you spent on this one after the first time it was clear that this one turned on nasty people, with tails. After you immediately then thought, 'well, how do they sit down?' 'Do they only 'mate' with others with tails?' 'How do they find them?' Etc.
That.
You can dress it up all you like with scenes set in the Roman period of Nero's Emperorship (yes, he was as well), or sections based around (yes, him too) Christopher (though acting more like Philip) Marlowe and of course, his fantastic play 'Dr.Faustus'. Which, coincidentally, I studied at school and can actually still quote, for example "for the vain pleasure of four and twenty years, hath Faustus lost eternal joy and felicity". Which I think of often, now that I live in Denmark, because the Danish method of counting, from twenty onwards, is 'one and twenty, two and twenty, three and twenty, four and twenty...' and so on. You can dress it up all you like but what you've still got is a tale, set in Italy, in Rome, of a Nun who used to be an archaeologist, called in to investigate a find in the catacombs, of people, from the time of the birth of Christianity, who have tails. And because they are skeleton remains and it's obvious they have tails, so they are boney tails, you wonder again, 'how did they sit down?' What kind of trousers have they got on, that must clearly hide the fact of the afore-mentioned tail?' Why are people with tails all, always nasty? Because they have tails?' Instead of getting yourself involved in the book, in what I guess he would really want you to get yourself involved in.
To be brutally fair, there are passages that work well, that pack a punch, that at least make you curious about what might come next. And any book that has Christopher Marlowe in it, is worth having a look at (no, he wasn't. Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare). There could have been some other interesting angles developed. Actually, the sections involving Marlowe and Nero are reasonably interesting. But as such, are a missed opportunity to make the sections, the main part of the story, set in the here and now, more powerful. The story in the here and now is a bit of a let-down in comparison, and the book kind of peters out into a disappointingly run of the mill, race against time to prevent disaster.
Read if it's one of the three books you have with you on your desert island. Otherwise, don't.
That.
You can dress it up all you like with scenes set in the Roman period of Nero's Emperorship (yes, he was as well), or sections based around (yes, him too) Christopher (though acting more like Philip) Marlowe and of course, his fantastic play 'Dr.Faustus'. Which, coincidentally, I studied at school and can actually still quote, for example "for the vain pleasure of four and twenty years, hath Faustus lost eternal joy and felicity". Which I think of often, now that I live in Denmark, because the Danish method of counting, from twenty onwards, is 'one and twenty, two and twenty, three and twenty, four and twenty...' and so on. You can dress it up all you like but what you've still got is a tale, set in Italy, in Rome, of a Nun who used to be an archaeologist, called in to investigate a find in the catacombs, of people, from the time of the birth of Christianity, who have tails. And because they are skeleton remains and it's obvious they have tails, so they are boney tails, you wonder again, 'how did they sit down?' What kind of trousers have they got on, that must clearly hide the fact of the afore-mentioned tail?' Why are people with tails all, always nasty? Because they have tails?' Instead of getting yourself involved in the book, in what I guess he would really want you to get yourself involved in.
To be brutally fair, there are passages that work well, that pack a punch, that at least make you curious about what might come next. And any book that has Christopher Marlowe in it, is worth having a look at (no, he wasn't. Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare). There could have been some other interesting angles developed. Actually, the sections involving Marlowe and Nero are reasonably interesting. But as such, are a missed opportunity to make the sections, the main part of the story, set in the here and now, more powerful. The story in the here and now is a bit of a let-down in comparison, and the book kind of peters out into a disappointingly run of the mill, race against time to prevent disaster.
Read if it's one of the three books you have with you on your desert island. Otherwise, don't.
dharklady's review against another edition
5.0
It was amazing and very, very enjoyable!
This is the first Cooper book I have read and I can't wait for his other works. I hope there will be a sequel, as the ending may suggest.
Father Tremblay is my favourite character as Elisabetta also is. This book leaves you wondering about the Church and the evil in the world. And the historical characters story mingling with the main plot is just awesome.
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