Reviews

Devil House: A Novel by John Darnielle

kmichaelis55's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

nina_bloodsworn's review against another edition

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tense slow-paced

2.5

That was quite the challenge for me. The narrative choices and the fragmented parts were very hard to follow to the point I had no idea what this should have been about. 
I didn't feel any connections to the characters or the plot unfortunately.


babydisko's review against another edition

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challenging slow-paced

4.25

sketterer's review against another edition

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4.0

Big 4.5, will be thinking about this for a while

lonelyghostie's review against another edition

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3.0

honestly really divided on how to rate this book. some parts of this book are so good and made me genuinely emotional, but then some parts drove me to almost dnf this book. i completely skipped part four because i couldn’t bring myself to care about gorbo or whatever in the midst of everything. 

the devil house case is really the least compelling part of this book and it just doesn’t add anything to the conversation about the exploitative nature of true crime content. i’m sure there’s a two hour youtube video out there with better discourse on true crime. 

ghoulythings's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

2.75

coleridgegirl's review against another edition

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3.0

Had the feel of a pulpy 70s horror despite being written in the 2000s. In a good way, but only if you like pulpy, I guess!

jamesworth's review against another edition

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2.0

Incredibly dense, longer than it needed to be with an ending that makes you question what the point of it all was and then answer is there may not be a point at all.

chibin00b's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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

sarahsadiesmith's review against another edition

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4.0

I'm going to concede defeat on spooky adjacent books this month. This one was good until it wasn't. Reminded me a little of Eliza Clark's Penance (which is a definite 5/5) and there were parts of it I very much loved. He explores the idea of what storytelling is, the infallibility of memory, the spin put on a story depending which characters perspective it's being told from. How you can be sympathetic to one side and give a completely different narrative to the other. I've been feeling a bit like a leper in certain situations lately. And a fair portion of this book resonated with me. A chunk of the book was also a bit of a mess and there's an unnecessary tangent that shouldn't be there at all. If you read it skip part 4, unfathomable to me that an editor wouldn't have just cut that section and it's inclusion annoyed me enough that it tainted the rest of my time with the book. It's still a 4/5 but just disappointing as it could have been tremendous. Which almost makes it worse.