Diavola
Written by Jennifer Marie Thorne
Read by Andi Arndt
Book 74/250
Genre: Horror
Format: Digital/Audio, ARC
Pages/Time: 296/ 10hr 11min
Published: March 26, 2024
Rating: 9.5/10
Narration: 9/10
Horror: 👻👻👻👻

“There was something careful about the energy here. Not calm, exactly. More … preserved in amber.”

Hands down one of the best “haunted house” books I have ever read! Thorne takes this horror staple and infuses it with originality and personality by centering it around one of the most terrifying prospects, an uncomfortable family vacation. From start to finish, I loved this book and am adding a new title to what I am now referring to as the Horror Renaissance.

A good haunting is only as good as the POV character(s), and this is where I think Thorne’s writing really shines. I feel like I’ve met the Pace family. They love each other but often can’t stand each other, and after a week together they are constantly bickering. This makes it even more disturbing when Thorne starts turning the screws in this picturesque Italian villa. Diavola is a brilliant take on the haunting sub-genre and already a top contender for best horror of 2024!

I would definitely recommend Diavola as a summer read. Well, maybe not for a family holiday.
The novel balances light hearted elements and even funny elements with more serious and dark themes. It does it quite well too, keeping the tension high but not unpleasant. Some moments were absolutely heartbreaking, but the overall impression is not daunting.
There is definitely a moment towards the third part of the book where it looses some of its momentum, and becomes much darker, which I did not expect or appreciate. It all comes together by the end though, and is absolutely worth making it through.

dnf

Having really liked another novel by Thorne I wanted to like this one too...but I just can't look past the author's bland horror and her depiction of Italy...

Approximately 20% in, and the horror elements feel like tired clichés, served without any pizzazz. Yet, the novel seems to operate under the belief that it is self-aware, even 'smart,' in its usage of tropes. Take, for instance, a scene where Anna, our mc, sees a figure inside the house and knows she's not 'seeing things' because “she understood angles, perspective. This shape was inside the house.” We also get creepy children, and Anna realizes only later that said children are not her nieces because they are speaking in Italian...all of this happens way too early on. Thorne is spoon-feeding us the horror instead of letting it simmer. While I understand that haunted houses/places have been thoroughly explored in the horror genre, Thorne fails to build suspense, relying instead on a series of very 101 horror elements/scenes. Sometimes, making your characters aware of a place’s wrongness from the get-go can work, but Thorne is no Jackson and lacks the skill to pull this off (in the first pages, we get a trite horror line: “<i>Someone’s in here</i>, Anna thought. <i>Listening</i>.”).

And the characters, oh, where do I begin? This type of obnoxious rich American family is everywhere in the media, and despite the promises of satirical depth, Thorne's take on the wealthy is as shallow as a puddle. The so-called "black sheep" protagonist, supposedly 'real' and unlike the rest of her shallow family, is banal, devoid of any real substance. Certainly, she does not make for a convincing problem child nor is she as interesting/relatable a figure as the narrative wants us to believe.

My biggest issue lies with the author's portrayal of Italy and her usage of the Italian language. It's baffling how little effort was put into researching or consulting actual Italians (yes, ideally more than one) for authenticity. What is it with American authors doing the bare minimum research when setting books abroad? At least consult a few people from the country/culture you are intent on representing your book in before you start writing nonsense or just piling on the stereotypes...

→ Thorne, I don't know who told you that "molto bene" is used in the way you think it's used, but they did you wrong (“She hit the galleries on Friday. L’Accademia. The Uffizi.<i> Molto bene</i>. Overwhelming in the best way.”...?)

→ The protagonist tells us that her Italian 'accent' is good (“Her actual facility with Italian wasn’t nearly as good as her accent.”) when surely it should be pronunciation?

→ A few pages in and we already have stereotypes such as Italians being bad drivers, and Italian men being don juans (leering at women/making inappropriate advances)

→ The description of the villa tries hard to convey an understanding of architecture and interior design but it comes across as name-dropping (“alfresco dining”...). Sure, the narrative tries to be sort of self-aware, as the villa is described as “[M]ore Epcot Italy than the real thing”, but it ultimately fails to pull this off as it immediately flexes its art history knowledge: “And yet there was something idiosyncratic about Villa Taccola. The whole house suggested pentimenti,”. And I failed to be amused by a bathroom being described as “you know, a bathroom—” (why bother including this? is this a house tour? 75 questions with vogue?). Thorne's grasp of Italian art and architecture consists of an overuse of the term "Romanesque".

→ And let's not forget the baffling detail of Anna serving herself a "cold prosecco" – because apparently, warm and/or room temperature prosecco is a common occurrence for this moneyed woman who claims to be an enthusiast of Italian culture.

→ Anna's Italian is so good supposedly that when she goes for a drink in a restaurant, she is given an Italian menu (her companions are given English menus)...I do not believe that for a second. Saying a few words in Italian won't magically make Italians give you an Italian menu. I don't get given Italian menus. The waitress somehow compliments her on her translation skills (“Anna translated for the others as best she could, rewarded with a “<i>molto bene</i>” and a wink from the waitress, ”)...but how would she know whether Anna's translation was good or not if she spoke little/no English? And if she did speak English she would not be talking in Italian to Anna, despite the latter (claiming) to know enough Italian to get by.

→ We have a scene of Anna, her brother, Benny, and his bf going into ‘Monteperso’ and passing a tabaccheria/BAR with “four sour-faced Italian men of indeterminate age leaning on the building and smoking cigarettes, seemingly in silence. They all turned to stare at the car as it approached, unsmiling. Benny gave a neighborly wave. They didn’t react. Not even to shift weight.”; 1st of all, if there are no tables outside, would they really be standing outside a tabaccheria to smoke? They would go to a bar with tables outside or a bench or whatever. Also, they would definitely be talking to each other. 2ndly, they wouldn’t be so blank-faced. if anything, if it's an area with little tourism, the locals would look puzzled by the sight of tourists/non-locals; the only instances where they would look more antagonistic is if the tourists in question were to be POC (but Anna & co are white so...here it makes 0 sense other than going for that 'there be strangers' horror trope); 3rdly…waving? What the fuck do you expect? For these elderly men to wave back? When I worked in Venice, I found waving tourists obnoxious, often they seemed uncaring of their surroundings (pushing people aside or getting too close to others), and excepted what…the locals to entertain them? Is this a zoo? An amusement park? Do the locals 'owe' you anything?

→ And don't even get me started on the overuse of "pentimento". It reminds me of how people (especially dabblers of artspeak) like to misuse/overuse 'chiaroscuro'. I understand that the word pentimento sounds cool to non-Italians, and the whole concept will certainly have an ‘edge’, but goodness me don't use it as a metaphor to describe things that have nothing to do with it. Sure, you can use art terms as metaphors for other things, but here, Thorne does it so much it just comes across as obnoxious, and especially ridiculous to an Italian speaker.

Oh I love when books surprise me right out of a slump. Spooky and dysfunctional perfection. The only thing I found unbelievable was that anyone could actually speak Italian after learning it on Duolingo.

(3.5 ⭐️) Many thanks to @dreamscape_media for the #gifted free copy of this book.

Horror mixed with family dysfunction. Extra scary, right?

A vacation to Italy sounds delightful to most, but with Anna’s family it’s more like a toxic nightmare. They constantly question her. Judge her. Badger her. And she gets the blame for anything that goes wrong. Yet, they need her and rely on her.

In the history of families, Anna’s might be the absolute worst. (Be forewarned!)

Add to that a gothic villa with a violent past and a ghost set on retribution, and you’ve got one doozie of a horror story.
As I read, I couldn’t decide if I was more afraid of the murderous apparition or Anna’s mom and sister! If only I could’ve gone through the pages and punched someone! The drama often offset the horror for me, making me more annoyed than terrified.
Truly, I found myself conflicted for most of the read.

But then there was that ending! It revealed a cleverness within the premise that satisfied in a way I hadn’t expected.

This is one of those books that begs for discussion, and I am so glad that my friends, @reading.with.my.goldens and @readbyregan, talked this one through with me. It made me more appreciative of the elements and how they shined in that ending.

🎧 The audiobook is THE way to go. The narration by Andi Arnt lured me in and quickly took hold. She excelled in giving the main character a nuanced voice while accentuating the creepiness of the storyline. In those moments when I questioned the premise, it was Arnt’s voice that kept me hanging on just a little longer... until I finished the book.

This one just didn’t live up to my expectations. It was way more family drama than horror. I hated the characters and felt that the way they treated the protagonist was so terrible it felt unrealistic. I think I ended up DNFing it around 60% because I just wasn’t at all invested in it. What little page-time was devoted to the supernatural elements wasn’t compelling. I was expecting more creepy haunting and less over-the-top drama. I’m sure there’s an audience for it, but it just wasn’t good for me.

This story has all of the ingredients for a great, gothic horror story: a remote villa that’s hundreds of years old, set in a remote countryside of Italy, with a tower you’re forbidden to enter, strange noises, doors slamming, the guests coming home to disarray, warnings from the villagers and so, so much more. Unfortunately for me, I never got that delicious, don’t look over your shoulder feeling. I think the biggest reason is the main character’s inner dialogue. It felt unrealistic to me, and sometimes cheesy, which almost made it feel like satire rather than horror. As for the rest of her family, they are just so awful that it again made the story feel satirical rather than terrifying. It just didn’t give me the chills like I was expecting from a gothic horror novel.

This was a really solid audio book. The narrator's voice is nice and easy to listen to, their Italian wasn't bad (or at least not noticeably incorrect) either which helps! Character's had unique voices without it being overbearing or silly. They matched the tone of this title well.

While this is more a review of the audio book rather than the content of the novel, the book itself was overall good too. There were some moments that struck me as being almost too topical that it pulled me out of the story (referencing the This is Fine dog meme for example) and I think that the time allotted in each location could've been adjusted. There were truly terrifying moments and chilling realizations but I wishwe could've sat with longer, but overall I enjoyed this title a lot. Very spooky and atmospheric.

Diavola on audio was as haunting of a travel companion as I have ever had. I started it during a sandstorm in Monument Valley, driving home from a family vacation in Sedona. The immediate family strife piqued my interest and before I knew it, I was invested.

It continued holding my hand from Arizona, trough Utah and sat with me as I flew on a plane to Florida. For those of you that read it, the story oddly lined up with my own travels and had me watching for strange occurrences in our older vacation rental.

Diavola was present as I witnessed my first 5am rocket launch from the beach near Cape Canaveral and whispered its sweet final words into my headphones somewhere in the sky as I traveled back from vacation.

I found the family almost as frightening as the haunts and it strangely settled some of my own anxiety. I feel that the writer possibly emerged from this dark voyage a lighter, happier version of herself. I know I did.

A lot has been happening in horror recently and I feel this book is right on the pulse of new horror expansion. It’s beautifully written and pushes the boundaries of what can be done with traditional horror. I look forward to whatever story she chooses to explore next.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 and counting..

And Italy? It only made me want to visit more.
Xoxo.

Diavola! Devil! I feel like an exclamation mark was missing from this title 😂 I enjoyed the use of the possession metaphor in this, but the family drama was A LOT at the beginning and I did almost dnf it haha. I'm so happy I didn't! I think this would be a fun read when your vacay with your annoying family this summer🤪

Thanks Netgalley, for this arc!

couldn’t get into the writing style or story. thank you to the publisher & netgalley for a copy of the audio arc!

Dysfunctional wealthy family goes on vacation in Italy only to have the crap scared out of them? Count me in. I really enjoyed Diavola, the “unlikable” narrator holds a special place in my heart. I was gripping my seat towards the end to see how it would all wrap up and can say I am very satisfied by the ending. A solid read for any horror fan.

Y’all, this was such a fun read! I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I turned the last page. It started out very much in the horror realm, but then unexpectedly morphed into this unsettling and twisted black comedy. I guess I didn’t read the Goodreads tags closely enough because I wasn’t expecting this to be cheeky and humorous, and it really caught me off guard (in a good way)!

The horror in this book is twofold—first with the ghost story and the creepy haunted villa, and second with the family-vacation-from-hell dynamic. The tension between family members combined with the thick, oppressive atmosphere of the villa made for an edginess and anxiety that I could feel in my whole body.

And the setting was so perfect for this. Italy has such a rich history of superstition and folklore, and it gave the book an extra layer of credibility. Plus, for me, it was just really cool to be able to picture the different locations in Florence and greater Tuscany, having just been there myself. (But now I’m just bragging…) It made me want to go back so bad!! 😫😫

The audio was perfect and the narrator was exactly the right voice to drive this all the way home. I’ll definitely be look for her in the future.

This book would make a fantastic vacation or beach book. But be prepared for it to be intense, especially if you happen to be on vacay with family… this might just push you over the edge. Oh, and I’d steer clear of the red wine if I were you…

4.5 stars. Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorn - You know what, when your entire family treats you like crap and thinks you're crazy... I have no idea why you would even try to save them from a haunted Italian villa 🤷‍♀️ #byefelicia is all I'd have to say. Really enjoyed this book, though.

Diavola has been one of my most anticipated reads for 2024 ever since I saw the cover last year. I mean look at it - stunning! I was surprised when it ended up not being what I was expecting. There was so much more to this story than the creepy, haunted villa, and I had such a fun time reading this.

I would say this book was more creepy and unsettling than a true horror - unless you are talking about the horrors of toxic family relationships. Wow, I could not imagine going on any sort of vacation with Anna’s family! All of the terrors inflicted upon Anna by her family (and the ghosts) made her easy to root for, even in her not so fine moments. I loved the author’s writing style and thought it was very clever to set this story in picturesque Italy. The juxtaposition of the haunted villa and beautiful Italy really heightened the creepiness and feelings of unease. It was so easy to lose myself in the story, and I finished it quickly. The only thing that keeps this from being a full 5 stars is that I didn’t think the second half of the story was as strong as the first.

I read this via audiobook and it was a great experience. The narrator really captured the feelings of uneasiness throughout the story and she gave life to all the characters, especially Anna.


Thank you to NetGalley and DreamScape Media for a review copy.

Diavola: A Vacation From Hell Where Family is the True Horror

Jennifer Thorne's "Diavola" isn't your typical haunted house story. It's a vacation to hell wrapped in a family drama. This book rocketed to the top of my "Most Anticipated" list for a reason, and it absolutely delivers.

Thorne masterfully skewers the all-too-familiar dysfunction of family vacations. We've all been there: the passive-aggressive siblings, the judgmental parents, the desperate need for escape. Thorne takes these universal experiences and injects them with a wicked dose of dysfunction, making you gasp even as you cringe in recognition.

The gorgeous Tuscan villa hides a dark secret, and the haunting that unfolds is genuinely terrifying. The atmosphere is thick with dread, and the scares are masterfully crafted. Just when you think you know what's coming, Thorne throws a curveball, keeping you guessing until the very end.

Prepare to be surprised, horrified, and utterly entertained. "Diavola" is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house trope, exploring themes of loneliness, belonging, and the inescapable grip of family history.

Here's why you NEED to read Diavola:

Family dynamics (scapegoating unlike anything I've seen!): You'll laugh until you cry (or maybe strangle a family member – no judgment).
Genuine scares: The haunting is no joke, and the villa's dark past will send shivers down your spine.
A fresh take on a classic trope: Forget dusty old mansions – this haunted vacation rental is a breath of fresh air (well, maybe not so fresh...).
Themes that resonate: Explore the complexities of family bonds and the search for belonging.

Warning: This book may trigger feelings of irritation, dread, and despair... but hey, that's just like a real family vacation, right? So grab your copy of Diavola, settle in for a wild ride, and just pray the ghosts (or your family) don't get you first!

I DNF at approx 1/3 into this one just because I found it slow and not really advancing in a way I was enjoying.

I loved:
-the Italian setting
-the creepy house
-the family tension sometimes made me laugh

I didn't love:
-the speed things were moving forward
-how mean the family was to each other
-I wanted more spooky horror

This had a lot of potential but just wasn't doing it for me!

Thanks to Tor Nightfire and Macmillan audio for a copy of this book.

What a tense and terrifying novel!

Anna’s family plans a vacation in a Tuscan villa. Anna has always been a black sheep, accused of being a chaos agent within the family, never trusted.

The family angst is so chillingly real. Each member subjects Anna to micro aggressions, hostility, long-held grudges and subtle accusations, which builds the tension even as the haunted villa plays its own head games with the family.

This is a well-crafted ghost story and Anna is a modern anti-hero. I freaking loved her. She is flawed, fierce and fiesty. And the ghost is absolutely horrifying.

Arndt’s narration captures Anna’s youthful snark perfectly. Her narration added to the tension and terror as this novel ratcheted higher and higher as Anna is haunted into her own living Hell.

A twisty, thrilling horror novel. Highly recommended!

Thank you @NetGalley and @Dreamscape_Media for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

“I’m not a lost lamb. I’m the black sheep.” 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

It’s vacation time with the Pace family, and our main character, Anna, is reluctantly meeting the rest of her family in Italy to stay at a villa. Anna is a free spirit and entirely different from the rest of her family; she’s also, infuriatingly, the punching bag.

This story is both a tale about a toxic and dysfunctional family and a tale about a super creepy Italian villa. It all fits quite well, and unlike most horror stories, nothing feels gratuitous. There’s just the right amount of drama, eerie and disturbing moments, and character development. The balancing act between dialogue, character development, spooks, and gore is masterfully done. There’s also a ton of Italian history that absolutely immersed me into the setting.

The family drama had me rooting for Anna until the last page, especially coupled with her haunting experiences and her dark wit. Anna was THAT BITCH, and some people may say this dragged, but I loved every unhinged moment.

This was darkly funny, sent shivers down my spine, and I was deeply invested in Anna’s family relationships. There were a few twists that left me shook, and the ending and epilogue couldn’t have been done better. Sometimes books like these fall flat at the very end, but I think this was perfect. I definitely recommend this as a summertime horror read!

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for this ARC & finished copy. Many thanks to Dreamscape Media as well, the audiobook was well done and a delight to listen to!

Ok this book is ANGERING. I don't even have that much family trauma, all things considered, and this book was freaking triggering. If your family treats you like garbage, maybe do not read this book.

Diavola follows Anna on her family trip to Tuscany shortly after ending things with her partner. She is very clearly not the favorite child of the family, and you get to spend the story experiencing her trip and her family. Things start happening that don't really make sense, and this just adds an extra wrench into everything.

Honestly I did not enjoy this book because the family dynamics are infuriating. However, the mystery of what the hell was going on was so intriguing I kept listening. The family is meant to be infuriating, so the book cleary did its job. Regardless, it felt second-hand triggering for me and I didn't want to finish for that reason. I am so conflicted in how to rate this! I wouldn't recommend it to people, but I also will tell people it was good! This is such a mindf*ck I feel like I'm being gaslit by Anna's sister all over again.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.