Horror (sort of?) fiction about true crime (sort of?), told in Darnielle's extremely literary style. The novel is divided into several different parts, from different perspectives and in different times and places. First we have Gage Chandler, successful true crime writer, whose agent has convinced him to take on the story of several teenagers squatting in an abandoned porn store who murder the real estate agent who stumbles upon them. This happened in the 1980s, and the graffiti the teens left behind quickly turned the whole thing into a Satanic panic case. Luckily enough, the very porn store where this happened has been renovated into a nice but bland house, and Chandler decides to buy it and live there while doing his research.

Another thread focuses on those teens, particularly Derek, a high school senior who's just a bit smarter and more likely to go places than his friends, and the way those tensions play out as college comes closer and closer.

Another thread tells the story of "The White Witch of Morro Bay", Chandler's first book and the story he had the closest thing to personal stake in. A teacher accidentally murders two of her students in self-defense when they break into her apartment; her attempts to hide the bodies go to a gruesome place, which gives rise to the urban legend that she was some sort of seductress or witch, a story that Chandler grows up with on the local playgrounds.

Another thread consists of a long letter sent to Chandler by the mother of one of the two boys murdered by the White Witch; whereas the earlier section gave the sympathy and focus to her, here it switches to the dead boy.

There's also a short section that consists of a vaguely King Arthurish story, complete with faux-Malory spelling. I'm honestly not sure how this fits into the rest of the book, except that maybe it's the mythology behind the teens' graffiti, but I'm not sure of that interpretation.

And then there's a twist at the end (sort of?) that seems to cast doubt on the truth of some of what has already happened. I was honestly left mostly confused by that element – I'm genuinely not sure what readers are supposed to take away from it. I wish there was some sort of explainer on the internet for this book, or at least the ending, because I feel like I wasn't smart enough to get it.

On the plus side, I liked Devil House much better than the only other Darnielle I've read, Universal Harvester. Possibly because this one is genuinely better, but most likely because I calibrated my expectations after being disappointed once. I'm not really a fan of the sort of literary novels that leave me longing for explainers, though I love Darnielle's music enough that I keep subjecting myself to his books. At least the writing is lovely, even if I didn't always understand what it meant.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4704618336

DNF

Unfortunately, I really wasn't able to get into this one. Maybe I will try again later, but for now it doesn't seem like it's one for me

This book was amazing with one strange exception. The chapter that goes off purpose into a completely different time. Not exactly sure where that fits in, but the twists and turns of this one were enough to make me overlook that. Great book. Loved!

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (MCD) on January 25, 2022

Like all writers, true crime writers must make choices about the stories they tell. Maybe they make the wrong choices. Maybe they tell the wrong stories. Maybe they shade truth with fiction. Those thoughts underlie Devil House, a novel about a true crime writer who comes to question his craft.

The novel imagines that two significant crimes occurred in Milpitas. A teen strangled his girlfriend in 1981. Some of his friends were aware of the crime, saw the girl’s body, but said nothing about it. A movie called River’s Edge publicized the crime, raising predictable questions about the apathy of youth and suggesting the decline of civilization. Five years later, a realtor and a potential property buyer were slashed to death with a sword inside an abandoned porn shop. Teens who used the porn shop as a clubhouse may been involved. The people of Milpitas refused to talk about the crime, having suffered enough reputational damage from River’s Edge.

An editor finds the story of the porn shop murders and sends it to true crime writer Gage Chandler, whose first book — The White Witch of Morro Bay — recounted the story of two unarmed students, Jesse and Gene, who broke into the home of a female teacher with the intent to steal her property. The teacher was in the kitchen. She happened to be holding a knife when the boys entered her home. When Gene touched her breast while trying to ease the knife out of her hand, she snapped. After she finished stabbing both kids to death — while they are retreating from the home — she dismembered them in an effort to conceal the crime. The media portrayed the teacher as having groomed the kids with the intent to turn them into a human sacrifice. Chandler’s version of the truth was less sensational.

Chandler is reluctant to take on another book about teens, but he admits that the story of the porn shop murders is intriguing. He moves to Milpitas in 2001, buys the building, and recreates the murder scene because that’s the immersive method that he uses to write his books. Chandler decides to call the murder scene the Devil House. The killer was never charged; his identity remains the subject of conjecture. Or so Chandler tells the reader from time to time. The truth is obscure because, at the end of the first chapter, Chandler reveals that he has decided not to tell the story that he came to Milpitas to tell. In fact, Chandler starts the book by telling the reader that Devil House is not the true crime book he had contracted to write. It is instead “about restoring ancient temples to their proper estates.”

Chandler's reconstruction of the crime follows the owner of the porn shop, a man who is trying to remake his life in the small town, having failed in San Jose. After repeated rent increases, the owner decides to walk away from the store, leaving everything behind, knowing he’ll never get his cleaning deposit back from the landlord he despises.

Chandler then follows the teen who works in the porn shop, a seemingly ordinary kid named Derek who is finding a late high school balance between slacking and planning for an adult life. Derek keeps a key when the owner walks away from the shop. Chandler follows Derek’s friend Seth, an artistic loner who begins the project of remaking the porn shop, repurposing magazine and video covers as the tools of an art project that transforms the store into a haunted house. Chandler follows a homeless kid named Alex who begins to live in the shop, a kid who has some mental health issues and, like so many homeless people, has fallen through the cracks. Derek lets Alex stay in the shop because Derek is a decent kid.

After building a picture of the abandoned porn shop's occupants, Chandler follows his own efforts to turn his new dwelling into a crime scene. He tells of his investigation, his interviews, the documents and pictures he finds on eBay. Eventually he sorts the details into the story of two deaths. But is the story accurate? Can the truth ever be known? Do readers even want to know the truth?

The narrative pulls together several themes. More than once, we see how society throws away people who are homeless or mentally ill or poor or obviously troubled, creating a recipe for violence or despair that could be avoided by recognizing people who need help and helping them.

One chapter consists of Chandler reading a letter from Jesse’s mother, a letter that takes him to task for not telling her story, for leaving the impression that Jesse was a bad kid of her creation. That chapter could be read as an indictment of true crime writing. Even when true crime avoids sensationalism — a rare feat — even when it tunnels down to true causes of crime, it will only tell part of the story, perhaps the least important part. The mother’s lengthy letter is a controlled howl of pain from a parent who did her best and whose worthiness as a mother Chandler chose to ignore.

The final chapter, as Chandler meets up with a childhood friend who briefly lived in Milpitas, explores the malleability of memory and the dubious process of recreating the past. In that chapter, we learn that the story Chandler appears to be telling (we never see the final version) omits important facts about the crime and the killer and changes names while inventing at least one character who never existed. It seems that Chandler took liberties with the “true” part of “true crime” in the service of protecting the innocent. In any event, truth in the modern world is simply what someone chooses to believe. Truth has become the story that best fits our belief system, not the story that is best supported by verifiable facts.

The final chapter also invites discussion of “stand your ground” laws and whether they apply to squatters (they don’t, but some “stand your ground” advocates believe it’s appropriate to use violence against anyone in any location who is perceived as an intruder). The Devil House killer may have seen himself as protecting his castle from intruders. The teacher had a stronger “stand your ground” defense until she went after Jesse, who was trying to get out of the home when she killed him. If she hadn’t hacked him into pieces, she might have been acquitted.

An odd chapter called The Song of Gorbonian is the novel’s only misstep. Retelling a medieval Welsh legend, the fantasy about avenging a father’s death might have been intended to speak to issues raised by the larger narrative, but its attempt to capture an early version of English is a stylistic fail.

Fortunately, the rest of the novel is riveting and unpredictable. Its attention to detail, its focus on characters at the margin, and its philosophical exploration of truth make Devil House an impressive work.

RECOMMENDED

This was?? Awesome? Absolutely mind-bending and extremely clever and twisty. I had a great time with this (and the cover absolutely RULES). Thank you for the chance to read this!

This novel was not what I expected it to be or what I wanted it to be. I didn’t enjoy the writing style.

I was not able to finish this book. I feel that it was mis marketed. I was under the impression that it would be a horror book but it seemed to be more about the process of writing a horror book. In general, it was difficult to get through. The opening of the book seemed needlessly wordy, making it difficult to read. When the main character got into the house and started doing some research I was definitely more interested but not enough to slog through. I may pick this book up again at some point to give it another chance but right now it's not piquing my interest enough to get through it.

At time, you aren't sure whether this could be fact or fiction. The story feels like it lives in your skin and breathes from your mouth.

Interesting story and writing but I got a little lost, I think I just wasn’t reading this book in the right setting because I was expecting to like this a lot more. I will be trying it out again in the future but for now I just don’t love it.

This was a much-anticipated read for me. The writing was haunting and certainly aided the spooky vibes of the book. There were frequently changing time periods and point of view. The random stories throughout the book were a bit disorienting. Overall, I'd recommend for someone who likes to read creepy stories!

Thank you to Net Galley and MCD Publishing for letting me read an early copy of Devil House. From reading the synopsis of the book I was really intrigued to read it. After reading it I was thoroughly confused. I wasn't a fan of how it was broken up into parts. It seemed like it was separate stories and not one cohesive story. I did like a few of them and wanted more from them and others. I wasn't even sure why they were a part of it in the first place. Overall, I understood the point the author was trying to get across, but I feel like it could have been done in a better way. I would be willing to try another title from this author in the future and see if my tastes for their work changes.

This story created sparks of interest but never quite caught on fire for me. Perhaps it was the structure, the few but bloated sections (as opposed to shorter chapters, which may have accelerated the pacing), or the constantly-changing era and POV that did more to obscure than reveal. The writing has moments of true captivating prose, particularly about memory and personal history. While I appreciate what Darnielle is doing with the book, the conclusion didn't have enough of a payoff to justify the effort of getting there.

John Darnielle has a specific writing style and it's not for everyone but I'm definitely glad it's for me. I love the format this book takes and how disorienting it feels. It's the perfect book for those who love those B rate cult horror films and who are interested in true crime. I wouldn't classify it as horror but more just creepy and a good tale.

I read Universal Harvester by John Darnielle and I just don't get on with his writing. This book was convoluted and not in a good way. The time jumps and random stories do not work for this book.

I was excited to read this because I've liked the previous John Darnielle books, and with a title and cover like that, I couldn't resist wanting to check this out!

I really wanted to love this book, but I just couldn't get into it. It went in some unexpected directions, and I couldn't always follow. I'm sure there was a reason, but I felt like I couldn't understand why the story went where it did at times.

I"m not a true crime fan but I think this story made some good critiques of true crime as entertainment, and made strong points about the people who get lost or overlooked in true crime media, or who get reduced to one-dimensional characters.

This was fine, but just wasn't the book for me.

I absolutely loved Devil House. At times it feels disorienting, following the story of the house, the history, and the twists and turns, but that all seemed intentional. It wasn't at all the horror novel I was suspecting but still fantastic!

4/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, MCD for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Devil House by John Darnielle is never the book I thought it was going to be, and always something more exciting. The synopsis sells it as a fictionalized true crime novel, but Darnielle, one of the most exciting writers currently working, uses that premise as a jumping-off point to analyze our cultural obsession with true crime and who the victims of this obsession are. I know that this book will be divisive to some, but I found it to be a game-changing read that challenged and excited me in equal measure.

A slow-building, disorienting story about, Gage Chandler, a quasi-successful true crime author who goes on a unique path to research his next book. In order to learn more about a salacious, supposedly Satanic slaying Chandler moves into the home where the crime was committed. Despite what the title and cover imply, this is not a straightforward horror novel. Recommended for true crime consumers.

So Meta.

Surprisingly I enjoyed this book, and I didn't think I would because the beginning was a bit tedious but then zoom we were off to the races.

The book is split into multiple sections; the first part revolves around our true-crime writer Gage Chandler, his background, what leads him to write true crime, and the story he's about to work on Devil House. The second part is the story of The White Witch his first true crime novel, the third part is about Devil House his current true crime novel, the fourth is about the mother of one of the boys that were murdered by "The White Witch" and what Gage Chandler's book did to her, and last revolves around an old friend of Gage Chandler meeting up with the author and reading his finished Devil House book. There's also a weird bit about some King mixed in but honestly, I think the author could have deleted those chapters as it didn't add anything to the story.

Overall this book was really entertaining and different. I think the big letdown which I see in other reviews is that the advertising/promotion for this book is extremely misleading. If you go into this book thinking run-of-the-mill horror/thriller you're going to be disappointed but if you go into it thinking meta-literary fiction wrestling with the questions around true crime writers and readers and how these stories affect those touched by the crime then it delivers on all accounts.

This book was definitely not what I thought it was going to be. Be forewarned, it's not a horror book. It is full of horrible incidents, though. And it is good. It's written like a true crime novel--until it isn't. Two horrible murders have taken place in the same small town in a building called Devil House. Gage is a true crime writer who is going to buy Devil House, live in, and change the inside to look like it did during the murders. What he finds out about the murders and the way circumstances took place leads him to a place he never though he would be going--somewhere too deep within his own mind. This book really shows the toll researching and writing about true crime events can take on a person, especially when they insert themselves so deeply in the past.