*Thank you to Farrar, Strous, and Giroux, John Darnielle, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Previously published at https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/devil-house/

“Superstition prevails, fear that the fragile unfinished something will shatter, vanish, revert to the nothing from which it was made.”― Joan Didion, Let Me Tell You What I Mean

Devil House by John Darnielle is not a horror novel. Let me repeat that. This is not a horror novel. While the outstanding cover depicts horror in its retro way, this is a book about a book being written as a horror story. I have never read a book as unique as this one. Sometimes Darnielle’s voice changes and sometimes the story changes completely to another story. There are many times when I wondered if I missed something. But because it is a book about a book, the reader must pay attention.

This book is complicated and, at best, confusing. There are times in the book where the story is moving along at a great pace and then boom; there is a different story being told. I imagine John Darnielle writing several stories at once and merging them together to make Devil House. The reader is never quite sure what it is they are reading. The brilliance of it, of course, is that it does all come together at the end to make one solid story with a sad but triumphant ending.

Gage Chandler, a true-crime writer, has an amazing opportunity to move into the “Devil House” in the small town of Milpitas, California. A house where two murders took place back in the 1980s. He is working on a true-crime book about these murders and will investigate while living in the house. And so begins the “Devil House” story about two boys named Derrick and Seth who hang out in an abandoned porn shop. They narrate the book in third person and the perspectives alternate between Derrick and Seth, and then Alex, a homeless boy who sleeps in one of the “booths”. The stories of the boys who hang out in the porn shop, and Gage’s own book, but also stories about his ancestors, alternate throughout the book. Again, pay attention or you may get lost! The book feels like a work in progress at times and I felt like I would have enjoyed it more had the writing been more streamlined. That being said, John Darnielle has a unique writing style which I enjoyed. His depiction of the porn store and what it looked like after Derrick, Seth, and Alex were done with it will stay in my head for a long time. The stories all feel equally intense and “horror” like.

This book is definitely a “thought-provoking” commentary on storytelling, and what telling that story might do to the author in his own life. It is a very slow ride, with a ton of surprises throughout. Devil House is my first book by John Darnielle and I will definitely look into other books he has written.

I'm 63% through this tome and giving up now.

I wanted a good fictional true crime ghost story and instead this felt like reading a long boring book report about history with a touch of murder.🤷🏻‍♀️

Probably unpopular opinion, but the writing dragged on for me and I got so bored and didn't care about anything happening.

DEVIL HOUSE by John Darnielle is about a true crime author researching two cases that occurred in the same town. True crime fans might enjoy this and find some interesting ideas in here. Darnielle is a strong writer, using interesting images and evocative language to convey the ideas in the book, as well as some unusual narrative devices. This is the kind of book that a reader would want to take their time reading to get the full effect, but some might find it too disjointed and meandering.

This is a very difficult book for me to review. I went into this book with a different expectation than I walked away with. Gage is a true crime writer. When he writes a book he immerses himself in the story, living in the town, even as far as buying the properties these crimes happened on. This is where he ends up in Milpitas, Ca home of the Devil House.

What I wanted to read was something like the movie Sinister starring Ethan Hawke. BTW…if you like a good horror flick and have not seen this, this is about at creepy as it comes. This is not the story we got. The author gives a non-linear story about Gage, of course the history of the crime, and other stories that he brings into this story that does not necessarily fit the narrative. Even more surprising he takes a surprise turn in the last section, that I am not sure worked.

This was a pretty dry book, and therefore making this very hard for me to review. While I was engaged in the book the entire time, it never got to a place where I wanted to be, just kind of ho, hum. Gage is a very interesting character, borderline obsessive at times, even goes as far as decorating the house to the look like the original house in the 1980’s. More than anything I wanted more about Gage than the actual premise of this book.

This book is intriguing at times, and might be the perfect book for a book club, because I think there just might be enough to discuss in group format. Just missed the mark a little for me on the high expectations I had for this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars. Devil House is an original, fascinating, but ultimately unsatisfying novel. This book is being marketed as horror (and the awesome retro cover seems to back that up), but readers should know going in that it most definitely is not a horror novel.

I think I understand what John Darnielle was trying to do with this novel, and I certainly appreciate his experimental approach to storytelling and structure. Using a nested narrative structure that tells several stories simultaneously, Devil House is cleverly-crafted metafiction about a true crime writer ruminating on his life and career and the cases he's researched. I took it as a critique of the true crime genre itself, specifically the sensationalistic aspects that become the focus for writers of the genre and entertainment for consumers of the genre -- often at the expense of real people and their real lives. The ways in which he explores these elements are unique and unsettling.

Unfortunately, although there are certainly moments of brilliance in Devil House, it never came together as a cohesive novel for me. It's meandering and densely philosophical, going off on tangents for pages (or, in one instance, an entire chapter) about topics that don't really have anything to do with the plot. It felt a bit indulgent after a while, and made for some exhausting reading that, eventually, left me indifferent about the ultimate outcome; I just kept plodding along for no other reason than to finish the book. I was hoping everything would come together for me in the end, but it just didn't.

This book is about the thruthiness of true crime fiction. I have no interest in that genre, and this didn’t make me more inclined to read it. It is really kind of a garbled mess. There are 2 crimes investigated by the protagonist, Gage Chandler, a true crime author. One involves the unsolved murder-by-sword of two people in a porn store. The other involves the killing and dismembering of two teenaged burglars. There is also an incomprehensible section about the mythical Gorbonian, written in olde English. It is unbearable. Some people have actually shelved this book as horror. Boy are they wrong. No horror here, just author navel gazing.

I received a free copy of this book from the publishe

Long, and at times that felt daunting the format j read it in (kindle) but j loved the story. So we’ll written, creepy. Would be a perfect fall book!

“What happens when somebody tells a story that has real people in it? What happens to the story; what happens to the teller; what happens to the people?”

The story is about a true crime author, Gage, who focuses on telling the stories of real people while covering events that unfolded and conversations left unspoken. John Darnielle creatively employs a mirrored writing structure using first-, second- and third-person narratives to create a book within a book. The narrative sidebars from the author and the section headers require more attention. I was confused by overlap from Gage’s life story as a descendant from kings and the history of the Devil House. Darnielle’s ambitious (at times tedious) storytelling goes beyond any investigative true crime podcast from Wondery. This was a memorable medium-paced read and meticulously written with intent to question true crime media consumption. Do we want always a full story even, if parts are fabricated, and if so, what are the consequences?

Thank you @netgalley and @fsgbooks for this advance reader copy by a local Durham, NC author/musician. I look forward to reading Darnielle’s backlist.

Devil House is a creative, well-written novel, but it left me cold. The storyline is about a true crime writer, Gage Chandler, whose publisher suggests that he move into the "Devil House" in order to live and breathe the atmosphere while he writes a new book. The Devil House is in Milpitas, California, and is the site of a grisly murder of the building's owner and a potential buyer in the 1980s. At the time of the murders, the building was a retail space whose most recent tenant sold porn. The owner had vacated but left all of his stock in place. The murders were blamed on disaffected teens and satanic rituals. Prior to his investigation of the Devil House, Gage Chandler had one hit novel to his name, which spawned a semi-popular movie. That case was known as The White Witch and involved a young, single teacher and two teens, also in California.

Devil House attempts to tell three stories in one novel. In the present we meet Chandler and follow along as he builds the story he plans to tell about Devil House. At the end of his experience in Milpitas, he runs into an old childhood friend and gives this friend a copy of the yet-to-be-published book. In doing so, the reader gets to go back in time to experience the Devil House murders first-hand. In another section of the novel, we learn the story of The White Witch, which I personally found more interesting.

For me, the central question of the novel Devil House was is it good enough to tell a true crime story factually or does every true crime story need to be crafted by the author to enhance the reader's experience. For example, does an audience need the stereotypes of "the quiet, kept-to-himself neighbor" or "the good student" or "the troubled youth" in order to be successful?

To be honest, I was never invested in any of the characters of Devil House. It started out very slowly, and then the author began time and POV jumping. One section of the novel is written in first person, another in second person, and a third in third person. I found the changing perspectives to be off-putting although I appreciated the author's skill in keeping all the balls he was juggling in the air.

My thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me an eARC in exchange for publishing an honest review.

Thank you to MCD books and Netgalley for the advanced copy. In "Devil House," by John Darnielle, a true crime writer moves into the house where a gruesome murder took place and which will be the subject of his next book.

The title and basic premise make this story sound like a horror novel. But it's not. There are horrifying moments. There is violence and murder. But this isn't a horror novel despite the setup.

Instead, Darnielle takes the story into a different territory. One that examines the consequences and aftermath of true crime for entertainment. Very early in the story our main character "Gage describes leaving a movie premiere embarassed by how a story was adapted for the screen. That movie also makes his career and we are regularly told about the financial benefits. The conflict between how a story is told and how we benefit from it run through these pages in unexpected ways.

At some points, I wasn't sure of what to think while reading this one. There are moments that I found genuinely confusing. But the second half grabbed me and demanded that I keep going. I felt real tension and dread as I read the last section's title a moment where my brain said "oh, no." But even then I was surprised and rewarded for sticking with it. It took me an evning to digest what I had just read. What a great book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

If you enjoy binging gritty crime documentaries, you will fly through this book.

3.5 stars.

My rating doesn't properly reflect all that I enjoyed. I'm struggling to break this down into what I didn't like so much because it's simply very well written. The atmosphere was clear, bold, and purposeful. The generations of history soaked into this story were engrossing. In one day, I had this audiobook on doing every task thinkable just to keep it running. Each turn of this book had me engaged to no end.

Some parts I found to be stronger than others. It's fascinating when reading for long periods of time, but when split up it lost my focus. Luckily, I read it in twenty-four hours and could remember where we were in the timeline.

Where this seems to fall in the middle of a rating is the fact that I know I won't remember this story. There are definitely parts that will stick with me, but not enough to gain a higher rating. This is an atmospheric and semi-plot-focused story that lacked an attachment of characters from switching around so often.

John Darnielle has created an enriched story. Devil House is a promising tale everyone should experience.

TWO-CENT TUESDAY

Below are a few (somewhat) brief $.02 opinions about books I've read or listened to recently but don't have the opportunity to review in full. Many of these titles I enjoyed as much or more than those that got the full court press. I hope you'll consider one or two for your own TBR stack if they strike your fancy whether they struck mine or not.

Devil House, John Darnielle

If there's one thing I'm sure of in this life, it's that John Darnielle is something of a mad genius and he's so much smarter than me I can only hope to hang on 'til he's done weaving his magic. Devil House is a crazypants load of fun on multiple levels, some of which escaped me but did nothing to lessen my enjoyment. Author Gage Chandler writes true crime, and while he's had success, he can't turn down the offer to write about a grisly murder scene while living in the Milpitas, Ca., house where the crime took place. While Chandler dives into the story and researches the facts, the POV and timeframe change, revisiting other crimes Chandler wrote about and, well, other spoilery things. While there is a short section in the middle about a medieval king I never quite figured out, the fact of it is fascinating. This book screams for a discussion group, particularly where it comes to the wider themes of true crime writing and the ethics and morality of writing about the lives of real people suffering from tragedy. Layers upon layers make this a puzzle, but a creative and satisfying read no matter how much of the onion you can unwrap.

3.5 stars
Following true crime author, Gage Chandler as he begins a new project, Devil House spans across two books written by our main character- Devil House and The White Witch (the book that really propelled Gage's career). The book is one I would describe best as a fictional story about true crime as a genre and the relationship the author creates between themselves and the crime that they end up profiting off of. It was a well written story that both allowed and expected you to be critiquing the motives and actions of the main character as he discussed his work and interacted with characters affected by it. I would say that the main/only downside was the fact that the beginning half did meander quite a bit, leaving that portion to feel as though it was dragging along at several points. The story isn't really fast paced and while that did lend to some tension as the book approached big events that we knew were going to happen- it also did lead to some sections feeling a bit drawn-out. The structure was unique and for the most part well executed, but there were just a few moments that felt as though they went on for longer than necessary which took away a bit from my enjoyment. Aside from that, it was well-written and interesting, one chapter in particular which focuses on a letter written to Gage by the mother of one of the victims from The White Witch case was very well done and brought to question the morality of true crime in a very compelling way. All in all, Devil House is a book that I enjoyed, especially in the way it discussed true crime and left me constantly questioning the actions and motives of the main character. The structure was a bit unpolished but still suited the purpose of the story well and I look forward to reading more books from John Darnielle in the future.

With a spooky title and a creepily nostalgic cover, I was really excited to read this one. It's my first experience with the author's writing - although I did receive one of his earlier novels as a gift, though I haven't read it yet. The premise here sounded intriguing, too - a true crime author is prompted by his publisher to move into a house in Milpitas, CA where a brutal slaying of a landlord and potential buyer took place in the mid-1980s. Faux-true crime books have become something of a subgenera in their own right recently - but after finishing this one, I wouldn't really put this one in that category... This is a hard read to categorize, honestly. It certainly isn't the horror novel that the cover suggests - nor is a mystery/thriller like the description hints at. Instead, it is a sort of rambling, oddly structured and experimental piece of literary fiction...

It starts out fairly straightforward, but keeps turning in different directions that frankly get stranger and stranger as well as less and less organized. I actively disliked the sections supposedly from the main characters' first true crime book - those for some reasons are in an odd second-person perspective that I loathed. The story shifts to the current book that he's working on - with rambling and frankly odd side-trips that make the book hit an all together different rhythm. Then, it shifts yet again which changes the narrator and in some ways the nature of the preceding pages...

To be honest, I wish that I had set this one aside when I got to the first second-person-perspective section that I disliked... I really found this to be off-putting. And I am sure that this is in large part because I had such massively different expectations of what this novel would be than what it actually delivered. I think that the book does make some very relevant points here that I am sure book clubs and discussion groups could use to really dive into questions of genre, storytelling, memory recall, the different eras and the impact of true crime in general. But, the way this unfolded was just in a format that I didn't find to be entertaining or enjoyable to read. I think that if I had different expectations, maybe I would have enjoyed this one more, but frankly - I wish that I had skipped this one.

Our story follows Gage Chandler, a small-time true crime novelist who's moving into the infamous Devil House. Devil House has lived many lives: A small dinette, a porn store, a crime scene. Gage is taking up residency due to the latter, a bizarre double-murder most likely committed by one of three teens in the 80's. While Chandler is more than excited to dive into the research so he can receive his big break, some of the pieces aren't fitting. Things aren't adding up. Intertwining past and present, Chandler has some heavy information to sift through before his novel is complete--if only he can piece this puzzle together.

I feel it should be a law that if a cover looks ominous and spooky that the book has to match that vibe. Unfortunately, Devil House did not. This novel doesn't conform to one genre: multiple themes are explored that make the read feel more like a work of non-fiction rather than a story about fictional murders. The writing is flowery and very much overkill the majority of the time. I often felt like the book was being narrated by a pretentious college professor, especially during portions where the teens were interacting with one another. It felt very strange, like the writing style and the plot weren't matching up. Along with this, I felt that the ending was cheap and unnecessary. I'm assuming that the point was to have readers think more critically about true crime and true crime media. These creators profit off of people's pain, which was outlined beautifully in the letter from Jesse's mom but, the ACTUAL ending made me almost want to cackle. While it's extremely important that true crime content creators are scrutinized, I feel the situation he created was highly unrealistic, if someone wanting to be taken seriously in a true crime community pulled what Gage did they would simply be shunned and shamed. This reminded me of when Crime Junkie Podcast plagiarized work; they were called out for it mercilessly (rightfully). Is it ambitious? Yes! Is it evident it was extremely well crafted? Yes! Is it enjoyable? Eh. I was looking for something frightening and this is not. I would recommend if you're looking for a philosophical-eqsue work about true crime/true crime fiction but, not if you're a horror reader like myself.

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but I did that, and now I have big regrets. The cover of Devil House is an eye catcher. I thought I was about to dive into a horror story, something spooky and haunted. It's reminiscent of a throwback for sure. I was super excited after just seeing it. Sadly, Devil House was more of a true-crime story... kinda? It is a bit hard to categorize. Devil House is commentary on True Crime. It was a trip reading the book, you get an inside look at how true crime is written. Which was cool, but the story it self trips you up because of the multiple narrators. I found myself having to go back multiple times and read pages multiple times just to keep track of who was talking at any given moment. If you have the attention span then I highly recommend reading Devil House. If you can't focus this is not the book for you. I though the story line was cool enough though and the book itself was well written was reason enough to push me to the end of the story.

Devil House is a genre bending book, combining elements of horror, true crime and literary fiction. Blurring fiction and non fiction, Devil House follows Gage Chandler, a true crime writer with recent success. Gage moves into a house coined the "Devil House" to write about a series of murders aligned with the Satan Panic craze in the 80s.

The cover is beautiful and perfectly nestled itself into the hands of those who appreciate dark topics. The writing is exquisitely composed,

Though it’s visually delightful, don’t be fooled by the kitschy retro horror novel cover. This book isn’t Horror. It isn’t really even a mystery. It’s something much more interesting and tougher to categorize.

I’ll warn readers that if you’re looking for a clean, neat mystery with a clear cut solve, this probably isn’t the book for you. The story is more of a meditation on True Crime, the writing of it, the consuming of it as a reader or audience member, and what the responsibilities are of those who create it and those who digest it.

Darnielle makes this point in a way that is admittedly a little frustrating as we creep toward what we expect to be the big reveal, but it’s in that frustration that Darnielle achieves the goal he set out to meet in writing this novel. If this sounds a little vague it’s because I’d rather you wonder than spoil the author’s masterful bait and switch.

Though plot-wise it isn’t what most of us would have wanted, it’s structurally fascinating and poignant, particularly as the True Crime fad rages across popular culture. If you want more on the “why” of Darnielle’s construction of this story, there’s a great interview on LitHub where he provides some insight without spoiling his book’s ending for those reading the piece before the novel.

In the end it’s better if you don’t become too invested in the plot, particularly in a character driven sense, but I still loved the Stand By Me vibes of the tale of Devil House, and the book-within-a-book theme is masterfully rendered in the story.

Special thanks to Farrar, Status and Giroux and to NetGalley for the arc of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Boy was I excited for this book. I was thinking horror/thriller and a story about an author who moves into this house where murder and The Satanic Panic of the 80's and find out what happened there. It was promoted as a horror/thriller but 400 somewhat pages, I just couldn't get into this ook. It was so long winded and strange, the author skipping back and forth in time and the changing the narrative. I think what John Darnielle was going for were how people in a true crime story suffer, the victims, the victim's families, or something like that. This reads like a true.crime story, and I was fighting my way through some very strange medieval castle times thrown in there for what reason I still dont know but it was tiresome and I found myself skimming. Just as I thought it was getting somewhere it switched up so much, I couldn't find the story I was promised.

Maybe it's my fault and was tricked or misunderstood the blurb, but the only thing I enjoyed was the atmospheric description of the author who moved into this devil house, Otherwise I could not stick with this. It was like eating a mixed bag of nuts that promised Brazilian nuts and there was none inside. After reading some pretty great books this one was just trickery folks.

So sorry, just not for me, not even a little bit.

This is a book I appreciated more than I enjoyed. It's not really horror or mystery, definitely more metafiction. About what happens when we tell stories, how we tell stories, who is changed by the stories we tell, etc.

John Darnielle's deep empathy comes through everything he writes. No one is better at evoking sad places and sad people with clear eyes. And he's an absolute master of language. This book is an audacious example of that.

For me, I think the pace was a little too slow to ever seduce me. And I don't think this book shed any particularly new light for me on the problems with true crime. Still, as I said, I really appreciated what it was doing. I'm curious if I'd get more out of the audiobook.