Watched the adaption and really loved it. Book was good. Held my attention throughout. Would recommend

I didn’t realise this was YA so was a bit surprised to be mostly in a teenagers head (I expected to be more in her mum’s pov). I enjoyed it but the main character was a bit whiny and I couldn’t believe how the parents were behaving towards their children. I think the plot could be adapted effectively into an adult novel. Which would allow for more tension and horror in the big reveal.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

I’m going to be honest…I don’t understand how this book has such a high rating. The synopsis of this book is very misleading in my opinion. This book is not scary, it’s not even that creepy. The most horrifying thing about it were the characters, especially the mother. I don’t care about the plot twist, I truly dislike her and think she’s a bad mother. I can understand where Jules, the MC, gets her own dislikeable personality from. The pacing in this is bad, with things happening way too quick (especially the end) and the writing is just poor in general. 2 stars is honestly me being generous, because at least it didn’t take me long to get through this.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good book, holding my interest throughout and getting quite dark at times. The ending was a tiny bit of a let down though, trying to create a mystery that I couldn’t quite put my finger on so it left it a bit unresolved so it wasn’t completely satisfying

Devil in Ohio is a phenomenal thriller from start to finish. Filled to the brim with twists and a captivating plot, this one is sure to keep readers hooked. The characters are well-developed. The story is incredibly fast-paced. This is one not to be missed! Highly recommended! Be sure to check out Devil in Ohio asap.

this was nothing like anything I had read before and I am excited to watch the series because it looks fantastic and twisted :)

Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for providing me with this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

THis was an interesting book and I was prompted by the Netflix show. I found it a mixed tone but seemed accessible to its YA audience. I do like those kind of books and the cult element was interesting but I felt it maybe missed a trick to some extent and could have made more of the psychology behind that.

When Jules Mathis gets home from school one day to find a strange girl suddenly living with them, to say that she's thrown for a loop is an understatement. After finding out that the girl - Mae - is one of her mother's patients from the hospital, Jules is a bit uncomfortable but figures a few days won't hurt. Until Mae is wearing Jules' clothes, sleeping in her bedroom, inserting herself into Jules' life by edging her out of her position on the school paper, as well as in to the path of Jules' crush. Things get weirder when Jules happens to see Mae getting changed and notices that she has a giant pentagram engraved on her back. Not long after white roses begin showing up on the front porch, a rabid dog bites Jules' sister and her parents are arguing behind closed doors. Jules' pieces things together and realises that Mae must have come from a nearby town that is virtually impossible to find and home to a strange cult. Now they want Mae back, and they'll stop at nothing to accomplish that...

I'll admit, when I saw this book available for request on Netgalley, I had already seen the trailer for the Netflix show. I was also super surprised that it was still available for request given it had already been published for a while AND had a show made from it's material. I didn't care though, I hit that request button and was elated when I saw that I'd been approved. I tend to want to read the book before watching the show/movie, so I haven't watched the show yet.

I've been on quite the horror/thriller/suspense kick for the past twelve odd months, and I am instantly drawn to any books that have a cult in them or centers around a cult. I don't know what it is, something about a terrifying group of people who are so far gone into their own belief systems (regardless of how insane they may sound to outsiders) just really gets me excited. I'm not saying that I get joy from the horrendous things that some of the more well known cults of our time have done, I just mean that it really adds another dimension of terror to a story for me. We all probably say "Oh man, how can people be so stupid as to fall into the clutches of the crazy stuff these people are yelling about?" but when you really sit down and think about it, cult leaders are able to create cults for a good reason. They're generally incredibly charismatic and have a real way at bringing others around to their ways of thinking. So we all like to think that we would never fall into such a thing, but how do we really know that? But, I digress...back to the review hahaha.

I was surprised with this story. I don't know why, but I had an idea on how I thought it would be in my head, and it was a bit different to that. For some reason, I assumed that the narration would be told from the mother's point of view, I'm not sure why I thought this. However, this is not the case, the story is told mostly from the point of view of Jules, with a few chapters told from her mother's point of view. So this changed the tone of the story for me from what I initially thought I'd be reading. Not in a bad way, just in a 'I didn't expect it' way. So I guess it almost read more like a young adult thriller/suspense than an adult one like I initially thought. The story moved along at a steady pace which was nice, in the beginning I did feel like things were dragging a tiny bit, I'm not 100% sure why, but it felt like it took me a little bit to get into the story. Once I was pulled in, it moved along quite quickly and kept me glued to the page as I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

The characters were written well enough, I did find that pretty much all of them annoyed me though. Well, when I say pretty much all of them, what I really mean is - Jules annoyed me sometimes because she did come across as a petulant teenager, how can I blame her though, given that she IS a teenager and let's be honest. Who's not going to be upset when they feel like they're literally being replaced in their own lives. After a while, I really began to like Jules and sympathise with her as having someone thrown into your life, who then begins to emulate you to the point of frightening would be quite terrifying and who would know how to deal with that? The other character that really annoyed me and pretty much did not redeem themselves was Jules' mother. I understand why she did what she did. I understand the reasons behind her brining Mae home, but she was that obsessed with Mae and the case surrounding her, as well as other stuff that was quite personal for her which Mae's case brought back up; that she could not see what it was doing to her family. She was so wrapped up in her own little bubble and could focus on nothing else except for Mae, that her family were suffering. She frustrated me to no end. When her daughter tried to talk to her she was distracted and just not present. When her husband raised some concerns, she brushed them off and wouldn't even sit down and have an adult conversation about them because MAE! EVERYTHING WAS ABOUT MAE! How is Mae feeling? Is Mae okay? Is Mae hungry? Does she need some clothes? Mae, Mae, Mae, bloody Mae. I get being caring, but come on. I feel like that's why I ended up really sympathising with Jules in the end because her mother was just a moron and couldn't see what was happening right in front of her own eyes. She was willing to let her family be jeopardised all for the sake of a strange girl that she wanted to help. Again, I get the caring about Mae and her situation, but I feel like family comes first.

The story itself was interesting enough, there wasn't really a mystery to the story so to speak. It was more just learning about the cult and how they operated and what went on in the town. There were a couple of reveals but I just feel like they were more of a backseat to the story rather than the big "oh my god" part of a story. Which this one didn't really have. I feel like Polatin was trying to go for the unreliable narrator angle in Jules, but it just didn't come across that way for me. I believed her and that she wasn't going crazy from the beginning because we saw everything from the minute that Mae entered her life. I guess if the unreliable narrator angle had have worked, there would have been more suspense and mystery but for me that's not how it came across.

All in all, this was a page turning read for me. It wasn't a "wow this book is amazing" but it was a solid read that kept me glued to the page because I was keen to learn more about the cult. I am yet to watch the Netflix adaptation, but I'm planning on getting to that some time soon. If you like a dark story that centers around a cult and has a young adult feel, give this one a go. If you're looking for the next amazing psychological thriller that has twists and turns, that's not what you will find here (at least in my opinion anyway).

Thrilling and utterly compulsive! An incredible read, impossible to put down. Incredible storytelling! Recommend you read this book!
The book was well written in that it stirred up all sorts of emotions while I was reading it and made me want to keep turning the pages to find out what would happen next.

*Thank you so much to my friends at NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of Devil in Ohio in return for an honest review.

WOW, where to even begin with this one?

There was a lot going on in here that had potential. You read the blurb and you think 'oooh that sounds good!' and then you read the book... I honestly don't quite understand what went wrong here. The characters were all awfully dumb and acted horribly to each other, especially Jules' mother who is meant to be a registered psychiatrist but honestly, I know more about therapy than she does. Additionally so much of the plot just didn't make sense, there were just holes after holes after holes.

I would have loved to love this book, but unfortunately I didn't. Big let down.

A great book! I was gripped from the start, well written and kept me guessing to what was happening next. There are twists throughout and I connected with the characters even if it was love or hate them the connection was there all the way through. I felt a lot of emotions reading this book and would definitely recommend it to everyone.

Gripping, shocking and completely addictive. This is a book I have devoured and not wanted to put down.
This is atmospheric haunting and a little spooky.

I'd like to say thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy.
It's a real quick read, the story makes it easy to forget that you're reading. The story was definitely scary for me. The whole concept of the book is interesting and there were some parts when I was on the edge of my seat. The only bad thing for me were the main characters. None of them were really likeable so I couldn't root for anyone. But I guess it's maybe a good thing in a horror story. I'll definitely check out the Netflix adaptation..

Good story with well developed characters. Plotting and pacing were excellent. I read this before I watch the Netflix series.
I received this book from Swift press and Netgalley for a review.

Jules lives an ordinary, drama free life. Until one day she comes home to find her mother, a psychiatrist has brought home a young patient Mae, who will stay with them for a few days. However a few days turns to months, and jules discovers that Mae has escaped from a cult, but they are after her and will stop at nothing to get her back, endangering Jules and her family in the process. This was such a page Turner of a book I read it in one night! It went in directions I didn't see coming and I couldn't put it down. Fantastic story!

Firstly I have to say that I had never heard of this book until I saw a trailer for the Netflix adaptation and realised that the book was available to read on NetGalley. I am one of those people who insists on reading the book before watching the show or film so I made sure I got my request in quickly.

Mae was found wandering on the side of the road with an upside-down pentagram carved into her back and obvious restraint marks on her wrists. She refuses to speak to anybody about what happened until she meets psychiatrist Suzannah. Having had a difficult childhood herself, Suzannah takes it upon herself to help Mae and invites her to come and stay with her family until they can sort out a more permanent solution.

This act of kindness has terrifying repercussions for Suzannah, her husband and their children. As Mae begins to open up it becomes clear that what she was running away from was actually a cult, and her family play an instrumental part in everything that goes on there. Being pushed and pulled from both directions, Mae has to make a decision as to whether she is able to break the chain for good.

I am really glad that I read the book before watching the series because the story actually went in a very different direction than I had been expecting after just watching the trailer for the show. This isn't a negative point, the topics covered and the events in the story are really interesting and cults are something I would like to read more about. Maybe the 'based on a true story' claim is a little misleading. The idea for the book was sparked by a story the author had heard but this is nowhere near a true crime account. Be that as it may, Devil in Ohio is a very unsettling story with plenty of creepy moments and left me with lots to think about.

I would firstly like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

When Netflix announced the TV series (that still looks so good!), I just knew I had to read the book first, and of course Netgalley provided!
Intriguingly disturbing from the very start, I was never bored. An easy read that I devoured, dying to know what was gonna happen next. Well that was the plot.... the rest of the book was average at best - the characters, the ending, the bizarre reasoning let the book down.
Worth a read, but hoping the series is a little better.

This is a good young adult book and a great first start to the thriller genre for teens. Overall it was well written and I look forward to watching it on Netflix.

Hands up, initially I saw the trailer for the Netflix adaptation of this novel. I added it to my October watchlist in preparation for spooky season, not knowing it was based on a novel until I happily discovered the ARC on Netgalley.
Perhaps having seen the trailer for the adaptation I had different expectations of the book, so I'll try to bear that in mind.

I was taken by surprise by the tone of the writing. It seemed quite juvenile, too simple and full of awkward occurrences where the first person POV addresses the reader in monologue.

'I realised may face must be in Overly Excited mode'

I got the strong vibe of an adult attempting to write in the voice of a teenager, with no understanding of how a teenager would naturally talk or think. That cringey kind of language out-of-touch parents use when they try too hard to be 'in with the kids' so to speak.

There's a lot of telling rather than showing and heavy emphasis on physical descriptions, what each character is wearing, every mundane movement they make and various other details that give no real insight into character or add anything to the plot.

I persevered nonetheless and after pages of infuriatingly predictable high school dramas I finally reached the peak of the conflict. There were half assed revelations, ridiculously easy escapes and a cliche ending.

Don't waste your time on this. I'm amazed it's been adapted for television.

📚 Book Review

📚 Devil in Ohio by Daria Polatin

📚 I started watching the Netflix version before realising it was the book on my @netgalley shelf. So I stopped watching and started reading! As always the book was pretty different and I felt better in so many ways. The show didn't capture the atmosphere of the book in anyway.

📚 I enjoyed Jules and I kind of identified with her from when I was in school. Mae was a character I couldn't like, she was just someone I knew I wouldn't like in reality. A well done character, she had good substance.

📚 I thoroughly enjoyed the book, until the very last chapter. I felt that there was no explanation about what had just happened, there was a great scene with lots of tension and angst. Turn the page the epilogue and everything was happy days. I felt that I was missing an entire chapter at least.

📚 I will likely now finish the TV show just to see if it ends better. I don't mind a cliffhanger but this didn't feel like one but felt like a rushed ending.