Sarita has a guardian angel, Angelo, that has saved her life numerous times. So she is at a lost when she suffers an unimaginable tragedy at his hands. Her entire worldview is shaken, and events beyond her comprehension are set into motion.

I am a huge fan of Compton's debut, The Spite House, and was overjoyed to be selected for an ARC of this book. However, this book is just not up to snuff. The author does to much telling and not enough showing. Most of the action happens in the past, and is told to us via the author's passive memories. After the first chapter, it takes almost 30% of the book before anything else actually happens in the present day part of the story. The characters are flat and one dimensional. And there is so much internal dialogue that most of the story happens purely in the heads of the characters, versus any compelling dialogue, let alone action. I was sorely disappointed in this one as I so dearly wanted to love this. It was nothing short of a slog.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all views expressed are my own.

"Devils Kill Devils" sounded quite promising as tapping into southern gothic and noir but I could not get into it at all. I did not find any of the characters well rounded or interesting, plot and world building made little sense and felt rushed, and the book lacked atmosphere. It was uselessly violent and in parts confusing. After reading half of it, I started skim-reading and even that left me feeling bored.

Maybe I wasn't in the right mood for this one but I did not enjoy any aspect of this book. I'm sorry.

1 star m/review/show/6363477366

Sarita has always had someone watching out for her, quite literally. Whenever there is a risk to her life, "Angelo" comes out of nowhere and saves her. Sometimes in the most violent of ways. So when he appears in her honeymoon suite, the night of her wedding, and kills her husband she is more than a little shocked.

So "Angelo" is not the guardian Angel that she had always thought he was, and in trying to look into who he is, she finds out that she is the "Holy Mother" to a cult of Demons that worship her. As nothing seems to make sense, the people around her start to get hurt while everything she believes about life turns out to be a lie. And let us not forget the issues she will have with the Mother in Law from hell!

This is a wonderful book that turns the myths of Vampires and Demons on its head and combines them to make a wonderfully rich story that is both mind-boggling and addicting all at the same time.

This was one of the most ambitious books I have read in a while, which is why it hurts to give this a 2 Star review. This first chapter blew me away. I am a horror fan and the use of "Vampires"
was extremely interesting. This book had its fair share of topics and I think this is where is where I struggled. This book has so many topics but little depth in each topic.

The first chapter blew me away, then the next 8 or 9 chapters I was interested, but then I lost most of the drive to read this book with how little dialogue was in this book, it was hard to tell where one thought started and ended. It felt like the atmosphere was torn apart and the plots seemed to pile on top of each other.
I do believe that this book will definitely be a reread for me though. I want to spend some time trying to dissect this book.
Good vs. Evil and even more of Evil vs. Evil has my attention for a later date. This one has a lot of promise.

Thank you NetGalley and TOR Nightfire for this opportunity!

I'd read and mostly enjoyed Compton's Spite House, which started strong and lost a lot of its propulsion at the halfway mark. I was hoping to enjoy Devils Kill Devils even more, but unfortunately this one was incomprehensible nearly off the bat despite an appealing protagonist. Too many POVs, too many internal trains of thought that never go anywhere, and every chapter or so is a quick little interlude designed to make the reader go "what"? Well, it did exactly that for me - but never became clear. This is just a classic case of Too Much, unfortunately - it was truly astounding how much this one dragged despite the modest page count. A disappointment for me on every level - I LOVE Southern gothic literature, and this just did not work for me.

4 stars

This is dark and creepy. I can see how it won’t work for everyone, as there is a lot going on, but I loved it. It was a wonderfully well done gothic horror.

I will say I did live Spite House a bit more because of the ease of reading, but this one certainly does its job as well:

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for an eARC of Devil Kill Devils by Johnny Compton. I enjoyed the mix of southern gothic and noir fiction, with a good dose of fantasy and horror thrown in. The novel had an ambituous plot with a lot of moving parts, involving all of the lore built up around the characters. Because of the moving parts, the middle tended to drag a little bit. However, the novel ultimately succeeds because of the likeable and, most importantly, relatable protagonist, Sarita, who is driven by one goal: to do right by and protect her loved ones at all costs.

This book was a great monster/gothic book that made me a little frightened to turn my light off at night. Definitely recommend for all dark horror fans.

Johnny Compton does a great job in writing this book, it had that Southern Gothic horror element that I was hoping for. The characters were what I was hoping for from the monster element of this book. I enjoyed the way Johnny Compton wrote this and i've enjoyed previous books from the author.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel to read in exchange for an honest review.

If you're a horror fan this book is for you. I was intrigued right from the start and never once lost interest in what was going on in the book. This book was fast paced, well written, and such a unique and interesting story that I couldn't put it down. I hesitate to say too much about what the book was about in this review because I went in mostly blind and got a lot of enjoyment out of uncovering all the book had to offer as I read. Just know that if you love horror, this is a can't miss.

Devils Kill Devils by Johnny Compton was a pretty solid novel that came after his pretty stellar novel Spite House.

Devils Kill Devils takes a horror monster that we are all very familiar with and then takes what we know about it, destroys it, then takes the pieces and molds it back into some seriously badass creatures within the horror realm.

Compton out does himself by crafting a story driven by the power of grief and revenge. He takes you on ride that both keeps you in the dark and leaves hanging on and wanting more.

Driven by a powerful female lead, Compton will take you on a journey that holds nothing back, changes how we view things we thought we knew, and keeps your heart racing with no time to breathe.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for giving me the opportunity to read Devils Kill Devils by the talented Johnny Compton.

It takes a lot for me to Dnf a book because I read pretty quickly and will usually tough it out but this one I couldn't get past about 45%.

The plot is honestly incomprehensible, and not in a mystery/thriller type of way but in a "huh? What am I reading?" Kind of way. I thought maybe I was missing something and I tried going back over parts (another thing that isn't common for me, but I loved The Spite House so I wanted to love this book too) and it didn't help at all.

Overall I am very confused and disappointed by this book, but I appreciate the opportunity to read the ARC copy.

This book kept my heart pumping. I sat down one evening and read this book from cover to cover, such a great chilling fast paced read. I am and will forever be a vampire fanatic and this delivered for me.

This gothic horror was just what I needed! The storyline drew me in and kept me curious. The writing style was perfect and the characters were well written!!! This is absolutely going on my shelf of spooks once released and I would recommend this book to those who love a vampire horror creepy read.

Wooooooowwwwwww. I need to take a step back and process the sheer amount of violence in this novel. Haha, it ain’t for the faint of heart! I requested this on NetGalley because I liked Johnny Compton’s other book, “The Spite House”, which I read last year. Mr. Compton certainly knows his horror, and he did extensive research on certain creatures that have inspired scary stories for centuries.

I like the main character, Sarita, a lot. She’s a strong woman, and many people would break down if they experienced only the *first* horrific event that happens to her. I definitely was rooting for her and her loved ones.

There’s a TON of carnage, as I mentioned earlier. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 😄

If you enjoy slasher movies, this will be right up your alley.

I look forward to seeing what Compton comes up with next! He’s a very talented storyteller.

I received an advance copy from NetGalley and Tor Nightfire (thank you!!), which did not affect my review in any way.

This book's premise is very interesting; however, there are issues I've had with the writing. Personally, I didn't find myself attaching to any of the characters, and I began to lose interest. I hate not finishing books, but I cannot get past the 32% point of this particular one. Thank you, NetGalley, for sending me an arc!

Sarita and her family have known Angelo for most of her life, ever since he started saving it… until he kills her husband on her wedding night. Is Angelo really her guardian angel, or is there another power at play?

I will be honest, I did spend a lot of this book confused as to what was actually happening before it all came together. There were so many POVs and characters I struggled to keep track of who was who amidst the intense imagery and internal dialogue. The writing style pulled me in but it also got in the way at times. More often than not, I had no idea where it was heading, but that’s not always a bad thing. Overall, I enjoyed the world building and the spookiness of this novel. Harrah’s POV was also interesting enough to keep me reading. The ending was good but very abrupt.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

"The flood she had pictured arrived, but was internalized."

First let me share the things I loved about this book. The first chapter was incredible. I absolutely loved it. There were a few other chapter endings that were really good at leaving me with that cliff-hanger feeling that forced me to start the next chapter rather than putting the book down. There were some lines in this book that were simply beautiful and I highlighted a few that I will go back to and re-read again and again. I also really appreciated that the author attempted to tell a different kind of vampire story, not relying on old tried and true tropes but creating something new.

Unfortunately, I just did not enjoy this one as much as I'd hoped. The writing style did not work well for me. There was so little dialogue and we remained in the head of whichever character's point of view we were currently reading from. There were countless times when what could have been dialogue was just thought by a character, actually going through "I should have asked......I would have said" but instead, remains just thoughts. A few times, it actually took me right out of the story to realize the scene was a room full of people that never said a single word to each other.

I also felt like we simply had too many points of view. I wasn't always clear whose head I was in or why. Initially, the tone of the writing was clearly very different when we were in the head of one of the vampire/god/other being characters as opposed to the human characters, but a few times that got mixed up and the tone of one of the non-human characters carried into a human character and that threw me off.

Finally, the story was told with so much exposition and came more "after the fact" to explain something that just happened rather than setting the stage ahead of time. This type of storytelling caused me to get really lost on multiple occasions, resulting in my re-reading sections sometimes 3 to 4 times just to try to understand. In the end, there was a lot I just didn't get.

I would still recommend this book to anyone who is interested in an original vampire story that includes heavy exposition and light dialogue. There is clearly an audience for this book and I'm confident they will find it and love it.

Thank you to Tor/Forge and NetGalley for the eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fast-paced, and unrelenting, Devils Kill Devils is an excellent horror complete with "vampires", devils, gods, and unknowable beings - all of whom operate in the background in terrifying manner. The story begins when Sarita's husband is killed before her eyes, on the night of their wedding, by her guardian angel. Yeah, when I said fast, I meant fast. From there, Sarita is launched into a whirlwind of magic and devils, causing her to question everything she thought she knew.

There are many things I enjoyed about Compton's prose. For the first few chapters the story alternates between present day and the past, providing backstory without feeling like the reader has been sideroaded just for a lore dump. Likewise, introducing vampires as amorphous, mindreading darkness that can turn into beautiful, (literally) compelling "humans" is just so good. And once the final act takes off it does not let you come up for air, instead instilling threat after threat in an exciting manner. I'd read another story set in this universe, absolutely.

My one main criticism is that there are sections throughout the novel, every couple of chapters, where I was left thinking "wait, what?". Not in a thriller/horror sense of confusion, but in a comprehension sense of confusion. However, the excitement of the final third, plus the handling of lore in the first third, I think, makes up for this.

Vampire stories are making quite the comeback recently and I love how different interpretations of this legendary creature are keeping it fresh and unique. In this novel, you're going to read about vampires in a way you never have before.

Vampires as devils. Or, perhaps, devils as vampires. Whichever way you think about it, this is the basis of this epic, terrifying, gothic story of a woman who has been chosen to be worshipped without her consent or knowledge.

With a first chapter that will have your jaw dropping, this book at first appears to be about a psychopathic guardian angel. But it's so much more. We'll learn about Sarita's (the main protagonist) past and how she has been saved from death throughout her life by this "angel". But on her wedding night, everything changes.

Sleeping old gods, timeless prophecies, betrayels, vampires, and lots of stunning blood fueled action sequences will have you on the edge of your seat as you're reading. The exploration of the vampire mythos and how it can be a lot darker and more viscious than what you think is on full display here.

You definitely don't want to miss this one and I highly recommend it.

Receiving this ARC filled me with excitement due to the intriguing premise of the book.
While the initial chapters were engaging, my interest waned rapidly as the plot became convoluted and the writing style failed to captivate me.
Despite not fully enjoying this particular book, it will not deter me from exploring other works by the same author.

I would like to express my gratitude to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this advance reader copy in exchange for my unbiased review.