I was provided an ARC copy of this book by NetGalley.

This book was different than most books I read. Historical fiction around the time oft he Spanish Inquisition with actual demons. Is there such a thing as a good demon? How do you measure good and evil? Does this book answer these questions? No, not exactly, but it does leave the door open for a follow up book that could.

I did like the story but it could have used more in depth characterization. It was definitely more plot driven than character driven but I still connected to the main character.

Would I recommend this book? Definitely. Do I want a follow up? Absolutely.

I will generally try to avoid dspoulers here. The setting of this story is quite interesting, blending the Spanish Inquisition with demon summoning and some town/church politics. Some storylines could have been further developed, such as Diago, the don, and the history of the demon. This feels like a story that should either be fleshed out a bit more or used as the beginning of a longer tale. There is definitely potential for a sequel/series here.

🌟 3.5

A great historical horror set in late Medieval Spain following a demon after he was summoned to a small village. Catalina is the village girl you would expect to meet in this setting: pious, demure, and desperate to get away from this demon that marked her. But with something dark brewing in the village she must join the demon in finding a way for the both of them to survive.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere and historical setting. Spain is a beautiful place with a dark and interesting medieval history that I'm glad I get to read about. The writing is beautiful and feels very grounded in the environment with naturally flowing dialogue. My biggest issue comes from the repetition of scenes. Jarvis puts emphasis on scenes by showing the different points of view, but by repeating these scenes exactly only breaks the flow of the narrative and makes it more difficult to regain that momentum that was already building previously, especially when it is done multiple times. While it is nice to get the difference perspectives of the characters in those scenes, Iwould personally have removed a few of them as they don't really add anything to the story.

Overall I did enjoy this story and I'm grateful to NetGalley for providing this ARC!

** spoiler alert ** I just finished Avernal by Mia Jarvis and I’m genuinely not okay in the best possible way. This was dark, intense, and so hauntingly good I couldn’t look away even when I wanted to.

Set in 16th century Spain, we follow a peasant girl who accidentally releases a demon, and from there everything spirals. There’s a haunted girl, a demon that won’t let go, a disgraced priest, an inquisitor, and a whole lot of tension, suspicion, and desperation. It felt like watching a slow burn unravel where you know something bad is coming but you can’t stop flipping pages.

The atmosphere? So vivid and unsettling. I could feel the weight of the setting, the paranoia, the fear, the heat of it all. The writing is gritty and rich, and the way this story tackles faith, guilt, and power? Whew. I wasn’t ready.

I loved how no one was purely good or evil. Everyone’s choices had consequences. The demon was terrifying but also... weirdly magnetic? Like why was I kind of rooting for him at points??

This book is not soft. It’s heavy and eerie and full of tension. But it’s also captivating and beautiful in the most twisted way. If you’re into historical horror, morally gray characters, and stories that leave you a little emotionally wrecked, read this.

Easily 5 stars.

A short, engaging story about demons in Spain.

A good deed rapidly turns sour when our MFC unwittingly releases a demon - but it isn't long before even darker forces are shown to be at work in this small village, and not all of them otherworldly.

As other reviews have mentioned, when there is overlap with PoV's, there is repetition in words and scenes. While it was interesting at first to get a glimpse inside other characters heads, to know what they were really thinking, it did start to drag a little to see the same scenes over and over.

While the demons had all the body horror, the human 'villains' were by far the more unsettling, because they acted out of very misguided beliefs. I was somehow more nervous for our MFC when she was interacting with the 'hunter' or the inquisition, than I was when she was facing down any of the demons, which is an impressive feat.

The ending was a little abrupt, which leads me to hope that there will be a sequel picking up on this story as right now it feels incomplete. I would like to read more of this world, to see what happens next, both for our human characters and the demon world. Enjoyable, but over too quickly.

This was a different kind of novel than I am used to reading butbat the same time I am proud that I went outside of my comfort zone. Our setting is in sixteenth century Spain during the inquisition. I appreciate the hard work and the effort the author put into this story and overall she did an amazing job.
The story is centered about a young girl Catalina who ends up freeing a demon who promises no harm will come to her as long as she follows to step by step process that will help achieve his freedom. Although she has to keep this as a secret from her family who raised her as a good catholic. Will she be able to succeed without her family finding out about it.
I received an arc copy from Netgalley and all opinions are of my own

[NetGalley Read #29]

3.5 ⭐️

"A curious mind is swift to find trouble."

Violent, dark, brooding, perhaps a bit short for my liking. Still a good story with an interesting magic system and solid characters. Mixed feelings about the ending (don't know if there's another book coming (hopefully there is) cause there are some loose threads that seem to indicate that the story is not finished yet).

Interweaving different viewpoints in each chapter is a hard task. And it was greatly done. I was not bored when a different viewpoint started, although I am not a fan of repeating the same dialogue in different viewpoints within the same chapter. Thankfully, that didn't happen too much.

It is a short book (200+ pages). Easy to read. One thing I noticed was short, concise sentences. Really liked them. There weren't a lot of info dumps/exposition about the magic which was nice.

Recommended. 👍

Notes:
- The inquisition/tribunal scene is well written, capturing the little details (the scraping of the quill), emotions, tension, and nervousness of the character.
- A really good combination of different viewpoints.
- Interesting magic system.

This book has all the makings of a great book. The idea of the story is great but I just do not care about the characters. It reminded me of ‘Between Two Fires’ by Christopher Buehlman, which is praise as it’s one of my favorite books.

The concept is wonderful , Spanish Inquisition, girl and a demon. Love it. I enjoyed Catalina’s POV the most .
I didn’t care for other POVs, there is some pacing issues and I think the prose feels clunky. This is good but it has the potential to be great.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I could not finish this book. I've tried a couple of times and just can't develop an affinity for the characters or feel invested in the plot.

I feel bad giving this review because I can tell the author worked very hard on developing the plot, and it has promise. For me it felt overworked. The language seemed needlessly convoluted, so while the imagery and plot outline have a good foundation, it seems sort of contrived and unreal. I couldn't become immersed in the story. While the novel is technically historical fiction it lacked the depth of historical attributes I am used to in the genre.

On the other hand, while I still felt it was contrived and lacking oomph, the story is a better fit for the fantasy/horror genre. Other positive attributes of this book include an interesting premise, and the author has developed a great sense of intrigue.

Okay, hear me out—I think this book might be great… but my brain is currently in reading slump purgatory and refuses to engage. Demon? Possession? Inquisition drama?? Normally I’d be all over that like a peasant on free bread, but right now I’m just staring at the page like it’s judging me.

The vibes are strong: 16th-century Spain, ancient evil, morally murky characters—and a demon who’s giving clingy ex energy. But my concentration is MIA. I fully plan to revisit it when my brain decides to cooperate, because I know there’s a great story here… it’s just currently trapped behind my slump wall.

To be continued… hopefully when I’m not reading everything through a fog of “meh.”

Five stars. I re-read the middle and wish it was a little easier to read, but the end was creative and surprising. I hope this is not the only book because I want to see more of the peasant girl and demon together. I like their dynamic and need to see what happens next.

Thank you Netgalley for the free ARC of the book. The story was interesting enough to keep me hooked and the writing has a lot of potential. The author is good with building atmosphere. The idea of the demon extorting a poor village girl and she has to figure it all out on her own was intense.
There was potential with the point of views but they got a little confusing and I didn’t care about the other characters much. Still, they were short and the author spent more time on Catalina as a whole, which i preferred. If the book was from Catalina’s point of view the entire time, I would give this five stars. I just feel like it lost some suspense because we saw some of what the demon was up to.

This was a weird read. DNF. The perspectives and povs were a mess and seemed to not have been edited or worked on enough.

Avernal is a weird little book. My feelings on it are very conflicted.

I liked the ideas presented here, there are in fact some genuinely interesting concepts. The story gets bogged down by just okay writing and some jarring POV choices that I'm not sure why they're here. There's too many POVs and sometimes we get the same scene just told through a different perspective. It was hard to form an attachment to any of the characters that are the main players (the demon, the girl, the hunter). Most of the book is the town trying to investigate the demon while Catalina is meeting him in secret--so imagine how repetitive the multiple POVs got.

[Thank you to Net Galley for the advance copy of this book.] There are so many good ideas that run through the veins of this little book: demon encounters during the Spanish Inquisition, demon hunters casting holy magic, a complex and evolving relationship between a Catholic girl and an actual demon! It even delves a little into the politics of Hell. While I was expecting and hoping for maybe more horror from this story, these interesting concepts and more make for a fun dark fantasy told from multiple perspectives, with some horror elements really emerging in the final third of the book.

My main gripe is that, mostly in the first half of the book, there are moments when the author narrates the same scene from multiple perspectives or tells a particular series of events out of order, and while sometimes it works to reveal something or push a particular narrative forward, there are times when it feels a little confusing. I also wish there was more resolution for some of the core characters at the end. All in all, 4/5 for me!

The book starts with multiple pows' short sketching of the events. They don't show the whole story just some cut parts from different places and time, which leads to zero understanding of the situation. I didn't connect with the characters, wasn't really interested in finding out where that fragmentary narration leads them.

- - -
Thanks to NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for providing me with this free eARC in exchange for my honest review!

DNF at 25%.

I thought it was an intriguing premise, and I do think the rest of the plot will be exciting - I liked the idea of the demon - but I felt that the multiple POVs were too many and shifted around too frequently in the early chapters to keep my attention. I think it might have been more immersive to be left longer in Catalina's POV at the start, to set more of the scene, to become invested in her and fully feel the tension of what has happened to her.

Some good descriptive writing in there, although there were a few misspelled words.