Devils Kill Devils

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for this one. The audio by Imani Jade Powers was well done and a part I definitely enjoyed.

This was a unique story and take on the vampire. Not your conventional vamps, I really liked that the author mixed historical lore on vampires, demons, devils, and also just made up some of his own stuff. Overall they were the driving force that kept my enjoyment. They are brutal, commanding, savage even. And described in a way I’ve never experienced.

The novel itself though, features Sarita as the main character—oh and her hulking protector, called Angelo. He has saved her from drowning, from party kids getting a little too drunk, from going to the wrong places at the wrong times, and of course from someone she loved very much? Although later there is a reason given for why this happened, it just felt too random/weird too fast, and the description of why just never really caught up for me.

This was a little too all over the place. The pacing of which, with its horrendously repetitive pondering of why this was happening to Sarita, was far too slow, and then the sprinkling in of hyper-violence, just didn’t make sense for me. I was bored, then really engaged, and then it’d dissipate again. The big bad was described as this all powerful being, just to really not be all that climactic. It just had some unfortunate shortcomings.

With such a cool cover, I really wanted to love this one, and while I was kept on the line with the vampire stuff, the story was a bit of a loss for me.

This begins as a character study following Sarita who grapples with the question, “how do you cope when the thing you thought was your angel for so long is actually your devil?” While unpacking the lore of the devils in this world there is a fair amount of violence and gore, compelling time in likeable and unlikeable characters' heads, and rich writing that Compton lured me in with yet again.

There was a bit of info dumping and so much time in characters' heads that the book meandered a bit for me sometimes, but for horror readers who like to slowly sink their teeth into a story I think this will work. Plot-driven readers might be disappointed.

Halfway through I switched to purchased audio to meet my ARC review deadline, great audio narration.

I think Johnny Compton and I are psychically linked and he knows what I like: gruesome and violent AF horror, super unique vampires, and a straight up cult. I also love a book that gives me room to form my own theories about what’s going on, and Devils Kill Devils did that from the start, then opened up a little and gave me more room for even more outlandish theories, which is so much fun.

I did find myself a little bored during Harrah’s early chapters and a tiny bit lost during Cela’s early chapters, but their later chapters were just as good as the rest and I loved the stark difference in prose between each character’s POV. The way they spoke, thought, acted… it was always obvious which character the story was following because the writing actually changed very organically. And oh my god the foreshadowing drove me crazy in the very best way, like I knew something was being alluded to and I wanted to know what it was SO BADLY. In a couple spots, I had to stop myself from skimming, not because I was bored or didn’t want to read it but because I was so desperate to know what was going to happen.

I liked most of the characters and that stories of their pasts were included to give context to their actions and motivations (especially The Northman). Sarita is a great main character and she has a lot of strengths but one of my favorite things about her is that she isn’t your standard Chosen One. I like the idea that a Chosen One isn’t necessarily more special than anyone else, that it’s more like “well, someone had to be chosen,” and happenstance is what gives the Chosen One their power.

The author’s note at the end was really cool - I always love when authors include information about their inspiration and influences. It’s very interesting. Don’t skip it!

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the ARC of Devils Kill Devils.