"Devil House" by John Darnielle is a gripping novel that delves into themes of murder, truth, artistic obsession, and the perils of storytelling. The story follows Gage Chandler, a true crime writer who has had some success but is searching for his big break. When offered the opportunity to move into a house known as 'The Devil House,' where a notorious pair of murders occurred in the 1980s, Chandler sees it as a chance to uncover a captivating story.

I'm afraid this title has left me rather confused. I was expecting horror but what I got was a confused ramble about true crime. I think the publisher needs to review. The writing though was solid and I enjoyed it overall.

Not what you would expect from the title and cover. A true crime author stuck on what to write moves into a house that was the scene of a double murder in the 80’s at the height of the satanic panic madness.
Even though it wasn’t the supernatural horror I was expecting it was a well written, interesting read.

Not what I expected at all - but much more satisfying. A thrilling and fascinating exploration of what true crime writing means, with sophistication and depth and emotional vigour. A novel with true heart and true sophistication which will stay with me for a long time.

Here's the thing with Devil House - what John Darnielle is trying to do is very difficult. He is making a meta true crime novel, about both some fictional true crimes and also one authors process in writing true crime. He is also, on the sly, writing a horror novel - with an is it or isn't it structure. The writing is terrific, it leaps off the page no matter which of our real real, real impersonated or real-imaginary characters its told from. He is confident enough to loosely slip in a medieval aside, a few experimental chapters, knowing that he can both pull it off whilst having the excuse that the author within the piece maybe can't. My only problem is, and this is impossible really to talk about in a review, I don't think he pulls off the ending.

What Darnielle has done here is the literary equivalent of a found footage movie where the lead character gets to narrate his own story, until he doesn't. The book swerves from one kind of horror in the last third and takes a bigger swing at something a little more psychological. And the ideas being batted around are interesting, true crime lingers on the prurient and as we also saw with things like the podcast Serial, wants to bring people in on its theories. There is an edge of conspiracy theory to it, particularly if it is unsolved, and a book may convince a large swathe of people without there ever being a trial. Darnielle is interested in that responsibility, and the trust we might put in a narrator who is there to basically make money out of others misfortune. How reliable is that narrator in the first place?

I enjoyed reading Devil House for its atmosphere, its kind of faded Californian horror, and the languid enfolding of the tale. Its an interesting thing, that shows testament to his writing, that the sense of place, and slow creeping dread from the mundane comes out of his characters, and his invention of plausibly "out there" murders are certainly well done. But the ending didn't quite solidify for me, it was unclear how much of what we had read the final narrator had read, and the conceit is burst slightly without good reason. Perhaps because of the languid air the eventual denouement felt rushed and whilst completely justified by all that came before, still didn't narratively feel satisfying (which I understand is part of the point). I'd recommend it because it is such an enjoyable read in a West Coast Gothic way, but be prepared for a layer too many at the end.

Devil house by John Darnielle.
Chandler is a true crime writer, with one grisly success — and movie adaptation — to his name, along with a series of subsequent lesser efforts that have paid the bills but not much more. But now he is being offered the chance for his big break: to move into the house — which locals call ‘The Devil House’ — in which a briefly notorious pair of murders occurred, apparently the work of disaffected 1980s teens. He begins his research with diligence and enthusiasm, but soon the story leads him into a puzzle he never expected — his own work and what it means, the very core of what he does and who he is.
Really enjoyed this book. Different. 4*.

This is a delight for true crime fans (like myself). I'm ordering a copy to keep it in my bookshelf, I know I will re-read it very soon. The plot was interesting, but what kept me going was all the thick descriptions of the crimes and the connection between the rest of the characters with these cases. My main interest was on the consequences of true crime writing and consuming, which was a bitter sensation. Darnielle's writing is impressive.

3,5* upped to 4
I enjoyed it even if I was expecting more horror and less details about true crime and how to write it.
It's slow burning and I was fascinated by the stories of the people and the atmosphere.
Wasn't a fan Gage at the beginning but he slow grew on me.
John Danielle can surely write and i liked the stye of writing.
I think it can be recommended if you are interested in the world of true crime
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Devil House is a multilayered metafiction told in a nonlinear format divided into 7 parts. I thought it’s interesting how Part 7 is the other side of Part 1, Part 6 of 2, and so forth. It gave me different perspectives on the murder cases involving a teacher and her students, and a landlord and her tenants. Like the author’s previous book Universal Harvester, this isn’t easy to digest. There are first, second, and third-person POVs so sometimes I wasn’t sure who was telling the story at first. Part 4 is the weakest; an Old English tale about kings that links to the writer’s royalty lineage but doesn’t feel relevant. However, the stream-of-consciousness prose felt immersive and made me feel as if I lived inside the characters’ heads.

Admittedly I’m not the biggest fan of true crime because it can feel exploitative and this book makes that particular point too. Yet I don’t think it’s a criticism of true crime - rather it asks questions about the responsibilities of authors and the aftermath of wading into other people’s lives. Whose narrative deserves to be heard? Especially in stories like this, where there are the horrors of abuse, regret, and loneliness, but also the strength of friendship, connection, and home. Maybe I’m the only one but I felt quite moved by the end.

CW: domestic violence, child abuse

Over the past few months I've gravitated towards reading more horror and true crime fiction. Devil House's description ticked both boxes and subsequently I had high hopes.

Unfortunately I couldn't manage to finish Devil's House. I made it to about 57% and had to give up because the multiple story-lines and fragmentary style of writing was simply too confusing. The author often jumps between narrators and it's hard to keep track of who is telling the story and in fact, which story are they telling.

I have no doubt that this would appeal to many readers, but I enjoy a solid story - even with multiple timelines and narrators - but this just didn't hold my attention.

Only for hardcore true crime fans with a lot of patience and an excellent attention span. Loved the cover!

DNF at 55%. I was expecting some play with the house and any horror but the book is not that, actually. So far it was a true crime writer telling the story of the people and businesses who ran the house for the last decades. Apart from couple of creepy scenes the rest was kind of decaf Stephen King story that could have been written in much less pages.

So, firstly, I’d like to get the elephant in the room out of the way - this book isn’t a horror. Despite having Devil in its title, being in the Netgalley Horror section as well, it’s actually a crime novel. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the novel but it certainly wasn’t what I thought it was going to be!

Anyways. Devil House is about a writer who is writing a book about a crime that occurred in the ‘Devil House’ - a porn store. So, it’s got some satanic influences in the murders that took place and there’s some interesting back and forth in timelines for us to follow the plot. I guess though, there were too many disparate elements for me to fully enjoy this. There’s the different timelines, there’s satanic panic, there’s multiple layers to this onion and I’m not sure I want to try all of them. So. Who’s this for? I guess anyone who likes true crime but is looking for some fiction to serve on the side. It wasn’t for me but, hey, I’m not a big fan of onions.

4/5
I am going to be absolutely honest: I have absolutely no clue what happened. The narrative is bizarre and the pace is glacial, the story always promising more and drip-feeding clues without ever actually tipping its hand. Even to the end, no real clear-cut answers are ever actually given. The book is a question: it asks about the ethics of true crime, human morality, and narrative truth.

That said, I was expecting a horror book. While there are some elements of horror present in the novel, I believe that categorizing it as horror doesn't quite fit as those elements are not a major (or even important) element of the narrative. I still enjoyed Devil House regardless, but for someone looking for a /horror/ novel will likely be very disappointed.

Before reading I got the sense that this book would not be quite what it seemed at first glance - a schlocky satanic panic horror- and is instead more of a study of true crime writing and the inspirations behind true crime, the tropes, selling a narrative at the expense of the victims and their families… really quite interesting material, and told in a decidedly individual way- different perspectives, deep dives into previous (fictional) true crime books, and a (pretty tortuous) olde Englishe Arthurian style narrative.

Bit of a curate’s egg from my perspective, and I was left underwhelmed at the end. Quite clever, but a bit too tricksy. I might have enjoyed the schlocky horror more…?

It’s taken me a while to gather my thoughts on this one. Overall I did really enjoy the story. the small-town setting was great and the evolution of Devil House was very interesting. I think my main gripe is that this wasn’t what I was expecting. The cover, title and the categorisation of it being a horror novel made me expect something that I didn’t get. This is much more a commentary on the writing of true crime, very reminiscent of Chasing the Boogeyman. I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if it had gone into it with different expectations. Also the ending just didn’t do it for me, in a way I felt cheated. To me it came completely out of the blue and was crammed in in the last few chapters via a conversation with a brand new character that we didn’t know or care for. I completely understand what the author was doing with the ending and the narrative he was giving on true crime writing as a career but something just didn’t hit the mark for me.

I would recommend this to those interested in true crime and feel that as long as you have the right expectations going into this then it can be enjoyed.

Devil House is a slow burn exploration of true crime and the reasons it fascinates. It goes into methodical detail about fictitious crimes, while following a journalist who has made a name for himself writing 'sensitive' true crime books. Darnielle excels in building and settling into characters, working through the detail of why they do extraordinary or terrible things. I personally found the story quite slow and would have liked more pace. It sometimes felt like, even when a grizzly murder was being described, the build-up to it was so long that whatever finally came would feel like an anti-climax.

As I was reading Devil House, I was unclear what I thought or felt about it because it is very definitely not what I thought it was going to be. I haven't read any of Darnielle's other work (or listened to his band) so I was expecting a slightly-above-pulpy horror with maybe some comment on true crime as a genre, but Devil House is much much more than that. That divergence of expectations and reality made my first read an odd experience and I skimmed some of the middle sections, waiting for the "main" narrative to pick up again. It wasn't until the end and a seemingly throwaway reference to Frankenstein's Monster that the structure clicked. I finished the book, went back to the bits I'd skimmed and read them again. Then I made a diagram of all the nested stories. And then I read it again.

It's been a few days since I finished Devil House, and I've read a whole other novel between then and now, but it is still wriggling under my skin in the unsettling way that only really clever, really good books do.

This one, sadly, didn’t hold up to what I thought it was going to be. I’m finding myself conflicted with what to write because I personally didn’t enjoy it and couldn’t finish.

John Darnielle can definitely write, and I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of readers who will fall in love with this book. I was expecting an intense, creepy horror book, but this is one of those cases where I shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover. The writing was well done, but I really slogged my way through it, until I had to choose to not continue as I just wasn’t invested at all, and didn’t much care for the storylines that overlapped.

"my name is gage chandler. I've been here for almost a year. I moved into this house to tell a story"

Great Cover, but this wasn't a horror story to me, more like a true-crime story of a writer who came to a house, Devil House, to write the next book!

Something dreadful happened some years ago in this house and gage was sent here to tell a tale. "The white witch" also is a part of the story, the gage's first true crime book.

I couldn't end, hard to follow the story and narration. I read others' reviews and I'm sure many find it so interesting.

Thanks to Netgalley and Scribe for allowing me to read Devil House by John Darnielle.

For anyone familiar with the Mountain Goats' music, it's no real surprise that their driving force's novels should tend to be set a few years in the past, generally looking back further still, and that they should turn on the details of a world which still feels recent to those of us who lived through it, even as the numbers show it's slipping increasingly far into the past. Hell, this is the second time a video shop has loomed large in one of them (and the exception was about play-by-mail gaming). The protagonist this time is a true crime writer, one of whose books was adapted into a film (even there, note that it was a film, not a podcast or a Netflix series) but whose follow-ups have failed to catch in the same way. Now he's in a small Californian town which matches him nicely; it has one shocking incident in its past which is widely known, but the eponymous house, into which he moves, was the scene of its difficult follow-up killing. Darnielle is very good on the ickiness of the whole true crime genre; at a convention, a peer tells the narrator "There aren't any villains in a true crime book. There's the hero, and there's his victims." At the same time, he uses it as an exemplar of the general human tendency to understand the world in stories, and find significance in the most minor or incidental details as soon as they're presented in a context where meaning seems expected of them: "Victims spend their entire time in the spotlight just waiting for the fatal blow, on a conveyor belt that leads to the guillotine." While poking awkwardly at all that, though, he himself catches the little things which, while relevant to the story, don't need to be, the moods and moments recognisable from other lives: "There are only three weeks left in the school year; there's no single word in the English language precise enough to describe the atmosphere on campus when it gets close to summer break. There's electricity in the air, but it's tampered by languor, the promise of lazy days ahead, of long warm mornings with no to-do lists attached; there's excitement, but it's checked by an impending sense of loss among the seniors; there's hope, but there's also suspicion." Or, of the narrator's gently drifting life before the story begins, the painfully accurate summary "My wheels made an agreeable noise when they spun."

There are enough threads here that you could present any of them as the key theme; the unfairness of a society where a woman killing in self defence gets executed and then also becomes a folk demon; the sense of the "unexplored terrain lurking in known shapes", the way the most unprepossessing places can become castles or ancient temples to those who fully inhabit them; even the the idea of manifest destiny crumbling in the daylight and, most shocking to the British reader, California running out of room. But surely at least part of the point of the exercise is precisely to say that all of these things apply, and none of them; this is not a grand scheme, it's the big old tangle that is life. The impossibility of ever telling a story in a way that the people who lived it really recognise becomes more of a preoccupation as the book progresses, the painful knowledge that you could spend your whole life trying to write one book and still not get everything relevant in. Fans may find echoes of the songs: there's one kid who seemed a lot like, in a similar shitty situation to begin with, he didn't make it through this year, and it did kill him – with maybe a nugget of Autoclave at the heart, and a reminder why it's so important that No Children is called No Children. Not everything worked for me – I get what the sections of pastiche mediaeval chronicle are trying to do, but I'm not convinced they pull it off, and I might feel the same way about the resolution, though my sentiments there are a lot more mixed. But fuck me, Darnielle can catch and convey a mood, without music just as well as with. And if nothing else, I've now learned there's an official forensic definition of overkill, at 17 stab wounds. Which may or may not be true, but I'm sure as blazes not Googling to confirm.

(Netgalley ARC)