Devil House

John Darnielle

2022 • 416 pages

Ratings47

Average rating3.4

From New York Times bestselling author and Mountain Goats’ singer/songwriter John Darnielle—“a master at building suspense” (Los Angeles Times)—comes an epic, gripping novel about murder, truth, artistic obsession, and the dangers of storytelling in Devil House. Gage Chandler is descended from kings. That’s what his mother always told him. Now, he 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 the big break: To move into the house—what the 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—back into his own work and what it means, back to the very core of what he does and who he is. John Darnielle has long been known to millions of Mountain Goats fans as a storyteller of uncanny sensitivity and mythic power. In Universal Harvester and Wolf in White Van before it, he has proven himself a novelist of the highest order. With Devil House, Darnielle rises above with a novel that blurs the line between fact and fiction, that combines daring formal experimentation with a gripping tale of crime, writing, memory, and artistic obsession.

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This book was maybe maybe 1.5 stars. I am too annoyed to round up. If you picked up this book because it has a neat cover, run away. Run away! The entire meat of the review will be spoilered because I am too annoyed too pussy foot and avoid spoilers.
I picked up this book because a) The cover was very cool. b) I wanted to read something different from what I read recently. C) I liked the idea of a fictional true crime writer. For various reasons I no longer consume most true crime. Boy howdy do I have some regrets. I started to get annoyed at about the 50% point but I was convinced the book would get good again like towards the beginning. I was WRONG.Weird things this book did in no particular order:Described scenes in fake medieval because of one metaphor about a knight protecting his castle.Had entire knight and castle portion in another font with no explanation. From what I can tell in other reviews no one else knows why this section was included eitherLied about the fake true crime, *inconsistently*Had the big reveal about the narrator having a screw loose in the last chapter with very little lead up.Included random sections from the other fake true crime book the MC wrote.Gave an entire summary of a letter a victims mother wrote complete with the MC's responses.Implied to MC is *so conflicted* they aren't sure if they can publish their terrible book. This had some lead up but very boring pay off. Why does he care so much about random homeless men?? I need answers this book has denied me.Seriously dude, do you need an intervention??? Did your writers group vote you off the island??