Devils Kill Devils by Johnny Compton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
After a promising beginning, Devils Kill Devils took a nosedive off a cliff, Thelma and Louise-style, for me.
I respect this author for their creativity, but I think someone should have reined this in and given it more focused perspectives. It was extremely difficult to follow.
I was excited for more from Johnny Compton after really enjoying The Spite House last year. This one sounded different content-wise, but I was looking forward to returning to Compton’s captivating storytelling.
While I can say I still enjoyed the quality of Compton’s writing: his word choices, the rhythm of his sentences, his descriptions in the Horror bits, the complex fantastical elements in this were not for me.
I won’t attempt to summarize what this story contains, because honestly, I only truly understood one perspective, Sarita, and by the end, even she’d lost me.
Admittedly, Horror Fantasy isn’t my fave subgenre, but this was strange, even for me, and I like some weird stuff.
I kept pushing on though, even once I stopped enjoying it, because I was waiting for the other shoe to drop; for the light-bulb moment where it would suddenly make sense.
Unfortunately, that never happened, and the further I got, the more disheartened I felt about the whole experience. Before you call me names, or trash me in the comments, I did read this with a friend and we both struggled to make sense of it, so I’m confident it’s not just me.
It almost felt like it was trying to do too much without an easily understandable structure. It was all over the place.
Jarring jumps between POVs, staying for long periods of time within character’s thoughts, which became boring, and huge info dumps regarding the world/concepts, are just a few of my complaints.
The later bits dragged for me as well and by the end, I couldn’t wait for it to be over.
With all this being said, this isn’t the end of the road for my relationship with Compton. Even though this one didn’t work for me, I will be picking up his next book.
I am hoping it goes back more to The Spite House territory than this, but only time will tell.
Thank you to the publisher, Tor Nightfire and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review.
The audiobook narration from Imani Jade Powers was excellent and I do recommend that format if you are going to pick this one up.
Finally, a little reminder, just because this didn’t work for me, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. If the synopsis sounds intriguing, give it a go. You’ve got nothing to lose and you could just find a new favorite!