The Devils You Know by M. C. Atwood | ARC Review

Title: The Devils You Know

Author: M. C. Atwood

Series: N/A

Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Paranormal

Publisher: Soho Teen

Publication date: October 3rd, 2017

Pages: 288

My rating:

Plenty of legends surround the infamous Boulder House in Whispering Bluffs, Wisconsin, but nobody takes them seriously. Certainly nobody believes that the original owner, Maxwell Cartwright Jr., cursed its construction—or that a murder of crows died upon its completion, their carcasses turning the land black. If anyone did believe it all, there’s no way River Red High would offer a field trip there for the senior class.

Five very different seniors on the trip—Violet, Paul, Ashley, Dylan, and Gretchen—have reasons beyond school spirit for not ditching the trip. When they’re separated from the group, they discover that what lies within Boulder House is far more horrifying than any local folklore. To survive, they’ll have to band together in ways they never could have imagined and ultimately confront the truths of their darkest selves.

“We are going to play a game now, you and me. Though, I should warn you: the House always wins.”

Well… To say I’m disappointed is a statement. When I heard about this book I was really excited, because it was the perfect read for this time of the year and I immediatly added to my most anticipated books of this year, so first thanks to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book earlier. However, the story wasn’t as I thought it would be.

You know I’m a scared chicken when it comes to horror, but I’ve decided to give it a try this year since I had a few books I’m interested in. And I don’t know, I expected this one to be more creepy and scary, and I wasn’t. Yes, it had that eery vibe all paranormal or horror novels have, but I thought I would be more scared, due to the premise of the story.

“The win, starting as a breeze, blew with a gale force so fierce it blew the bones of the crows three counties over. They say the land glowed red. Some say his eyes, did, too.”

The writing was a mayor turn off for me. It’s told in multiple perspectives, and it seemed like the author tried to replicate how teenagers talk nowadays, which, let me tell you, it’s not right. When I was younger I didn’t talk like that, and I was really confused by that writing. And it appeared as if the author was trying to hard to let us know that the characters were in high school. But then in other parts of the story (mainly the ones that told you the story of the house and its owner), the writing was completely different, so that made me think it was intentional, which only made me saltier.

The characters unfortunately were so clique as well. Now this trope sometimes I like seeing, like in One of Us is Lying, where it was well executed, but in this particular story, it made me connect less and less with each of them. I didn’t particulary care for any of them, and some of their interactions were quite annoying to me.

What I did enjoy was how they tried to stay together despite hating each other. Now some things were a bit rushed, but the way they tried to survive and how they lean on each other was something I did appreciate.

“He made a promise: he would build a House. A House upon this veryspot. The House would be his vengeance.”

Unfortunately, like I said before, it didn’t scare me at all. I feel the author tried to incorporate a lot of creepy stuff in just one book that didn’t add up with the story, and because how short the book was, it had a few plot holes and I didn’t grab a lot of things from it.

Overall I think the story had a lot of potential, but it was underdeveloped, and I didn’t care that much for the characters to be that invested in the story.

I recieved an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This doesn’t change my opinion whatsoever. All thoughts are my own.