Creepy and fascinating! I kept wanting to find out what happened next!! Perfect for our horror-fan teens here in Ohio!

“Devil in Ohio” was a huge struggle to finish. I hate leaving books as DNF if at all possible and this one just barely managed to survive till the end, but boy was it not easy.
The synopsis caught my attention but the book ultimately left me pretty disappointed.
The book is very quick and easy to read, if it is able to capture your attention long enough.
The book throws a new plot hole at you at nearly every page. It was difficult to keep up with the level of suspense and attention needed to stay invested in the book by the end.
Usually books like this, that are a struggle to keep my attention, at least have characters that draw me in. But, this time, the characters were equally as much of a struggle as the plot itself.
Ultimately, I would not recommend this book to fellow bookaholics.
A copy of the book was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.

This was an ARC I requested before it released, some time ago, because the synopsis sounded really cool (and I love the cover!). Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to it by its release, and then the negative reviews started going up, further dissuading me. I finally decided to give it a fair shot for myself, but in all honesty, part of me wishes I’d listened to those other reviews.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. A psychiatric patient was going to be staying with us. This was completely bizarre.

First of all, it’s a very quick, easy read, and it’s oddly interesting—but that’s about all this book has going for it. There is one huge plot hole after another, suspension of disbelief is impossible to attain, and by the end of the story, I literally wanted to scream at my Kindle. I don’t remember the last time I was made this furious by a book, but I do know that it hasn’t been any time in 2018, at least.

There was something off about Mae. Not like I thought she was a vampire or a werewolf or anything. She just seemed out of place in the regular world.

The biggest issue I have with the storytelling here is that Mae is constantly throwing up red flags, whether it’s her weird little smirks at inappropriate times, or her random seizures and chanting, or the fact that she literally tries to seduce Jules’ father (which, by the way, nobody but Jules’ father sees anything wrong with).

The first 90% of the book builds up to this idea that Mae isn’t quite what she seems, and you do find out that she’s done something terrible, but it’s swept under the rug and blamed on her brainwashing from the cult, and it’s never really gone into in any detail. Otherwise, every creepy little thing she does goes entirely dismissed and is essentially for nothing but forced, fake suspense.

I could now see—Mom wanted to save Mae the way she wished someone had saved her.

The worst part about the book as a whole, though, is how awful the characters are. Just for a quick rundown:
1. Jules is wishy-washy, a complete pushover, and a raging “jerkface” to her best friend when she totally dumps him for this gross clique of girls who wanted nothing to do with her until Mae showed up.
2. Mae is… well, like I said, a lot of forced weird stuff goes on with her.
3. Isaac, Jules’ best friend, is nice most of the time, but gets super pushy and entitled sometimes with Jules, demanding to know where she is and why.
4. Every single other side character is either annoying, an idiot, or just mean. The only exception is Jules’ father, who is literally the only character IN THE ENTIRE BOOK who seems to have any common sense.

All of that said, there is one character in particular who made me want to rage-quit this story: Jules’ mother. You quickly learn that she was abused as a kid and that’s why she’s so determined to “save” Mae, but her actions are completely idiotic and not befitting in the slightest of a woman who has supposedly been this fancy, state-employed psychiatrist for 15+ years. She endangers her entire family constantly (including sending Jules into the heart of the cult activity to save Mae), has no respect for anyone including the law, her boss, or her family, constantly mistreats and acts heartlessly towards her daughters and husband… list goes on. I genuinely could not believe how stupid this character was.

I just… I’m going to shut up now. All I’ll say is that the final straw, unsurprisingly, was the completely lackluster ending. The entire climax of the story is so rushed, under-explained, and makes no sense at all. The epilogue is even worse, with the author’s attempts to drop “hints” regarding another cult that, frankly, most readers are not going to recognize the acronym for to begin with, and therefore are just going to be left missing the reference. I can only assume it was written the way it was in hopes that there would be an offer made for a sequel, which… well, I won’t be picking it up, if it happens.

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Feiwel & Friends for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Polatin, Daria Devil in Ohio, 336 pages. Feiwel and Friends, 2017. $18. Language: R (30 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: PG-13 (sexual references); Violence: PG-13 (satanic cult rituals).

Jules, 15, feels like the odd one out in the middle of her perfect sisters in her perfect family. Then one day her mother brings home a badly injured girl, Mae, from the hospital where she works as a doctor – a girl who escaped, or was thrown out of a local cult town – a quiet, very secretive satanic cult. Now Jules has to make room in her life for Mae, who takes over her room, her place in the family, her crush, and is instantly more popular than Jules at school. But when push comes to shove, no matter how much she hurts, Jules is willing to stand up for Mae against the cult.

The cover gives this an old-fashioned gothic feel with an extra dose of red for the extra evil feeling. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite deliver in tension or drama. It comes off more as a teenage girl jealousy book until the very end. The creep factor was just not there for me to rate this as a first class horror book.

MS, HS – OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library Teacher

I started this book and was fascinated with it. It starts out so strong, and I really enjoyed the format of: story, then counseling sessions, then more story. I seriously could not put it down and then the ending came...sigh...It was rushed and fell flat for me. I was even a little confused by the very ending of the book. I probably would give this book 2 to 2.5 stars, but since it kept me reading until the end, I will give it three. I think teens will really like it, because it is so different from a lot of the books that I have in my library collection.

This was a very intriguing, and, at times, disturbing, book!
I was hoping it would be a bit creepier but there were some spooky moments. It was from a teenage girl’s point of view, which is probably why is wasn’t as creepy as I had hoped it would be.
I have never, to my knowledge, read a YA novel that was based on true events, so this was very interesting and unique in that way.
The ending left some questions, but after a bit of research, I got my answers. Or at least, I assumed my answers.
Overall, this was a quick read and I enjoyed it!

This book was interesting.

Going into this one, I wasn’t expecting it to be as disturbing as it was. Devil in Ohio does surround references of heavy physical and some sexual abuse, so if you are sensitive to either of those topics, this may not be the best book to pick up.

But I have to say that I rather enjoyed reading it. The prologue definitely drew me into the plot line and made me want to know more about what is going on. Because like always, I had forgotten what this book was about before picking it up yesterday.

The story was a fairly quick read. I read this one in three sittings (within a day and a half). I will have to say that I felt myself a little bored with the more contemporary, high-school aspects of this book. Since I am one that draws more to the horror/fantasy worlds, this is expectant for me. The entire book seemed to fit in well between Julie and Mae’s drastically different worlds.

But I have to say that the Mom in this book is a character that just gets on your nerves. The plot twist with her towards the end wasn’t a huge surprise with me. If you are someone who easily notices the plot hints, you may not be as surprised either.

Now, Mae. She was an interesting psych character. There was a huge jump between the beginning and end of this book. Again, the drama that unfolds was a little bit of a give-away while also being a bit surprising. It’s like you know how she may act, but that’s definitely not how you want her to be. The horror part of her character was written pretty nicely as well. This book isn’t ‘horror’ as in don’t-read-this-in-the-dark horror but more of the disturbing horror. If you love books about cults or are fans of American Horror Story, I highly recommend this book!

Overall, I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. My only fault with this book was some of the use of the more contemporary forms to the story with the high-school drama. There were those typical YA moments that made the story feel a little bland at some parts. But other than that, this book was disturbingly exhilarating with a new take on friendship.

This book was good, but it didn't wow me as I thought it would. I didn't really enjoy the third person narrative, but other than that it was pretty interesting.

This is a super creepy book and will keep you reading late into the night but it is SO worth it! When you have a teen reader that is in a slump and needs something to jump start their motivation back into books this would be a great one if they like scary movies!

This book was not at all what I was expecting -- but in that way it exceeded my expectations. While I was a little wary at first due to the random third-person limited chapters surrounding Suzanne (Jules' mom), by the end I was eager for more of Suzanne's story. I wish that Polatin had written a book twice as long, as I have so many unanswered questions, but I am eager for a sequel, which she left the ending open for.

I will be spotlighting this book in a horror display at my library once it is out, and if the fan-base is there, including it in a YA book club next year.

I hated the first line in the book about the tan cornflake. The "prologue" should be chapter 1. It pulls the reader in. I liked the story behind this book, I feel it wasn't executed to it's full potential. I feel some of the characters weren't developed enough, like Isaac, he was her best friend, then got ignored though most of the book, only to return to help save the day.
I liked the ambiguous ending, I want to go back to see if there was a clue as to who these new people might be. I felt some of the descriptions were long-winded and unnecessary. I still think I will order it for my high school library.

I was really intrigued by the summary of this book, but ultimately I was a little disappointed. The characters didn't seem fully formed and I didn't have much emotional investment in any of them. It was a fantastic concept for a story and I liked Polatin's writing style, but the story didn't have as much depth or was as well executed as I would have liked. It's not a favorite of mine, but I would consider putting this in the hands of reluctant readers who enjoy light horror or need less complex storylines.