The Devouring Gray by C.L. Herman is a chilling, atmospheric fantasy with small-town secrets and dark magic. It follows Violet and her friends as they uncover their families' mysterious powers and confront a deadly force lurking in the woods. With eerie vibes, complex characters, and suspenseful twists, it’s perfect for fans of haunting YA tales full of mystery and supernatural intrigue.

I really enjoyed the storyline in world building in the novel. I also really liked the characters. I thought this was a solid read, and I will definitely be reading more by this author.

I think that this is an impressive debut and I am open to trying more from the author. I loved the atmosphere! I am happy I didn't let the Raven Boys comparison stop me from reading this because while I can see where that is coming from it is definitely it's own unique story!

I really liked this book! Like so much. We have a small New York town that is protected by four founding families. Each family has a unique gift or power that helps protect it from "the gray" a kind of parallel plane that sometimes brushes ours. In it lives a being. that kills people when it can. Each new member of a family has to go through a trial to get their powers. Our five main characters include May, Violet, Justin, Isaac and Harper. The gray has been getting more powerful and taking more lives. May's oracle reading reveals that Violet is the key to it all. She didn't grow up in town and only recently moved back. She doesn't know anything about her heritage. Justin, Isaac and May, must join up with Harper, who has kind of been shunned by the founding families in order to stop the gray and further deaths.
I loved each character in the group. They all had their secrets and their wounds. Isaac is my most favorite in the story. He has some major demons he struggles with. I also love the inner strength and gumption Harper shows. I was so disappointed when I got to the end of the book as it ends in a way that you know there is going to be more. Fortunately since I'm late to this book, there is already a second book to this story, and I'm so excited to start reading it.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Sadly I wasn't able to read The Devouring Gray book before the title was archived.

THE DEVOURING GRAY was one of those books I thought I’d love, that intrigued me with the synopsis, and just… fell a bit flat. There were some good aspects, namely some of the character dynamics, but ultimately I forgot most of the book after finishing it. This isn’t the first contemporary supernatural-esque story I’ve struggled with lately so perhaps it’s a combination of the book and a shift in my own reading tastes.

In the vein of others in the genre, this book involves a small town where strange things happen (that somehow never draw attention from the “outside” world??) and the group of teens caught in the middle. There are four main characters, alongside a larger than probably necessary cast, and the shifting points of view was one aspect I struggled with. I don’t dislike multi-PoV (in fact, I enjoy it quite a bit), but in this case, it put too much distance between me and the characters to ever invest in what happened to them. Which contributed to my slow start and just-as-slow progress while reading.

That said, THE DEVOURING GRAY nailed the atmosphere. The vibes were there if with nothing else, and it definitely gave the book its slightly spooky edge. I’d say it was worth reading for the writing alone because of that, but I’m not sure I will pick up the sequel. To be honest, I don’t know if it really needed a sequel when it seems more of a reason to slow things down in this book, but perhaps the next book will be better! I’d tentatively recommend this one but mostly for the writing rather than the characters or overall story.

Great books and wonderful story. This one a great story and loved reading it.
Would recommend for anyone that loves a good story and loves to read about awesome characters.

I wound up dnf-ing this one--the multiple POVs for Harper, Isaac, Violet, and Justin wound up working to the story's detriment. I never felt like I got to really know any single one of them and the pacing got very bogged down for me as a result. I really enjoyed the set up and atmosphere, though--it was very spooky and cool, I just wish that I'd cared enough about the characters to be sucked in just a little bit more. Still, I really appreciated the bisexual representation and would suggest libraries looking to expand their collections to have more bi characters might look into this one.

This book was fantastic. It was dark, mysterious and just everything I love in a book. The atmosphere felt so real for me. I can't wait to read the next book!

The first book in the Devouring Gray series, and the second of three 2019 debuts I’ve been looking forward to reading (Wicked Saints – Emily A Duncan.. so good! And Wilder Girls – Rory Power, not yet released). And ya know what? I liked this book. A lot.

The funny thing with this was I didn’t actually realize how invested I’d gotten in these characters until two key scenes toward the end of the book and I just got all the feels. That sneaky author went and got me!

But yeah, this was atmospheric, well written and developed and I loved the way the town, the adults, the history and the teens all entwined on top of each other.

The ‘monster’ was interesting and intriguing, and the story left me with questions, yet it felt complete in itself as well. I’ll definitely be reading on when the next book is released. I love CLH’s style, there’s a lot of care and love in this book. Plus, super inclusive, and I loved that!

Can’t wait for more!!

A lot of reviewers mentioned that this book is kind of like a cross between Raven Boys and Stranger Things. I suppose I can see the comparison, especially to Stranger Things (the Gray does seem a bit like the Upside Down) but I'm not so sure about Raven Boys. First of all, I really disliked the Raven Boys and I really liked the Devouring Gray. I'd liken it more to Vampire Diaries with the small town, spooky feel and the importance of certain Founding Families and their history.

I felt like the characters will well-written and easy enough to tell apart which can be kind of hard when you have so many characters that are the same age. I liked the memory loss aspects and how the parents weren't in the forefront but were still important to the story. So many YA books have completely absent parental figures which happens but not nearly as often as books seem to suggest.

2 stars

The Raven Boys meets Stranger Things?

That’s a tagline that captures attention, but The Devouring Gray failed to deliver. While I can appreciate the similarities to both Raven Boys and Stranger Things, I think they are on different levels.

The Devouring Gray seems like it would be a great read, but I don’t even think I fully grasped what was happening. It seemed there was no real plot point. The only thing I really enjoyed was some of the characters. And even I struggled with 90% of them. They just didn’t seem that interesting except for Issac who got not povs.

The writing while beautiful did take me a minute to get used to. The start of the book is incredibly slow and the ending of the book is full of unanswered questions which only left me feeling frustrated.

I would advise anyone looking to start this, have the second book on hand.

In The Devouring Gray, Violet comes back to the town her family helped found only to discover that being a founding family comes with a dark secret. It turns out the town of Four Corners is protected because their ancestors channeled special powers to protect them against the Beast, but each generation must face a potentially deadly ritual challenge to activate those special powers. But somehow, the Beast has gotten loose, and mangled bodies are turning up all over town. Can the teen descendants of the four founding families channel their superpowers to stop the carnage and save the town?

So first, am I the only person who thinks about The Vampire Diaries every time someone says “founding families?” In fact, this book gets compared to all kinds of other texts: Stranger Things, Riverdale, even the Raven cycle. And that comparison works if you mean that it’s a story about teenagers dealing with something mysterious in a small-ish community. BUT The Devouring Gray is missing something those other texts have, which is a bigger picture: What’s the deal with the Beast anyway? How does all this work? (This is apparently the first book in a series, so it’s possible some of those questions will get answered later.) There’s a lack of depth that becomes apparent whenever the surface isn’t flashing with action — and I feel like that’s true for the characters, too, who are superficially full of cool characteristics but missing the thing underneath that makes them fully realized people.

It’s not that this is a bad book — there’s a lot of interesting stuff happening. It’s just kind of unsatisfying when you stop and think about it. In fact, when I started to write this, I thought I’d be recommending it as a reasonably exciting YA thriller, but as I write it, I realize that it’s all surface and no depth — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in a thriller but which makes it harder for me to recommend enthusiastically, if you know what I mean.

As a huge fan of Stranger Things, I was ecstatic to read this book. It gives all the creepy feels one enjoys when reading vs. watching TV. I highly recommend this to any fan of the show.

From its spooky, mysterious setting to the relationships between the four main characters, this book will remind you of Riverdale and Stranger Things. What, exactly, is going on in Four Paths, anyway? Justin, Isaac, May and Violet are all descendants of the founders of the town, and all of them have special powers.

The story takes a bit of time to get going but then there are some twists and turns. Not much romance to speak of, if that is what you're looking for.

All in all, an interesting debut and an author to keep an eye on.

I loved the double bi rep in this one. M/F couple of two bisexual people?? Hell yes!! It was also very atmospheric and I loved the unique relationships between the four characters. Can’t wait for the sequel.

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman is a great creepy read. It's a fun and spooky adventure! I would highly recommend it to young adult and fantasy readers. It is a rich and lush world with fantastic characters.

Entertaining and dramatic. I recommend this book to fans of the new Locke and Key or Sabrina television shows.

I loved this book and have read it at least twice. Maybe thrice. The story captivates, the characters breathe, and the unknown keeps you turning page after page after page. I'd love to read more stories by Christine Lynn Herman.

Ah, where to begin with this book. I like to keep these reviews succinct but we'll see. Please note that I"m aware this book is being reviewed after it's pub date, and a lot of the readers I've spoken to about this book have enjoyed it. I loved the small-town setting of this book and I understand how this was given 'stranger things' as a comparison. While not really similar at all, the cast of characters, setting, and general eerie mystery of the book was reminiscent. I thought most of the characters were well rounded but I did not connect with Violet as much as I wanted to. The writing was mostly where this book fell flat for me. I struggled to get through parts that were not engaging even though I was interested in where the story was going, which is a shame, because everything about this book was really wonderful.