The Devil Makes Three is suspenseful, dark, and twisty. Told from varied POV’s and read by two narrators, this story has complexity. The Devil Makes Three is the perfect thriller as we head into the fall season.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, the narrators, and publisher for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. The opinions in this review are entirely my own.

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I received a complimentary audiobook copy of THE DEVIL MAKES THREE by Tori Bovalino for an honest review. Thank you to Recorded Books and Netgalley for the chance to read and review!

THE DEVIL MAKES THREE follows Tess Matheson. Tess is a gifted cello player with ambitious dreams, but when her parents fall short on the parenting front she steps up to provide for her younger sister. To help make ends meet and afford her sister’s education, Tess is working at their boarding school library. When Eliot Birch uses his father’s faculty credentials to pull a ridiculous number of obscure books out of the library’s grimoire collection, the pair don’t meet under the best of circumstances.

To make matters worse, in the pursuit of some of the most obscure texts, Tess and Eliot manage to unleash a demon who has been trapped in one of the books in the library. Suddenly Tess is plagued by terrible visions and dreams. This devil looks like Eliot in her dreams, but as things start to go more and more wrong around her, Tess realizes she must work with the real Eliot to recapture what has been loosed.

This book was a lot of fun and it was full of creepiness that you want from a read heading into fall. The author does not pull punches when it comes to the body horror, so it is best to be forewarned if gore is not to your liking, but I thought it was very well done. I also enjoyed the way the author pulled some ideas through different layers of the book. Tess is well knowledgeable in inks as her father owned a stationary shop and designed pens, so ink is used in various ways throughout the book.

I thought that the narrators for this audiobook were both great, though I did find the voice of the male narrator perhaps a bit upbeat for some of the gory situations being narrated at times. Even so it made for a gripping read that kept me hooked throughout.

I would recommend THE DEVIL MAKES THREE for those looking to add some chills to their fall reading lists!

A thrilling story about magic, possession, and the devil. When Tess and Elliot find a mysterious book in the bowels of the school library they had no idea what they unleashed. At times chilling in its description and birding on grotesque, this is a great read for anyone who loves a spooky tale filled with mysterious dreams, spells, demonic twists and a hint of enemies to lovers attraction. . Dark academia combined with contemporary horror. I genuinely enjoyed this story and want more!!

Thanks to Netgalley I was approved for the audiobook of this new release. I enjoyed it, it's a very quick read/listen if you don't stop in between. I had a lot of question regarding the magic in this book and how only some people had the ability to weild it, which wasn't really answered.
I didn't mind the characters all that much but they weren't out-standish to me either. Their friendship was somewhat understandable but feel like their relationship progressed too quickly.
The premise of this book was very interesting though slow paced in the beginning, the atmosphere was eery and dark and gave off all the spooky vibes.
Oh and the last sentence had no right to be there other than make me rethink everything.
I'd definitely recommend giving this book a go.

The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino – Audiobook
Narrators: John Keating, Suzy Jackson
Length: 10 hours and 46 minutes

Darkly haunting and so atmospheric! This is Dark Academia at its finest! An accidently released demon and Blood ink magic set the stage for this frightful story.

I loved the chemistry between the characters and for anyone who reads this, know that this is not for the faint of heart. It is gory, bloody and insidious; beware the devil who wears another’s skin and visits in the darkness of your dreams offering your heart’s desire. The setting is fantastic! An old university library complete with a hidden room filled with magical books and grimoires adds to the creep factor.

I listened to this on audio and the narrators are exceptional! Suzy Jackson and John Keating move the story along beautifully, perfectly capturing the emotions of the characters and the tense terrifying nature of the story.

My thanks to Recorded Books and Netgalley for the ALC!

Holy adultification. How are these two teenagers acting like 35 year olds?

All actual adults in the book are either inept, helpless, awful or just straight up evil.

Tess and Elliot mistakenly release a demon from a book where it had been trapped previously while trying to find information Elliot needs to save his dying mother. The demon wants Tess. It offers her success beyond her imagination and that's about it. The demon starts attacking those around Tess to go after her.

I never got attached to the characters. They're all pretty flat without rounded personlities. Tess spent the entire book trying to find even more ways to sacrifice herself for everyone around her. Elliot has magic but doesn't do anything with it except repair a door/clean until nearly the end. There's no real reason for them to go from annoyed with each other to liking each other.

The narrator for Tess's piece was great, but why was a grown man narrating Elliot when he's supposed to be a teen? I was confused for part of his first piece thinking he was an adult.

Meh.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the early access!

I have mixed feelings about this book - I'd say an accurate rating would be 3.5 stars.

It started off quite slow, and I couldn't really get attached to the story or the characters. It felt repetitive at times, and foul for reason.

But once you get past the first 3 hours of reading, it gets better - it gets good! I started actually feeling like I liked the characters - although I wouldn't say I'm too attached to Tess, more so to Elliott. I started to be more invested in the story and wanting to know what would happen. It actually got a little bit creepy halfway down the line!

I liked the narrators too - they did a good job.

I overall ended up enjoying the book, but the beginning did make that hard. Some people may not feel the need to push through and will DNF it in the early stages of it being a bit boring. Hopefully that won't be too many people, as the end of it was good!

I can't wait to see Illumicrate's edition, as I really dislike the UK cover, whilst I believe the US one is gorgeous.

I think the book was absolutely wonderful, but I would not be recommending it to students unless they're in 11-12th grade minimum. The audiobook was fantastic though! Each narrator did a great job really bringing every single character to life, The story itself was gripping and I flew through this book in 3 days because I just was on the edge of my seat every single chapter

The narration in this was marvelous. I just became so captivated in this story, and enjoyed it most when the lights were off, the rain was thick, and the creatures lurked deep in the corners.

Now, THIS is dark academia! I really enjoyed Tess and Eliot's story, and especially their complicated relationships with their family. I listened to the audiobook and liked Tess's narration a lot, but Eliot sounded like a 40 year old man, which detracted from the performance a bit for me. Overall, an enjoyable read!

This was fantastic, a great dark atmospheric novel, A great quick pace will grab you and take you on a creepy ride into the dark academic feels of Jessop Library. Tess and Elliot are both loveable characters that you will want to both love and throttle at different throughout the story.
This is creepy enough to let anyone read it but enough to ley me who loves horror to enjoy. A fantastic read for those who enjoyed House of Hollows.

Ever since this book hit my radar, it's been pretty high on my "can't wait for" list. I am not really good with gore but I love a good thriller and this hit all the boxes. Good characters, creepy dreams, and just the right amount of horror.

Tess works in the library of her elite boarding school which is where she meets Eliot Birch, the son of the headmaster she kind of hates. Although they get off on the wrong foot, Tess agrees to help Eliot get into the special collection where they accidently release a demon.

I worked in the library of my college and it was so nostalgic listening to this story. Thankfully (or maybe sadly?) there were no forbidden grimoires hiding in our stacks but the descriptions pulled me right back to the hours spent listening to my music and shelving books.

I loved how unsettling the dreams where and thought that Bovalino did a great job making the reader as creeped out as Tess and Eliot quickly became. The ink that was also blood had me squeamish and uncomfortable but I also could not hit pause. I had to know what was going to happen next!

Technically this is a stand alone but I would really really love if Bovalino wrote more in this world. There were so many great characters that could carry another story.

I hated this! I tried so hard I really really did but this book just seemed to drag on and on for me. It felt like a weird fever dream written by someone with a serious devil fetish. I wanted to DNF this book so bad but I didn't just in case it got better but it never did.
I mean no harm to anyone out there who did like this book but it just wasn't for me. I don't understand why this is such an anticipated release.

Rating: 4.83 stars
Enjoyment: 10/10


Tess would love nothing more than to be left alone to practice her cello and make sure her sister is happy. But Tess’s summer is anything but what she wants - stuck at her boarding school’s library and a local pub, she is constantly annoyed by insufferable patrons. The worst being entitled fellow pupil, Eliot Birch. Eliot seems to be on a mission to find a specific grimoire he believes is part of the school’s forbidden collection.

With their carelessness and arrogance, these unlikely bedfellows unleash a demon because life wasn’t already complicated enough! But wait… There is more. The demon doesn’t want to be trapped again and is dead set on using Tess to accomplish her goal, and he will stop at nothing to get his way.

Bovalino DELIVERED!! Tess and Eliot are fantastic characters, and I loved the evolution of their relationship. They couldn’t be more unlike the other on the surface. But inside, they both had traumatic events that shaped them, secrets that trapped them, and a resilience that kept them going. When their world collapsed, and a demon was thrown in the mix, I was hooked!

The Devil Makes Three is a YA book in which characters act their age, and adults are involved. Gore and creepiness are very much part of the plot - and they do come out to play. The demon in this book is fascinatingly seductive, magnetic even. I almost ruled for him, almost. Bovalino knocked the atmosphere off the park: this book is suspenseful, intense, enthralling, and dark.

This book reads like a standalone, but there is a glimmer of hope that it might become a series. It’s probably wishful thinking, but I need more of whatever magic was in this book because I enjoyed it.

I first read it as an audiobook produced by RB Media and narrated by Suzy Jackson and John Keating, and let me tell you. They made the experience even better. I loved how their chemistry was over the charts and their pacing impeccable. As Tess is American and Eliot, British, listening to the story enhanced the atmosphere and made the reading experience more immersive. I highly recommend the audiobook as a reading companion or by itself.

Disclaimer: I first read it as an ARC. In exchange for an honest review, I am thankful to Tori Bovalino, RB Media, Recorded Books, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of The Devil Makes Three

Thank you for the publisher and Netgalley for the audiobook! I still can’t believe I got approved!!

This was a really interesting, eerie, gothic, very atmospheric dark academia read with magic and a demon, set in a boarding school. For me, it had a little bit of Addie LaRue vibe, and I was here for it!

I liked the plot, the character development as Tess and Eliot grew and fought together, although the beginning felt a bit slower as the story built up, but then from half of the book went crazyyy and wild, with lots of gore and exciting happenings, and I really liked the ending!
For me the characters felt older, their personalities, their actions…more like they are in a university than high school, but this was not a problem, I enjoyed even more,
The narrators did a great job with the audiobook too, and altogether this was a very good read!

'The Devil Makes Three' has quite the slow start, which allows to set up the two main characters, but makes it hard to get into the story. I'm a bit annoyed how obviously the two protagonists are paired up from the very beginning. Set in a High School, you can expect a summery horror novel. We see nothing of the school besides the library, because it's currently summer break. It's not really a dark academia novel, which disappointes me a bit. Overall it's an alright novel; not scary or engaging (ink is not that terrifying tbh). The characters are well built, but leave me cold.
I like the two narrators, though I think the male narrator doesn't fit a teenager that well.

I received this audiobook as an eARC from Netgalley. All opinions are my own!

Tess just wants to keep her head down and keep her sister happy. Elliot just wants to find magic that could save his mother. But when they accidentally unleash a demon, Tess and Elliot find themselves thrown together while fighting for their lives.

The first thing that caught me about this book was just how real and raw both Tess and Elliot are. They are both dealing with such hard and emotional things, and I found myself relating to them almost immediately. It was so easy to root for them and find pieces of myself in them and their stories. From the first of each of their chapters, I was hooked into their stories and needed to know what would happen for each of them.

The plot itself was unlike anything I've read before. It took a bit for the story with the demon to start to unfold, but once it did, I was utterly hooked. The mystery and overall creepiness of the demon and its nature was so enthralling to me that I didn't want to stop listening (even though I was also creeped out at night). And even the nature of them demon itself held wisdom and truth that made you stop and think. I really appreciated the deeper meanings and themes of this book and enjoyed watching them unfold through Tess and Elliot.

If you like paranormal stories that will keep you up at night (from fear or curiosity, you decide), this book is for you!

I was immediately drawn to this book because of the cover. It's so cool and creepy and then I read the synopsis and immediately had to request it.
I really liked both Tess and Eliot, our 2 POVs. Tess was really doing the best she could to follow her dreams of playing cello, go to school and take care of her 13 year old sister when her parents were failing. She was such a strong character. Eliot was seen as arrogant and priviledged, but we really got to know the real Eliot.
I was immediately pulled into this book from the very first chapter. Tess works in the library on campus and gets a request for her to pull out over 100 books from who she thinks is the headmaster. She writes some very rude sticky notes that she is going to take off before giving the books to him, but her co-worker gives the books to him with the sticky notes on. From there I was hooked knowing that this was supposed to be scary but also had humor. Once Tess and Eliot release the demon from one of the grimoires in the library, you never knew what was going to happen. It was twist after turn and there were so many things I didn't see coming!
If you are looking for a slightly terrifying fantasy that takes place mostly in a library, check this one out!

As a Young Adult horror fantasy novel, I expected a fast-paced plot that spread through character development and jumped into action. Instead, this book starts off fairly slow and, other than a few mentions of magic, could have easily been a contemporary romance novel for the first few chapters However, the slow, mundane start worked well in building the tension and stakes. The prose is beautifully crafted and engaging.

The two protagonists, Tess and Elliot, were enjoyable and satisfying to follow through their journey. They both had interesting backstories and unique motivations. The book does switch between points of view, although both sides are to in close third person. This was an interesting choice on the author’s part, but it was not too distracting. They also had great chemistry from their first meeting.

This story is set on a private preparatory academy in Pittsburg. I enjoyed that the story had a specific setting, although it could have really been set anywhere in the US and didn’t feel like it had to be specific to Pennsylvania. The magic system was enjoyable and easy to understand, but not exceptionally unique to this story.

The Devil Makes Three is a stand-alone Young Adult horror fantasy novel and the debut of Tori Bovalino. The plot is slower than I expected but works perfectly in building tension and introducing information. I also loved following the two protagonists. While the setting and magic system are specific, neither stood out among other books in this genre. I highly recommend this book for fans of light horror, but do warn that it features gore and other triggers that readers should be aware of.

I was super interested in this book premise, unfortunately it did't hit as well with me as I would have liked. First off I listened to this one on audio, thanks to the publisher, and while it was well recorded, I had a hard time enjoying it because the male narrator was much older than the female. As this is a "highschool" aged book, it just didn't sit well with me when he would talk about wanting to touch the girl, it came off more creepy in a bad way than being romantic sounding. It may be perfectly fine while physically reading, but in my experience with it, it was a miss. The pacing was also an issue for me, it seemed to drag out parts that could have been shortened and didn't contain as much action as I would have hoped for, for a horror genre type book. It may be fine for a Young Reader, but for me it just wasn't quite what I was hoping for after reading the premise.

Thank you to Netgally and RB Media for a copy of this title in exchange for an honest reviw