The Devil's Promise by Celso Hurtado, the second book in the Ghost Tracks series, is a compelling YA horror novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. The writing is skillfully executed, with a well-balanced pace that keeps the story engaging from start to finish. The plot unfolds smoothly, with carefully thought-out events that build tension effectively. The vivid descriptions and chilling details of the entities and situations are truly gripping and kept me hooked throughout. This installment continues to impress with its blend of suspense and eerie atmosphere.

So, I definitely jumped into this book not even paying attention that it had a book 1 🤦🏼‍♀️ but I was able to completely piece it all together in the end!

Right around 60% I began to skim read. I feel like the plot became convoluted and the twists were forced in an attempt to drag some interest back into the story. I also feel the random intervention/drug addiction subplot slapped on to the end was unnecessary and existed solely to add additional word count.

It was a decent book. Never really took off for me, but I still enjoyed reading it. I do think that I might have enjoyed it more had I read the first installment of the series.

So this is the second book in a series, which I was not aware of upon requesting on Netgalley, so I am not sure if this ties into the first book.

The Devil's Promise was actually really good and had an amazing, creepy atmosphere to it! I really liked Celso Hurtado's writing style of the plot, characters, and twists. I will absolutely be reading the first book and others by the author!

Thank you to Netgalley and Inkshares for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

at first I was very expectant for this story to go a certain way. However I was disappointed. The action (which never let up) was great as well as the twist ending. However I wasn’t too keen on the supernatural part. I don’t know that I will read more from this author.

Creepy, intense, and unnerving are just a few words I can use to describe this sordid tale. A dark decent into the depths of a hellscape. From the very beginning you just sort of hang on white knuckled while our main character deals with inhuman, audacious horrors. Hurtado knows how to build a story into a crescendo of insanity that you won't want to put down.

Orlanzo Cruz is still fighting with his best friend rat but the thanks to Alma he has a new sidekick name Vero sadly OrlanZo is not in a good place his grandmother‘s cancer has gotten worse and she is now in the hospital something he would do anything to change or at least that’s what I thought they say curiosity kills the cat but it almost kills Alonso when Bradley Erickson comes to him to say 20 years before a crush invited him to a midnight gathering to meet the wish master and although his wish was granted the payoff is too much the demon wants his firstborn son but now that he knows his son he doesn’t want to pay. Despite how scary making a deal with the wish master is before it’s over orLonzo unwittingly just may do that. I loved the first book and felt so bad for Alonzo and felt so lucky to have received an arc copy of the second book and to say I enjoyed it just as much would be an understatement I cannot wait for the third book in this collection I love the stories I love the characters in the book and thought Vero and the twist she brought to the story was excellent I was not expecting that and wow what a twist this is a great book and one I highly recommend I want to thank the publisher and Net Galley for my free art copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

In the follow-up to his brilliant debut The Ghost Tracks, Celso Hurtado returns with another thrilling tale of horror. Seventeen-year-old Erasmo Cruz is a paranormal investigator, taking cases to pay for his grandmother’s healthcare. He is doing it alone, his friend Rat having abandoned him. Erasmo’s latest case is unlike anything he’s ever come across, and at first he’s tempted to pass on it. Bradley Erickson is convinced that his good fortune is due to a ritual he took part in during his youth in exchange for an undisclosed gift. Now the Devil want’s his due; the blood of his child.

Not only does it sound too ludicrous to be true, but everything Bradley tells him doesn’t fit with Erasmo’s knowledge. It sounds as if Bradley has been taken for a ride. Things become more serious when Bradley’s son is kidnapped in front of Erasmo, an event that has him questioning everything he knows. Unable to walk away he finds himself drawn into a dark conspiracy of satanic cults, demons and secrets as he hurries to save an innocent child.

All the while his grandmother’s health is failing, her body losing its battle with cancer. Erasmo is struggling, not just with facing the loss of the only family he’s ever had, but his own health is a mess. He’s having black-outs, he’s feeling nauseous and fatigued all the time. All Erasmo can do is hope that he can hold it together long enough to find Bradley’s son.

Once again Celso Hurtado has delivered a dark and intriguing tale of horror filled with twists and turns, seamlessly blending the fantastical and the everyday. As with the previous book, The Devil’s Promise keeps the reader guessing, providing as much evidence for the existence of the supernatural as for con artists. At the heart of this book about demons is a very human protagonist, and for the second time I was blown away by Hurtado’s ability to harness the rawness of life. The Devil’s Promise includes difficult scenes portraying the harsh realities of end of life care, and I applaud Hurtado for including these in a young adult novel. It was something I appreciated as someone who had a grandparent who battled cancer during my teenager years, and passed away when I was seventeen.

The end of The Devil’s Promise packs a punch, and if you can avoid spoilers for this book then I suggest doing so. At this point Hurtado has proven himself to be a master of surprise twists within twists, and the beauty of this one is that it is right in front of the reader the entire time. It is an extremely powerful moment in the book. With this second novel Celso Hurtado has easily secured a spot as one of my favourite writers, and I am eagerly looking forward to the next book in The Ghost Tracks series.

👿Book Review👿

📚The Devils Promise
by @celso

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5⭐️’s
👻👻👻/5👻’s
🩸🩸🩸🩸/5🩸’s

👿So, I definitely jumped into this book not even paying attention that it had a book 1 🤦🏼‍♀️ but I was able to completely piece it all together in the end!

👿Honestly it took a minute to really get into and kind of piecing everything together (again, probably my fault 🤦🏼‍♀️), but this book threw me for a loop and I was completely here for it!! To say my mind was seriously BLOWN at the resolve is an understatement!! 🤯😱

👿Following Erasmo Cruz’s search for the paranormal, brings him to this potential client, Bradley, who believes the devil is after his newborn son. He recounts that in his younger days he decided to follow a beautiful girl to a ceremonial gathering that he has no idea what’s really going on. As Erasmo starts looking into things he comes to find the literal cult, who worships a mysterious demon who makes deals to give the person whatever they desire BUT for a huge cost…

👿Do you think that the need/want outweighs the consequence/sacrifice? Does Erasmo get Bradley’s son back or will he give into this unknown demon, just to save his grandmother and to have the feeling of a “family”?!?

👿But, for real though, add this to your Spooky Season tbr because if you don’t, you’re missing out on a heck of a spook!! 😏😈

I read the first book in this series back when I started doing this whole ARC reading/reviewing thing and it was an unexpected treat, so when I got an invite to read and review the sequel I jumped on it right away and I’m glad I did because not only is The Devil’s Promise an even better novel than The Ghost Tracks, but Celso Hurtado has really grown as a writer in the two years since The Ghost Tracks was published and it shows.

I’m not going to explain the plot of The Ghost Tracks for those who aren’t familiar with it. You can go and look up the blurb or something. An even better suggestion is to go read it! I can’t emphasize how much you really can’t read The Devil’s Promise and understand it without reading The Ghost Tracks. You’ll be extremely lost and won’t understand Erasmo, the book’s main character, in any way unless you do that. Then come read this book. Also! I don’t know if the final, published version of this book will have TW/CWs in place, but there is a lot of material in this book worthy of such warnings, so you may want to go look them up if you’re a person who needs such warnings.

The Devil’s Promise picks up a few months after The Ghost Tracks left off. Erasmo’s grandmother is in the hospital and they don’t know if she’ll make it. He and his ex-bestie still aren’t speaking. Erasmo is trying to work as much as possible to pay hospital bills but he’s hardly making a dent as more and more come in. He’s not good. Then he gets an email reply to his Craiglist ad from a man who claims to have just realized he may have made a pact with the Devil when he was a teenager and now the payment has come due.

I don’t want to go any further with explaining the plot itself than that because of spoilers and because letting the plot unfold is one of the best things this book has to offer. It’s layered, surprising, depraved, seductive, and dark. It’s also nasty and very violent in some parts.

The Ghost Tracks had a lot to say about friendship. This book has a lot to say about family. Erasmo spends most of this book in a dazed and confused state, full of inner musings about the parents who abandoned him when he was small, the grandmother who loves him unconditionally and could quite possibly die before he becomes a legal adult, the grandfather who’s passed but looms so large in his memory, and the envy he feels constantly toward anyone and everyone who has a family and everything they want when he just feels lost, alone, and broken.

This book is marketed as YA, but it honestly shouldn’t be pigeonholed like that. Erasmo may only be 17, but he’s lived more than some adults have and has had to shoulder more responsibilities and see more things than most adults have. I think supernatural and occult horror fans would be surprised by how much they might enjoy this book.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Amateur Sleuth/Body Horror/Book Series/Coming of Age/Cult Horror/Horror/Occult Horror/OwnVoices/Supernatural Horror/YA Book Series/YA Fiction/YA Horror

This was a good book. It has a occultist vibe. It is scary, intense, dark and creepy. I was surprised when I realized it was the second book in the series. Despite that you don't really need to read it to get the story. It did refer to incidents but wasn't very spoiler kind of details. Overall great book.

Celso Hurtado’s ‘The Devil’s Promise’ is the second, not entirely standalone entry in the “Ghost Tracks” series, with ‘The Ghost Tracks’ itself being the first. It’s basically a paranormal YA novel, written simply yet with heart and great intelligence, sometimes darkly funny but always a riveting and enjoyable read (pretty much like the first entry!) The idea of a young Latino paranormal investigator going against the odds, still has its appeal, and Hurtado takes care not to outstay his welcome. Though it starts rather slowly, it soon picks up and the story intensifies with vivid depictions of entities and situations straight out of a demonology manual! The setting of San Antonio fits the story perfectly, the characters are totally relatable and the dialogue is sharp and natural, almost like friendly banter. I should mention that I loved the ending, and would happily recommend the book to everyone based just on that smart twist!

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Inkshares for the ARC!

I wonder if this would have worked better had I read the prior installment? It's clear pretty early on that our narrator is unreliable, but not exactly how or to what extent. The ultimate reason is a bit of a "get out of bad writing free" card since it explains plot holes and confusion away.

Overall, this felt a bit of a jumbled mess. The narrator is so unreliable that I missed the point and really just wanted it all to end. At least it was mercifully quick :)

A riveting return to his world created in The Ghost Tracks, Celso Hurtado brings us into life with Erasmo Cruz. Things are moving right along for Erasmo, until one day, they’re not anymore. The things he’s put off to whim and fancy, coincidence and chance, are far from that. Fun becomes frightful reality, and he and his friends are tested time and again, their choices defining who they are and will be.



I loved Ghost Tracks and this was no exception. As many others noted, the ending is totally unexpected, and I fall into the camp of ‘loved it’! Sincerely hoping to see the hinted at continuation here, and will be following Celso in hopes of hearing about it soon.

Some of the best reads in the horror genre have come from Latin voices.

Whether this is anthologies, tales of Mexican demons such as La Llorona or simply putting hispanic characters at the forefront; there are stories worth reading.

Celso Hurtado's The Devil's Promise feels like a throwback to yesteryear with its teenage antagonist Erasmo Cruz a self-appointed detective of the supernatural.

Things get a bit too close to home for Erasmo here, as he is forced to tackle the powers of evil but with offers of greater power, will he make the right choice?

The Devil's Promise is quite linear in plot and moves along quite nicely but doesn't really carry the jolts and intensity you want from a horror novel. It conjures up good scenarios but doesn't have the scares to match the setup.

Hurtado's novel does promise further adventures of Erasmo Cruz, so while not the finished article, there is enough potential in the character for a better follow-up.

This is the first I’ve ever read anything by Celso Hurtado. I very much enjoyed this book, and had a hard time putting it down. It’s centered around a young man who investigates the paranormal. While he believes in these situations, he is first a skeptic. When he’s contacted to look into a new claim so many things start to happen. Are these claims real, in his head, or maybe something else at play?

This is the second in a series and I want to read the rest as this novel is an emotionally charged, creepy and well written story.
Twisty, dark and well plotted.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an advance copy of this book in return for my honest opinions.

Release date: October 3, 2023!

This book is the second book in a series, but can easily be read as a stand alone novel. There were a few instances where I was not familiar with some references to past events, but it did not take anything away from the story

The book was full of horror/paranormal and had me checking the locks on my doors in the wee hours of the night. I had all the lights on and was curled up with my little schitzu as my protector, but couldn't stop reading.

Recommend! Yes, well worth the read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkshared for this opportunity to read, rate and review this arc which is available Octiber 3,2023!!!

This is book 2 of the Ghost Track books and I have to say I dig it a lot. I am a huge fan of possession horror, folklore horror and Latino horror.

This was a well written, edge of your seat wth was the noise kinda book. I had to keep the light on. But like the book says the Devil keeps its promises.