This was so fun! Creepy, witty, relatable - I loved Anna, she's probably one of my favorite recent main characters I've read. She's the "black sheep" of her family, but tbh a lot of the stuff that's 'weird' about her makes her seem Autistic, which is probably why I related so much, haha. I went into this expecting to be annoyed by the family dynamics - and I did find them infuriating and frustrating, but I loved the way Anna thought about and dealt with them (most of the time).

Haunted house stories are so much fun when done well, especially done in a sunshine-y way. This is the second horror book I've read this year set in Italy, and it really felt like what I imagine being there might be like - the atmosphere and vibrancy and warmth were so well described! The scarier parts of this were indeed very scary, with a lot of really unsettling stuff throughout that made parts very dreamlike and surreal.

Overall, I didn't have high expectations for this going into it (no idea why, I think probably because I don't like reading about annoying family stuff?), and was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it.

Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy of this!!

You think family vacations are bad? What if the place you're staying at is haunted by an evil spirit who wants to possess your body and stir up family drama? Anna Pace prefers to be alone yet she has to constantly go to her family's annual family destination vacation. She hates it but she can't get out of it, and it doesn't help when she's considered the family black sheep. The vacation consists of her family: her twin brother Benny and his boyfriend, her older sister Nicole with her two daughters and husband, and her parents. Benny clings to Anna while Nicole can't help but pick at her while her while her mother seizes every opportunity to question her life choices and her dad wants to be left alone. Together, stuck in a beautiful remote villa in Monteperso... the family drama will unfold, and it doesn't help that the villa has something going on with it, from strange noises at night, villagers being afraid of it, and the dark and violent history of the villa itself. Anna knows something is going on and her dreams are being filled with disturbing images... but can she escape both her family and the ghost haunting the villa before it's too late? This book is an ode to anyone who has been trapped in a uncomfortable family vacation. The horror was interesting and the overall ending was good, but like Anna, I kind of was hoping for a bit more with this book. It's not a bad read it just wasn't blowing my mind. I liked the overall haunting and the terrible family tension, and I think it's a fun vacation read for people.

*Thanks Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group, Tor Nightfire for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

A family vacation at an Italian villa takes a sinister turn and already strained relationships start to crumble. At its heart this is a family drama, but make no mistake, the horror is aplenty… there was some genuinely disturbing imagery that I can’t get out of my head. It’s paranormal yet relatable, frightening and also funny. Taking the stress of a family getaway and setting it in a haunted house was so smart. Just an all around awesome book.

Anna is off on vacation with the family. This family just happens to be absolutely infuriating. However, when they arrive at their villa in Italy, Anna immediately gets a distinct feeling of wrongness. This only gets worse as she learns more about the area and, of course, the villa.

This book says so much in a very small amount of time. It's a really quick read. It's a short book. And while speaking on just basic horror story vibes, it really includes a lot about family dynamics that I(especially as an only child!) found really interesting, and also I think it's an important topic.

The atmosphere is everything in this book. I found this to be almost un-put-downable!!! And all that but also with the perfect kind of dark humor made this a hit for me.

Out March 26, 2024!

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

A lover of all things horrible and terrifying, this is by far the scariest book I have ever read! Diavola by Jennifer Thorne is trusting, horrifying, and absolutely perfect.

Anna is the black sheep of her family, outcast not only by her super-model status sister and twin brother, but by her parents as well. The only people that seem to find any interest or liking to Anna are her young nieces and in an odd way, most men (and sometimes women) that she crosses paths with. It’s not secret that Anna is different, a little dark, but no one would realize what would actually set her apart.

Insistent on a get-away family vacation, the family carts off to Italy, staying in one of the most infamous villas of the century. Upon arrival a darkness begins to seep in, and Anna is forced to take the blame. As the vacation begins to crumble, it’s obvious who is to blame, and it’s not Anna. Will her family join forces to fight off the evil attacking them, or will Anna be left to fend for herself?

I received a gifted eARC of DIAVOLA by Jennifer Marie Thorne from Tor Nightfire and a gifted audiobook from Dreamscape Media.

DIAVOLA follows Anna, a young woman on her way to Italy for a family vacation. Anna has always been the odd one out with her family, even if she's a twin. Still, she's the only one currently single and the only one being questioned about her life and her choices. The villa in Monteperso looks like an ideal vacation destination, but starting with the taxi ride to the house, the vibes feel off. The strange night noises, the locked room in the tower, and the warnings from the locals are just the beginning as things start to go wrong.

This is not my first haunted house story set in Italy this year, but it is definitely my favorite! The synopsis includes a warning: "May invoke feelings of irritation, dread, and despair that come with large family gatherings." and that is extremely valid. I didn't always like Anna's choices, but I definitely sided with her when it came to her very difficult family. It didn't help that her family rooted themselves firmly in denial when things start to go wrong.

The haunted house itself had some good gothic vibes, but I enjoyed that the haunting did take some interesting turns. If you've ever been frustrated by characters who don't even try to leave the haunted location posing such a danger, that is addressed here! I liked the gothic vibes and the way the author created a sense of claustrophobia even with the beautiful Italian backdrop.

I had a really good time with this one and would recommend it!

Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for this roller coaster of an ARC. It was wildly gripping and definitely a page turner. If you enjoy tense, ominous, disturbing stories with a lot of family drama mixed with the paranormal, pick this up when it drops March 26, 2024.

My god… when I signed up for this book I didn’t quite know what to expect other than a haunting Italian vacation. What I got instead was an incredible thought provoking journey of agency and what it’s like being an “unlikeable” woman. This book was impeccable the entire time and great for fans of “good for her” horror.

If I could give this book some vibe siblings I’d go with Black Christmas (74), Sara Gran’s Come Closer, and Rachel Harrison’s Black Sheep

Thanks so much to TOR Nightfire for access to this Net Galley! I was so happy to be able to read and review this book and it will definitely be a book I want a physical copy of for my library. This book was the perfect amount of scary and oddly enough dark humor for me! Anna and her disbelief that this haunting could be happening to her and her family is exactly how I would feel. Like, REALLY? I am who you want to mess around with? The fact that it happens on a family vacation was also a close hit to home because my wife and in laws love to go on trips to Air B&Bs together and now I will be looking over my shoulder all the time for Caterina! This book is perfect for the horror lover in your life and a book that begs to be made into a movie or series! This is my first book by Thorne and now I will be in search for more of her work.

I was drawn to this title because of the cover and the book did not disappoint. The pacing of the story kept me engaged and wanting to know more about this twisted family vacation that turned quite eerie. There were points where I had chills and felt like I was there. I did not want the story to stop...and at the same time I did not want to be with that house anymore.

Truly an exciting ghost story!

Diavola is a well-paced haunted house thriller that delivers deeper meaning. I couldn’t put it down!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for this ARC!This was my first read by this author and I was drawn in by the cover.

What I liked:
The setting
The pacing
Jennifer’s writing was top tier

What I didn’t like;
The ending, I wanted more
The labeling of this book as horror, the horror is very light and I’d put this more as a creepy thriller

All and all, this was a solid read! I’d read more from Throne in the future.

I absolutely loved this one and stayed up at night to finish it. The creepiness combined so perfectly with the family drama! I could just picture that sickly yellow color so vividly. La Dama Bianca was done so well and I really loved the unusual background twist it came with (which i'm only not talking more about to avoid spoilers). I loved the sarcastic tone of the main character, Anna. Great haunting overall! Huge thanks to Tor Nightfire for the ARC.

I loved this book!! A messy family vacation with a cast of unlikeable characters taking place in a haunted villa in beautiful Tuscany. What more could you want?

Diavola by Jennifer Thorne was one of my most anticipated books of the year but unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it. I think the writing style just didn’t work for me because I never felt connected to the characters. The pacing was also very strange through the whole book.

It seems like I am in the minority of people since I didn’t enjoy this so I think this will work for a lot of people. Just not me.

Diavola is a captivating slow burn gothic horror that fills you with unease throughout its pages. It offers a modern twist on the haunted house trope, as a dysfunctional family embarks on a vacation that takes a sinister turn. I really appreciated the atmosphere and felt like the creeping dread throughout was masterfully executed, and while there was a brief repetitive phase in the story about 3/4 of the way through, the pacing quickly picked up again at the end. Overall, I felt that Diavola was a very unique and eerie read and one that I’ll be recommending quite often.

Anna is kind of the black sheep of her family, and when they all go to Italy for a family vacation she knows it's going to take everything she has to survive it. When she arrives at the little villa she knows immediately that something is wrong, and that feeling only grows as the days go by. Not only does Anna have to deal with the growing dread she can feel every time she enters the villa but also her absolutely horrible family, of whom the only ones I cared about other than Anna herself were her nieces. Every moment they are in the villa the creepy goings-on get worse and worse until.. well I don't want to spoil what happens but at this point, I was on the edge of my seat, and the story wasn't even finished yet!
I loved the atmosphere Jennifer Thorne created, and Anna was the perfect main character for this story. There were no points where I wanted to put this book down and ended up reading it in one sitting. The haunting got steadily worse, and by the time we got to the end I had no idea how Anna was going to deal with it all, or if she would even survive it.
I loved this from page one, the ending was great, and I was definitely left spooked after finishing it late into the night. It didn't end at all how I expected, but I loved it!
This is a book that I will absolutely be adding to my physical library, and I'll be diving into her backlist and looking forward to whatever she writes next!

The tension and suspense were definitely being built by someone trying to pay rent..! Anna's family seems to be made up of some unpleasant characters that seem fine on the surface but once you get to know them, you realize they each possess one big red flag that can't be overlooked. This was definitely a book that brought discomfort from the two sides of the living and the dead but also kept the story rolling so that you'd want to stick around to see how it all resolved. I do wish we had been given more details about the fates of the rest of Anna's family at the end, but overall, I think the story concluded on a satisfying note.

"Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family mythology.

Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive.

It isn't easy when she's the only one in the family who doesn't quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he's practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone - including her blandly docile husband and two kids - falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, just wants some peace and quiet.

The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso seems like a perfect place to endure so much family togetherness, until things start going off the rails - the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself.

(Warning: May invoke feelings of irritation, dread, and despair that come with large family gatherings.)"

Damn, I love the "Warning!"

This is a wonderful paranormal horror story that includes some serious family drama. Set in an idyllic Italian villa, the author creates a juxtaposition between the beauty of the location and the horror elements that make this story so intense. Anna is on a vacation with her family with whom she has a bad relationship. As the week progresses the house and La Dama Bianca's activity builds. What follows is a riveting story that had me turning pages and I definitely did not see where the story was going to go or how it to end. I loved the atmosphere, all the regular family moments that played so well off the creepy happenings, and especially the creativity of Diavola.

Thank you Tor Publishing for the advanced gifted copy. This is my honest review.