One of the best horror novels I have ever read!

Anna and her family travel to Italy for a summer vacation and get a hell of a lot more than they bargained for, especially Anna. The dynamic between the family was a struggle at times to get through. Anna is seen as the outcast, never living up to the expectations of her mother, father and sister, and always being the one to hold her twin brother Ben back. So, she knew this vacation would be difficult.

There are moments with her family that are tender, which I found realistic, but it’s the house that unravels their already tenuous relationship. Quickly upon entering this stunning Italian vacation home, there is a feeling of unsettled-ness that plagues all of them.

With a locked tower that is calling to her, despite warnings from townspeople NOT to unlock it, we know how these things go… and nothing is ever the same afterward.

I loved Anna! My heart broke for her each time she tried to prove to her family that she was NOT the person the depict her as, but she never loses that wit and feistyness. The horror element of this book was written to PERFECTION! The atmosphere is formidable, creating this level of fear that is always there.

This was a fantastic novel from Jennifer Thorne and I am immediately going to be checking out any other written work Thorne has!

Fantastic, endlessly gripping, dripping with great prose and atmosphere. I loved this story and just adored the main character. I need more from this author immediately! There aren't enough book in the world like this one.

This was one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Anna dreads the annual family vacation she feels obligated to take with her toxic family. In addition to dealing with them, it appears that the manor they’ve rented in Italy may be haunted with a malevolent spirit.

This book had many different layers, and I thought that the family dynamics were almost as frightening as the haunted manor.

"Diavola" by Jennifer Thorne is a sly and wickedly funny vacation-Gothic that skewers familiar family dynamics while exploring themes of loneliness, belonging, and the enigmatic bonds of family mythology.

Anna, the protagonist, has a set of rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: tread lightly and survive. Amidst her family members, who seem to effortlessly fall in line with the group's expectations, Anna is the outlier. Her twin brother, Benny, is incredibly accommodating, and her older sister, Nicole, conforms to societal norms, even in her own family. Their parents each have their quirks, with Mom questioning her life choices incessantly and Dad seeking peace and quiet.

Their choice of vacation, a remote villa in Monteperso, appears ideal for enduring family togetherness. However, the tranquil setting takes a dark turn as strange noises disturb their nights, local villagers offer unsettling warnings, and the villa's violent history comes to light.

Jennifer Thorne's storytelling is laced with humor and sharp wit, making for an engaging and entertaining read. The characters, though exaggerated in their quirks, are relatable, and readers may find elements of their own family dynamics within the narrative.

The eerie atmosphere and suspenseful moments add depth to the story, creating a sense of foreboding that keeps the reader engaged. Thorne masterfully weaves together the mundane and the supernatural, turning a family vacation into a thrilling and unsettling experience.

"Diavola" is a clever and darkly comedic take on the classic haunted house story. It's a perfect choice for readers who enjoy stories that blend the ordinary with the supernatural and provide a fresh perspective on family relationships and the secrets that bind us together.

Diavola is a fantastically fun horror read. There's really a double-dose of terror in this novel and I'm not sure which one is scarier – the haunted house or the toxic family vacation. (Okay, honestly, yes I do. It's hands-down the family vacation.)

I was a little worried at the beginning – I wasn't particularly invested in the story and I just couldn't get into it properly. Once I made it to around the 30% mark, however, things really picked up and I didn't want to stop reading. I finished the last 60% in one sitting and couldn't help but root for Anna the entire time – her family was truly awful.

The humor in this book is excellent but also kind of … relatable? realistic? Maybe people with non-exasperating families won't appreciate it quite as much, but as someone who once hid in a closet (it was a very large walk-in closet, to be fair) during a family reunion, I could totally relate to the snarkiness and dark humor that Anna used to cope during her Italian torture ... uh, holiday. There's also a scene after Anna returns to her job in New York that is just comedic perfection, and it may or may not have made me snort-laugh when I read it.

As far as setting goes, this is the second book in the last couple of weeks that has made me want to pick up and move to Italy (the other was Christopher Golden's The House of Last Resort) … but I will definitely not be buying or renting any old houses with dark and questionable histories, thank you very much.

And, ooh, that ending! The climax of the story is a nail-biter, for sure, and the epilogue was perfect. I'm not normally a huge fan of books that skip right from the action to an epilogue set years in the future, but this one was like a balm for the soul. You go, girl!

So, yeah, other than the slow start (which was probably just a “me” thing), this book was fantastic and certainly lived up to the author's editor's description of “delightfully unhinged.” If you like your haunted house stories served up with a large dose of family drama, you should definitely give this one a read. 4.65 stars, rounded up.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review.

3 stars

This is a very slow paced novel. It works in some parts but others seem to drag a bit. The story and characters are great though, it just felt like a task to get through it.

This story is very, very slow-paced and the prose itself feels like it could've benefited from a trim too. Especially in horror, that's just not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

4.5 stars.

This book absolutely knocked my socks off. In-between realistic dialogue layered enough to convey all of the evil, passive aggressive little nuances of long-held familial resentments are some truly evocative descriptors of the Florentine Woman (our primary antagonist), the unraveling of psyche, investigation of familial bonds, and more. Perhaps I was projecting onto the protagonist, but Anna felt autistic-coded, and it was interesting to re-read the instances where she "misbehaved" (according to her family) with that in mind. I felt totally connected to Anna as a protagonist.

I took away 0.5 stars from the rating because there were one or two instances where the dialogue felt off and inauthentic compared to the rest of the novel. ("So, /that/ happened," is like, my least-favorite line ever, I am *so* sorry, even though I understand it was an important moment that represented two characters settling into somewhat of an understanding/truce.)

Overall, this book was really good. The author really, really gets it when it comes to familial dread and the ghosts - real, and otherwise - that family can dredge up.