Thought-provoking, timely, and a highly entertaining read. I've never sampled John Vercher's writing before, so I didn't know what to expect. The novel's premise immediately sought my attention, as I was anxious to see how dicey subject matter like this would be handled. Maybe navigating in some "Yellowface" terrain (for fans of that novel), but far more surreal and sobering in execution. The "unnamed narrator" grabbed me from the start with his nihilistic, smug, and sarcastic narrative voice. A grieving, biracial father grapples with racism, colorism, academia, divorce, alcoholism, and the history of generational trauma. Very Flawed Male Protagonist™ vibes where every sort of mistake is made with immediate lessons to be learned (or unlearned) in the aftermath. A bit too "Netflix-ready" for my tastes, but I'll gladly admit that the material here would make a great bingeable series or movie of some sort. With our protagonist dealing with a sinister inheritance and immense loss that unravel his sensibilities and good judgment, I was surprised how all that heaviness was balanced with consistent humor. This is a really funny novel! Beyond the self-referential asides, awkward magical realism elements, and millennial schtick, stay tuned for a scene-stealing bar patron who never misses an opportunity to insult our professor/author's fragile male ego and narcissism. (My personal favorites were "Phony Morrison" and "Richard Left," as well as a direct dig on the current trend of modern reimagining of classic literature). The ending also hit me like a gut punch. Recommended reading.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Books for the digital ARC.

Thank you, Celadon, for the privilege of perusing this advance reader's copy. Should it be published under your esteemed imprint, I have no doubt that it will be a work of utmost quality. While at times a challenging read, the poignant themes of racism and the tragic loss of a child imbue the narrative with a profound emotional weight. Yet, Vercher's masterful prose and skillful incorporation of magical realism held me in rapt attention.

Content Warnings: death, slavery, grief, substance abuse
Representation: Black, Mixed
Favorite Quote: “If I got to choose between your God and the devil, then the devil is fine. Send me to him so I can haunt you and yours until all your dying days.”
Devil is Fine is a literary fiction novel that sets out to do a lot. It set out to honestly portray mixedness, through a half-Black, half-White protagonist. It sets out to grapple with the legacy of slavery in the U.S. by telling a story of said protagonist inheriting a former plantation. It deals with loss and grief as the protagonist loses his son. It also explores themes of faith, parenthood, and masculinity. These are complex and nuanced topics that could understandably become messy when put under a spotlight all at once, yet this book seemingly attempts to tackle all of these goals by tying them up with a neat bow.
Our unnamed protagonist is a grieving father who upon the death of his son learns that his son’s inheritance of a large stretch of land from the protagonist’s grandfather now falls to him. When the protagonist learns that this land was the site of a plantation where his ancestors held enslaved people, all his insecurities around his mixedness, alongside his grief, come to the surface. He then proceeds to make many poor choices before he can begin truly grappling with everything that has gone unsaid in his life.
The protagonist serves as a narrator for this book, speaking directly to his son. At times this narration becomes extremely drawn out and flowery, but overall accessible to readers. The first half of this book, however, is far too slow for my taste and does little to divert from the expected until it slowly begins to pick up mid-way through.
My biggest qualm with this book isn’t that its resolution is lack-luster, but that it presents everything as if it was thoroughly addressed and solved when really these themes were not really done justice. The protagonist is also just vaguely unlikable which doesn’t inspire many strong feelings throughout the reading experience. I was really intrigued by the concept, and that went pretty far in ensuring an enjoyable reading experience but this book ultimately became somewhat of a chore to get through.

This book was challenging in a good way. I really liked the story and the magical realism and the characters were well done. However I didn't much like the main character "unnamed narrator" and I really don't like second person POV. The ending really challenged me because I don't know if any of it was real did he commit suicide or not and if he did was that a win or did he let the world win?

The frustration of being Black in America was really tangible and probably the best example of that I've ever read. -said as a white woman

This novel was really complex. I really appreciated the magical realism aspects of Devil is Fine because I felt they were tastefully done and really helped reflect on the bigger issues within the story. It was difficult to read about the main character spiraling but I felt it also brought a touch of humanity to him. I think this novel was also great at exploring terms of grief.

This book was so beautifully written. The themes around grief & finding yourself / purpose in life were well thought out. I didn't expect this story to grasp me the way it did, but the unique story telling of speaking directly to a specific person throughout the book just entranced me.
The magical realism aspect of Devil is Fine was incredible - like he thinks he's turning into a jellyfish??
The purpose of jellyfish was a big part start to end & it just gave an added layer to the overall story.

I'm throwing in the towel at 40%. This is at least the third time that I have tried to get through this novel. The writing style at times feels like stream of consciousness, other times it feels as though the author is ranting.

I just couldn't connect with the main character and didn't enjoy the plot.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title.

Since I didn't finish the book I will not be posting to publishing sites. Thank you

I’ll admit I put this one off for a bit. Grief is a touchy subject for me and I worried this would be too much, and in many ways I was right, but it was tragically beautiful. The narrators loss of his son was portrayed so accurately and was sharp with the pain and devastation that brought on. I loved the book within a book concept and felt like the story was so honest and unafraid to tackle the toughest issues I really enjoyed it. I haven’t read the author’s previous works but I definitely will be looking for them. Malcom is grieving the loss of his 17 year old son and as he is struggling to come to grips with his current reality he finds out that his grandfather left some land to his son which if it couldn’t be given to him on his 18th birthday would go to Malcom. Imagine Malcom’s, a biracial black man’s, shock at finding out that land used to be a plantation and there are dead bodies, most likely of slaves. I liked the way surrealism was used because when you’re in major grief everything seems surreal so it was beyond realistic.

My first John Vercher novel, this one truly fits the definition of literary fiction. You will possibly scratch your head at various passages and events in the book; but like me, you may look back after finishing and think Ah, I see where he was going with that. I generally like my fiction more linear and chronological, but I had a lot of sympathy for the unnamed narrator and his several plights. I give the book 3 1/2 stars, rounded to 4.

Throughout the story the narrator deals with visions and various odd physical experiences. At no point did I ever know where the story was going next. The flashbacks and fantasy-like elements were really well done. There were so many vivid descriptions and lots of quotes that made me gasp or stop reading to reflect and great pacing throughout the book!

Devil Is Fine is in the voice of a biracial man who is driving south to a doubly unwelcome inheritance. Almost any man who is Black (or half Black) is going to feel awkward about inheriting a plantation, especially from an estranged white grandfather. Even worse, the reason he inherited the plantation is that his son, who was supposed to inherit it, died in a car accident. Our unnamed narrator was driving.

He is traveling down to the plantation in order to sell it. He is consumed by grief and worry, worry he may lose his job because Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are out of fashion and he is not writing fast enough for the publish-or-perish hamster wheel. He is haunted by his son, his soon-to-be-ex-wife, and his ancestors. He has complete conversations with ghosts The story is rich in magical realism, a genre I usually love.

Devil Is Fine has been a tough book for me. The writing is lovely in terms of the simple beauty of words. The story is poignant and rich in real-world struggles and contemporary issues. The grief is real and feels very authentic. And yet, despite all of that, I did not like this book. I felt relieved when it was over.

I felt confused a lot of the time while reading it. Not confused in the sense of not knowing the solution to a mystery, but confused in not knowing what was real and what was magically real, so to speak. I put it down several times because I was exhausted by it and, to be fair, that added to the confusion. I also didn’t much like the narrator, to be honest. I sympathized with his estranged wife and his son and think that much of his pain was inflicted by his own selfishness.

Perhaps I was in the wrong frame of mind. I have sometimes reread a book I disliked and really enjoyed it. That is a great possibility with Devil Is Fine because the quality of the prose is noteworthy.

I received an e-galley of Devil Is Fine from the publisher through NetGalley.

Devil Is Fine at Celadon Press | Macmillan
John Vercher

Devil is Fine by John Vercher. Thanks to @netgalley for a digital ARC of this one.
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I gotta be honest, I wanted to like this one so much more than I did. The story is so promising: a biracial man in the US inherits a plot of land from his estranged white grandfather after the sudden tragic death of his son, but the plot of land turns out to be a former plantation, and then there's a whole fever-dream subplot where he is stung by a jellyfish and then falls off the wagon of his sobriety. Vercher's novel includes sharp commentary on grief and fatherhood and the inheritance of a complicated American past. I've heard apt comparisons to Percival Everett's Erasure and novels by Jesmyn Ward.
The "but" is that I really struggled with two things:
Firstly, the meta-narrative of the protagonist writing and pitching the novel that we are reading. This trope, unless done in a new and exciting way, tends to irk me - it is overdone and pulls me out of the reading of the novel.
Secondly, there's something about Vercher's writing on a sentence to sentence level that I struggled with a bit - I just couldn't quite fall into a rhythm of reading without a series of short staccato sentences or an extremely long half-page sentence messing with the pace of the story - although perhaps that is the point.

There's an intentionality to this book that is so beautiful. It takes a while for the story to unfold, but the pace felt appropriate. This book had a lot in common thematically with American Fiction the movie, and I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed or appreciated that movie. The surrealist elements of this story unfold slowly, even though early on it's clear that the movie is in many ways a ghost story. These elements felt well-placed and didn't take away from the story overall. The ending was fascinating and I am genuinely not sure I understood what happened, I had to read it twice and it still wasn't clear what exactly happened. The cast of characters that surrounds the unnamed main character made the new environment in which the character found himself in very well-populated. Overall, I was a big fan of this book and really found it to be fascinating.

This was an interesting concept for a book! I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like it. I enjoyed it

Devil Is Fine was really well done and beautifully written. It was a bit of a slow burn to start but built in pace. I was always wanting to go back to it.

Vercher covered various profound themes (loss and grief processing, racial and self identity, religious beliefs and faith, familial relationships, mental illness, addiction) that many authors do, but in a different and compelling way. It felt fresh.

The author was a wonderful wordsmith weaving dry humor into darkness. Words were carefully selected. Jellyfish had multiple meanings. He used a nonlinear timeline going back and forth from the present to the past seamlessly. The past slowly unraveled as the MC's life moved forward. The use of magic realism also enhanced the story.

This was literary fiction at its best. I highly recommend it!

I want to thank Celadon Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Celadon for the gifted eARC.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 - 4.5 Stars

In this book the MC is a biracial author whose son recently died. He inherits a piece of property from his grandfather on his mother’s side and learns it has a dark history.

This book was so atmospheric and beautifully written. The narrative drifts between typical storytelling and our MC conversing with his deceased son. The author explores themes of love and loss, guilt and forgiveness, self identity and coming to grips with one’s familial history.

The way the Vercher depicts intense grief via our MC was absolutely devastating. You could feel the emotion coming through the page and it sunk right into my heart. The mental health representation was also so well done. Seeing a biracial man struggling with, but also working to treat, his mental health was so refreshing and not something we often see represented.

There are elements of supernatural horror throughout as our MC has out of body experiences and visions. There is humor throughout via the dialogue. There is found family, which is one of my absolute favorite tropes. Race, relationships, and self discovery were examined throughout as well. The ending was peaceful, metaphorical, and abstract.

I think fans of Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory will really enjoy this one. I would highly recommend.

2.5 STARS

This book was well written, but it just wasn't for me. This book was weird, and there were times when I was confused about what was happening and struggled just to finish it.

Thanks to Net galley, and Celadon Books for all the advanced copy!

Thank you Celadon for the opportunity to read this ARC. I know if published by Celadon, it will be a quality novel. This was a hard read at times, as the subject of racism is painful, as well as the loss of a child. However, Vercher's prose is beautiful and his use of magical realism kept me mesmerized.

This book left me thinking for a while. It is a uniquely told story. I can’t say I’ve read anything like it. The unnamed narrator is a biracial man reeling from the tragic loss of his son. This is a story filled with grief and sadness. The narrator spends most of the novel having internal dialogue in his head speaking to his deceased son Malcolm. This whole thing has him “upside down”. In the midst of this loss the narrator receives word that he’s inherited a large parcel of land from his estranged grandfather. It was left to his son but now goes to him in his son’s death. Unbeknownst to him the land is a former plantation with a history rooted in slavery. There are supernatural elements which were very weird but interestingly done. It very much gives am I going crazy or is this really happening because I often wasn’t sure what was going on myself. I liked the way the author incorporated dry, dark humor into such serious social commentary. The narrator has a way of using jokes to get him through very uncomfortable situations which often make the situations even more awkward. There are many important themes discussed in this book grief, generational trauma, race, racism, identity, parental relationships, family legacy, addiction. It is a haunting story that is so well written. A story about healing and coming to terms with the past.

This book had a lot to take in. It hit all the sensitive subject matter, racism, slavery, loss of a child, grief, alcoholism, mental health, prescription drug abuse, failed relationships and on and on.
Beautifully written and heartbreaking. I couldn’t seem to put it down. It wrecked me. And I’m questioning the ending a bit?? But overall a very good book
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc