If you enjoy vampires, religious horror, and gore, this book is definitely for you. The sense of dread, violence, and unsettling elements create a truly terrifying atmosphere. The depictions of various vampires and their transformations are uniquely captivating, and the author’s note on his inspirations and research into vampires adds an intriguing layer.

A big thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

I loved this author's debut novel, but unfortunately this one was a miss for me. Despite a strong start, it devolved into a lot of telling rather than showing, character perspectives through the middle who I was not invested in, and a plot that was kind of all over the place. I'm sure this was fun to write, but I think it needed some serious tightening of plot and perspectives. I was bored through much of the second half of the book, which is not something I should be saying about a horror novel offering a different sort of take on vampires.

Devils Kill Devils follows a woman who has been protected throughout her life from death by a mysterious man than her mother believes is her guardian angel. But on her wedding night, he appears in their hotel room and brutally kills her husband. The reasons why are connected with a cult, a prophecy, and powerful monsters...

It's a great start to the story and the concept has potential, but it meanders off, includes things that bear little relevance to the central plot, and then goes kind of off the rails without laying the groundwork for it to land. I'm all for a bonkers plot, but you have get buy-in from the reader and I didn't feel I had that here. Your experience may differ and I would try future books from this author (sophomore slump is a real thing!) but sadly this one didn't hit for me. The audio narration is pretty well done though. I received an audio review copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for this opportunity to read rate and review this arc! It will be available 8/24/24!

Ever read a synopsis and go “Oh man that looks epic!” But then you read it and you are wildly let down. That is how this book made me feel and to be blunt I a wee bit mad about it. The premise was so unique and promising but the writer did too much and made it a convoluted mess that fell short of expectations.

Honestly, this is a hard review for me to record. This is one of my most anticipated novels of the year and to say it feels short to my expectations would be an understatement.

First of all, let's get the technical problems out of the way. I did a tandem read with the physical book as well as the audiobook. Several chapters were not in alignment with between the audiobook and the physical book. For example, chapter 10 in the audiobook was chapter 12 in the physical book. So I had to jump around in order to make sure I got the Chapters in the right order. There were numerous instances within the audiobook, where a line or phrase seemed to be randomly inserted in a different tone tempo and background filter than the current audiobook. Every time this happened with this semi robotic voice, it completely threw me off and drew me out of whatever I was reading. It became to the point where it was extremely annoying.

Unfortunately, the problems I had with this Book did not stop at technicalities. The book started with a bang that really captivated me and interested me. Devils killed devils was promised to be a much more brutal and deadly read after the murder mystery that was spite House. And this seemed like it was going to deliver on that right out the gate. But after that first initial brutal, opening the story devolved into a lot of inner monologue and a whole lot of tell and not show. I never really got attached to any of the characters because due to the fact, they never really interacted with each other or had any kind of dialogue. They just felt very flat and one dimensional. And even though the author did a whole lot of descriptive tell and not show, I was still slightly confused until halfway through the book when I finally was able to give everyone their place. Angelo was one of my favorite side characters, but after the initial opening, he pretty much just disappeared. It seems like a missed opportunity for one of the coolest characters to not even show up again for the last 40 pages of the book. This novel was supposed to be a fantastic spin on brutal and deadly vampires, and while the parts of the vampires we did get, we're probably some of the most interesting parts to me, we got so little of them that the whole book felt like it wasn't even about vampires.

The book wasn't completely a waste. I did enjoy the Vampiri Lore mixed with some of the authors own spin on things. I do still love how the author incorporates real world places into a fictional setting. I found that to be very interesting as well. It makes me want to look up the actual place that he's talking about. The ending of the book, while feeling pretty rushed to me, did entertain me a lot more than the first 75% of the book but again it was so short-lived that it really couldn't redeem the entire thing for me.

I still really love this authors, writing style in general and will definitely give the next book a shot but this one just wasn't for me. There was too many downsides and not enough up.

I really enjoyed The Spite House, so I was absolutely stoked to get an early look at Devils Kill Devils. I’m happy to report that there is no sophomore slump here - Devils Kill Devils is awesome.

It’s a really unique story that unfolds bit by bit, broadening the scope of what you think the story is going to be. It’s scary and violent and intriguing- I went into it completely blind, and it was such a fun reading experience. I’d highly recommend you do the same.

I have a hundred questions I’d like to ask Compton about this world. I think that’s a sign of interesting world building when, as a reader, you crave a deeper understanding. The book is 300 pages, but I’d have been delighted with double that number.

I loved the concept and had very high expectations, especially considering how much I loved The Spite House. 
There was a lot that did, in fact, work here. Everything revolving around the main character, Sarita, and her background was fantastic. The opening, especially, hooked me. There was one moment specifically which was violent and visceral and written in a way which was haunting and memorable. 
However, I feel like the overall scale of the story was much larger than it needed to be, and that's just my personal opinion. If it had been a more intimate look at what was going on with Sarita and her guardian angel, I would have devoured this book easily. Still, not a bad book, just not exactly for me. It was beautifully written!

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
DNFd at 56%
This started off great but I didn't hold me attention. The story just started meandering and I found myself more and more not wanting to pick it back up and continue reading. I could only get through a chapter at a time because it wasn't holding my attention.
I loved The Spite House so I was really expecting more with this one.

[I received a review copy of this publication via Netgalley from the publisher]

Devils Kill Devils is an ambitious horror fantasy that harkens back to paperback dark fantasies fairly popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The plot follows a woman named Sarita, whose husband is brutally murdered on her wedding night by a creature she thought was her guardian angel.

The opening chapters of the book set-up a disturbingly fascinating story that unfortunately became too convoluted, overwrought and ambitious to be satisfying. So much information is thrown out in giant chunks of text that it becomes a bit dizzying. And although the story itself is convoluted, not much actually happened within the pages, if you take out all of the narrative filler.

We are constantly told about things happening. Backstories, motivations, and even critical events are told in either literal spoken monologues, or internal monologues of characters they are happening to; it's only really in some of the gorier action sequences that we get actual story sequences rather than excessive prose.

The book often felt told in snippets. We get a bit of action, then pages of exposition or narrative monologuing, then a bit of action, etc. The book spent so much time on these endless narrative tangents that I was actually confused when I realized the climax had happened with no fanfare or significant build up.

I'm very sad that I didn't love this one, because the premise was really cool and it did give me "1980s/1990s" vibes which I always love in fiction. But it feels like the actual story within these pages was bogged down far too often by the writing.

I really enjoyed the author’s previous book, so I had high expectations for this one. Unfortunately, it was a miss for me. It’s not hard to imagine all the work that goes into writing a novel, so I feel bad when I have to give a bad review. It is also not the writer’s fault that I’m not really into the creatures featured here. I can’t say exactly what they are because of spoilers, but I have (spoiler) fatigue at this point. The writing is great, but there is too much detail for my liking. The beginning is strong, violent and intriguing. But then the action doesn’t flow steadily. The flashbacks, recaps, speculation and dialogues seem repetitive. Something super-interesting happens and then there are pages and pages of what the characters think about it, what they dream, how they feel. Then something else makes the action pick up, followed by more pages about feelings, thoughts, philosophizing. Then it ends. At some point one of the villains is taking a ride share to go do evil things and we read about the songs coming up on the radio and some random driver’s feelings about them. Many readers will probably love this, it is well written. It was just not for me.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Tor Nightfire.

I wanted to love this one as the title and cover pulled me in. I heard great things about this author but this one was a miss for me. The first 25% had some very graphic horror elements to it which I enjoyed but I struggled to connect with the characters throughout.
I will give this author a try with other novels as I didn’t hate this one I just didn’t vibe with it.

Thank you for the eARC.

Loved the concept but found the execution lacking. While I enjoyed the author’s first novel, this one left me feeling like the concept needed to be fleshed out a bit more. Felt like he bit off more than he could chew.

3.5/5

This book was a bit of a conundrum for me. I liked it but I struggled with it. I mostly listened to it, but I got confused at points, and needed to reference the ebook to help clear things up. I will say that even rereading some chapters, I was still confused about some things. It wasn’t always clear who the current chapter was about right away, especially in the audiobook. It would have been nice to have headings for each chapter to help distinguish that, or even multiple narrators. (Although I do really love this narrator! It’s my second audiobook with her.)

This book kind of reminded me of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. (Which I loved.) But not executed quite as well. I really loved the premise of the book, and I mean it had devils, vampires, prophesies- the whole gamut. But I’m not sure exactly why it fell a little flat for me. Maybe it had just a little too much going on and I just had a little trouble following all of it.

I think this could be a hit for some crowds, though. And I would still try other books by this author.

wow this gives a chilling atmosphere. i really enjoyed this story so much the demons and angels aspect was so good.there is also some trauma with our main character trying to save her family.

I loved the idea behind this story but it didn't work for me. First chapters were great and I was excited to keep reading. Then it just changed and totally lost my interest. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this new book of horror about guardian angels, dark conspiracies, family lies, and other dark creatures of the night.

When I was young I had an invisible friend named Julio. My parents were Simon and Garfunkel, so that might explain the name. They were also John Denver fans, but that is not important. Julio was my best friend, though my memories are hazy about him. I lived a pretty simple life, not having a lot of friends, even at my young age, and didn't really leave the apartment much, so Julio kept me entertained. I talked to him, read with Julio and watched cartoons with him. Julio even had his own stuffed animal Ollie Koala. This went on for a while, until Julio went away. I like to think he went to help another lonely kid, read comics with them, shared ideas with them. Maybe Julio even killed for this other person. Invisible friends it seem, at least according to this book contain multitudes. Devils Kill Devils by up-and-coming horror writer Johnny Compton is a story about guardian angels, what they really might be protecting, faith, old gods, and new ways of deceiving each other.

Sarita Bardeles has always had an a person only she could see, one that has protected her and saved her life on four different occasions. A person her parents know about and think very highly of. On the happiest night of Sarita's life this changes as the invisible friend Sarita knows as Angelo kills someone important to her, battering this person to death in front of her eyes. Awakening in a hospital Sarita's family doesn't believe her, Angelo loves you and has always protected you, why would Angelo do this. Soon Sarita finds out why, and her life is even more changed than she expected. Angelo is not the only think existing between the clicks of a light switch. Soon others are dying around Sarita, and the darkness seems to be getting more and more comfortable to her. Even worse there seems to be a lot of things calling for her to take her place in what she knows not.

One big spooky story that is really well told. Also this is pretty violent and gory, so just a warning. Many horror books have a habit of using the gore, the supernatural to tell the story. Hmm slow point in the story, let's kill something. Compton is a much more interesting writer than that. Compton gives the readers characters one cares about, with little moments, both good and bad to flesh them out. So when the flesh is rendered, the readers feels it. In the first chapter alone there is a description of an event and the actions of a mother and step-mother which tell quite a lot about a character, how he thinks, feels, and wants to be. Other book wouldn't bother. Body count, bro. And that is why Johnny Compton has a long career ahead of him. The story is like I said well-written, spooky, atmospheric and one that stays with the reader. Everything seems fresh, real and has meaning, and the deaths have a cost.

There seems to be a new renaissance in genre writing. Science fiction has caught up with the social reality of today. Fantasy is broadening out in many different ways. Horror also seems to be getting over the slasher of the week style that seemed popular for so long. The characters matter, the stories seem more based on clever world building and explanation. And the writing is really hard to miss. Johnny Compton is a writer I think will be a big writer in the field. I'm glad I got to meet him on the way up. Really good story for horror fans, or for people who like good characters going through bad, bad, gory things.

This book started off with a bang and I was hooked until I wasn't.

Sarita has known she has had a guardian angel since she was 9 years old and he saved her from drowning. She called him Angelo and he has saved her at least four times that she can recall. She is absolutely devastated when Angelo kills someone she loves and Sarita finds out that maybe he is not the guardian angel she thought he was.

I really loved how this book started. I was totally excited about the story and the flashbacks of when Angelo saved Sarita. Then something changed. More characters where introduced and it got confusing. There are old gods and religion and vampires. Good vs evil with lots of violence. All stuff I love reading about but for some reason it lost me in the middle and I never recovered.

This novel follows Sarita, a girl saved from death as a child and stalked by her "guardian angel" in future years. However,as time goes on Sarita realizes her angel has a violent tendency when he murders multiple people who mean her harm. Sarita is thrown into a world full of demons and angels that hide in plain sight. I enjoyed this book overall. I wanted something more from the line level craft but the world and character building was excellent.

This wasn't my cup of tea per say. But it was entertaining none the less. Vampires just aren't for me. I wish I liked it more than I did. But I didn't.

Devils Kill Devils is a beautifully written southern gothic tale that took me by suprise and absolutely thrilled and delighted me. The creative imagery and in depth descripition wove a detailed story of good vs. evil that transcended into a new arena of storytelling. While it did start out as an initial slow burn, once the pace picked up the story took me by suprise and snuck up on me in a way I was unprepared for, but left me delighted all the same.

Not your typical vampire story. Unique take on the creatures. Attention to details was important for me to keep up with the story, especially when keeping track of characters, but enjoyed the read overall !