After reading The Spite House I was excited to dive into Johnny Compton’s sophomore novel, Devils Kill Devils. However, I wasn’t prepared for the rocky ride that was this novel. It was most definitely wild and intense, and quite graphic, so do be prepared for that. It took me a while to get into the story, and things were rather confusing at times. I also felt that the story was a little clunky at times and didn’t quite work for me. I also feel like we didn’t truly get to know the characters, things were kept at surface level and for being a short novel, there was time to dig deeper. The pacing was quick, and the book was short, so this is one that I read in one sitting.

I do generally think that this author is going to write some amazing horror books, this one just wasn’t my favorite. I will, however, be looking out for their next book.

This book is unique, and please be sure to take care if you are sensitive to gore.

This is another entertaining book by Johnny Compton! It’s definitely a wild and intense story with creep, horror and gore. I really enjoyed The Spite House, and although this was an exciting story, it didn’t catch me the same as the other book.
This book has vampires, devil creatures and darkness! The story starts out strong, but dies down a bit for me and I did get a little confused in parts.

I will be checking out more stories from this author.
Thank you to NetGalley for an arc of this exciting book!

Devils Kill Devils
by Johnny Compton

I enjoyed this story. It was well-written and approached a known element from an interesting and fresh angle.

The meat of this tale were the characters. Primarily two characters (and a half - almost three) that could be referred to as the protagonist and antagonist. Significant portions of the books not only focused on them, but got inside their minds, their perspective.

The yarn was exciting and unpredictable. I wasn't sure what was going to happen. No one seemed safe. There were a number of interesting characters that I wanted to learn more about. I wanted to learn more about the world, the mythos.

Abstract spoilers: The ending. It wasn't bad, per se. It was serviceable. It's the sole con that's stuck in my head - and it's not really a con - it's my interpretation of a portion of the book. A lot of time was spent setting up and exploring a world (technically hundreds of years - ha). Setting events in motion. The ending felt rushed and I felt somewhat disappointed. It could be construed as open, which means more titles could take advantage of this setting. It almost feels like we got half of a book. Again, it wasn't bad - It just felt like the book picked up speed at a nice pace and then came to a sudden stop. I didn't expect the ending to be the ending. I wonder if the ending is what the author intended and how they feel about it.

I'm curious how others will feel about it. I'm glad I read this book and look forward to seeing what the author does next.

Earlier this year I read a metefictional New Weird cosmic horror novel called Edenville by Sam Rebelein. It was wild and bizarre, completely unafraid to go places and do strange and unusual things to thrill and chill the reader. It is also a novel with a surprisingly low rating across websites like Goodreads. And while their tones are very different, I think any fan of Edenville would get a kick out of Devils Kill Devils.

I loved The Spite House when it came out last year and cheered when I saw we wouldn't have to wait long for another book by Johnny Compton. This book was pitched to me as "what if your guardian angel kills your husband on your wedding night?" and I didn't read anything else about it. I didn't need to, the premise was so strong. The final result blew me out of the water with a cosmic horror tale featuring a mountain of gore and one of the freshest takes on a classic Halloween ghoulie I've seen in ages.

But, I can understand why others might not click with it. It comes down to Compton's prose and the details he chooses to dwell on. This book's prose is on the denser side, and characters spend a lot of time thinking, planning, and reflecting. This includes analyzing their own thoughts, and trying to understand if their thoughts are what they are actually thinking or are being influenced by something else. This causes the book to have an interesting pace, where the action is blistering fast but scenes go on longer than expected due to being deeply inside the mind of the current point-of-view character, privy to their every split-second though. I am reminded of shonen battle anime where you watch 15 minutes of a fight but because you are being shown every character's thoughts and reactions, only 30 seconds have passed in the story. I laughed out loud when I got to the author's note at the end and he cited two anime as being part of the constellation of inspirations for this book.

I did have some minor quibbles with the story. I think he could have gone farther with the theme of cults and religions, and there's two characters that seem like they will be important who ultimately are not. But overall, if you want to see buckets of blood, love body horror, or are just begging to see a new take on an old classic monster, I highly recommend this novel.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for giving me this ARC.

I loved Spite House, so I was so excited that NetGalley sent me the ARC of devils kill devils. It hit the floor running and did not let up! I loved the mix of devils, angels, and vampires. Intense dread, violently gory deaths, and a guardian angel that is more than what he seems! I loved every minute of this book!

I really enjoyed this book and loved that it was totally different than The Spite House by this author. The horror was still there, and the well-developed characters, but the story was a rollercoaster. This book has me questioning every patch of shadows I’ve ever encountered.

The narrator, Imani Jade Powers, knocked this one out of the park as well and did an incredible job with such a wide cast of characters. Listening to this book on audiobook was a tiny bit difficult for me as there are a lot of character names that I don’t encounter every day, so I had a bit of a hard time keeping everyone sorted.

I’ve had this book preordered since preorders were available and I can’t wait to read my physical copy of this one!! I feel like this book will jump up to 5 stars when I’m able to keep up with the characters a bit better. (This is the same reason I struggle to listen to scifi and fantasy books on audio.)

Check this one out if you like horror, devils, devils killing devils, and action-adventure with high-stakes thrown in!

**Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC, and Tor Nightfire and Macmillan Audio for the ALC of this frightening title!!**

3 ⭐️ Page turning gorey thriller of a vampire story! Not for the faint of heart! Warning: Descriptive passages of horrible deaths by the vampiric devils hunting the main character Sarita!

I enjoyed the fast paced story told from the point of view of Sarita Bariles we meet at her wedding to Frank. Tragedy befalls her and she is set on a race against time to kill the devils before they take her as their presumed bride of their “God” fulfilling an ancient devil’s prophecy. Many meet their end along the way!

I found it really disturbing with so much gore, but the story itself was engaging and well written.

Thank you NetGalley and TorNightfire Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Devils Kill Devils surprised me. I actually had no idea it was a vampire read and Compton made this unique for sure, taking the common vampire story, filleting it to the bones, and using uncommon lore to really make this story. The first chapter is one of the best opening chapters I’ve read in a long time. I do think there was some issues with pacing and occasionally just doing too much. I mean, there was A LOT going on and not always in a good way. It certainly kept me on my toes though. Very satisfying ending.

I prefer his debut The Spite House, but his sophomore novel shows that Compton is an author to watch in the horror genre.

I am so upset about this review. This title was one of my anticipated releases for the year. The premise was so interesting and not one I typically read. Unfortunately, I was let down.

The beginning was really attention grabbing. You are almost immediately thrust into action. Then you get some background and understanding. I enjoyed the mc and her story. However, things got slow and confusing. The story quickly lost my attention, things felt surface level, and repetitive.

Thank you to NetGalley for the Arc! I was drawn into this work for the title and the horror synopsis, and wasn't fully prepared for the amount of violence haha! That being said, I enjoyed the female main character and very much felt like a slasher...which I love! Definitely recommend to my horror/slasher genre friends!

"Lost, foolish, shuddering little devils who all deserved to be devoured."
As soon as I heard that Johnny Compton had another book being published, I knew I wanted to read it, because I really enjoyed The Spite House, and I didn't expect to love this even more than that creepy ghost story. The title was luring me in, that color combination and the art on the cover were promising me something spooky devilishly delicious and when I was done reading I realised I was thirsty. Well mostly because I wanted another ending, but I'll take that anyway because the story was great, writing was chilling and I got what the premise promised. I loved it all, the devils, who are actually different kind of vampires, religious horror and gore, everything was bloody amazing.
"She would do anything to prevent it. Even become a goddess to the godless."
Sarita was an interesting main character, biracial, strong and quite crafty with her life experiences(I won't mention what exactly but a trick she learned years ago becoming handy later in life made me smile and appreciate her smart thinking). Not much going on in the queerness section, her brother is gay(it's mentioned he dated an older guy so I assumed he was definitely queer)
I started reading hoping to get all the devils, and I got them and some more, in vampire form and sometimes even in human form. Sarita and her family believing that angels were who saved her from dying several times and them getting to know what purpose her life and her husband's death served was a thrilling meal that I was glad I got to taste.
I think the ending could have been stronger, or maybe it promises a sequel and then I'll get something more, but for now I loved this bloody horror with vampires, devils and angels and everyone in-between.

Sarita thinks that she has been looked over by a guardian angel all of her life. When he kills her new husband on their wedding night, she beings to reevaluate everything in her life. What kind of world has she actually been living in? Is she actually evil and that is what has kept her alive all this time? Can she stay alive and make a life once she realizes what is really around her?

This was a really cool concept, but it didn’t flow the way I had hoped. It took me until about 50% in to start enjoying it. I think this book could have been shorter and more effective, so much of it felt wordy and repetitive. I didn’t really care for any of the characters, Sarita drove me crazy and I hated Harrah but the lore interesting and Cela was an excellent, powerful, terrifying vampire. I really wanted to love this, but it missed the mark for me.

This was a wild read from beginning to end. Very graphic and often times it felt bleak but overall I really enjoyed this book. Sarita was a fantastic main character and even though her mother in law was not to be rooted for I enjoyed her story as well.

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!