The beginning of the book had a hook, and I was super intrigued by the characters and the storyline. I lost momentum about halfway through the book. The premises were interesting, but I needed more from the characters. The author excels in creating an atmosphere thick with tension and dread. The book delves into good and evil themes, challenging the characters' mortality. A bombshell happens early in the book and transforms everything you think is going on. The pacing is relentlessly slow, with heavy dialogue. The narration was okay, but there were moments when it sounded like AI was voiced over the narrator.

I received an ARC audiobook for my honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio.

Johnny Compton is such a descriptive storyteller. He takes vampire novels back to their roots. This is what vampire novels should be. It's a fantastic religious horror that is violent and grotesque. A great read for horror or vampire fans.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this alc.

I saw this book and its cover and thought it could be a very interesting story. I read Compton‘s previous book, The Spite House, and thought it was ok. So Compton’s new book, why not give it a try? Well, I liked Devils Kill Devils more than I liked The Spite House, but there is something that connects me with this story that is still missing.

I really liked the first part of the novel in which we are introduced to the protagonist Sarita, a woman who knows she has been protected by an angel she calls Angelo since she was a child. The story goes to the past and the reader finds out all the times Angelo saved Sarita. But everything changes on Sarita’s wedding night and she starts doubting whether Angelo is really an angel.

After this point I lost interest in the story. There is an exploration of vampire mythology, there are prophecies, god entities, betrayals, and I had a hard time to get into all that. The book did not kept me engaged. I gave Johnny Compton a new try but I think his books are not for me. I know this novel will please many readers, so don’t let this review discourage you to read Devils Kill Devils.

This is such a hard one to rate. The beginning was soooooo good. I was LOCKED IN. Like "Spite House", the premise, the opening 10%, and the introduction to the characters is so gripping. And then the longer it goes on, it starts to not so much fall apart as drag on and on. And it starts to feel this way at like 30%! By then, what was once a fast-paced paranormal horror mystery starts steadily climbing what feels like the climax, but... it's obviously not at only 30%. And when done well, this usually feels pretty exciting, because when things feel climactic way too early, you just know the REAL climax is going to be insane, but this doesn't feel like that. It's hard to pinpoint why - maybe because instead of feeling led to the point, it just feels like a bunch of faffing around - the pacing is off, simultaneously far too fast and dragging on far too long, but the tension is so high that you're looking for a reprieve that just doesn't come, and you're left looking at the remaining ~70% of the book as a slog.

But what really started to do me in was the biggest gripe I also have with Spite House, which is the "no characters get to be actually bad" disappointment. Showing each characters' motivations, even the ones we're not supposed to like, can be so good - some of the best books are chock full of perspectives that show even the worst characters' perspective. However, what makes those books so good is that you're forced to understand a character who is obviously irredeemable. Johnny Compton writes like you're supposed to feel empathy and compassion for every single person involved. Every character uses some level of therapy speak. Every character is imminently reasonable. It's giving "there's two sides to every story", but instead of showing that in a realistic way and allowing people to have reasons and still be assholes, they're just not allowed to be assholes. And because this was SO pervasive in Spite House, I don't have enough faith in Johnny Compton to slog through the rest of this.

Both books have moments of conversation about what it's like to navigate the world in black bodies, how situations change due to race, but we're never allowed to sit in it for more than a handful of seconds before we have to hear how not racist the white characters are, actually, and that we and the black main characters shouldn't be so suspicious and judgmental. It's such a bizarre bait and switch. Like...

The text: [Observation about the racism a character has experienced from White Person.]
White Person: "Did you consider that I'm colorblind? I'm something of a woke myself."
Black Main Character: I did not consider that perspective. Wow. Perhaps I should be less wary and more trusting :(

It genuinely feels like in both novels, a full and complete book was written with poignancy and intent, with important statements made about realistic and messy life situations, and then the book gets handed off to the world's most liberal white editor who has carte blanche to inject whatever stupid white apologist shit they want because some of the characterization just feel too icky to sit in.

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.

I was so excited to get a ALC of this title. From the blurb it seemed like it would be right up my alley. Vampires, Gods, a little bit of horror……and it started off with a 100 % WTF moment. I had to sit in my car for a second to process it.
Then it slowed down to give us a backstory and quite a bit of internal dialogue which I think is where it started to lose me. Added to that, the similarities in Sarita and Cela’s names when being read I got a smidge confused and kept having to go back.
Overall I think it did quite a few things well, but had quite a bit of room for improvement.
I received an ALC of this title, all opinions are my own.

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.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this book.

Oh wow!!! I did not see that plot twist coming!!! This was a first for me by this author but will not be my last! Such a good story!

This….

I gave this a try because of the genre-bending humans/vampires/supernatural concept. It wasn’t for me.

The writing was descriptive, and I wanted to know more about what happened on the human side of things. But as soon as the author introduced the non-human godmaker, things went off the rails quickly and I DNF’d at 15%.

If you enjoy wars between non-human factions, you might really enjoy this one. Me? I’ll try again the next time the author publishes.

This was an intriguing Southern gothic horror novel! It was equal parts creepy and clever, while managing to to still be thought-provoking. Narrated by Imani Jade Powers, the story came perfectly to life. Loves of horror and dreaded need to check this book out!

Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan audio for the ALC! “Devils Kill Devils” is out now.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for this one. The audio by Imani Jade Powers was well done and a part I definitely enjoyed.

This was a unique story and take on the vampire. Not your conventional vamps, I really liked that the author mixed historical lore on vampires, demons, devils, and also just made up some of his own stuff. Overall they were the driving force that kept my enjoyment. They are brutal, commanding, savage even. And described in a way I’ve never experienced.

The novel itself though, features Sarita as the main character—oh and her hulking protector, called Angelo. He has saved her from drowning, from party kids getting a little too drunk, from going to the wrong places at the wrong times, and of course from someone she loved very much? Although later there is a reason given for why this happened, it just felt too random/weird too fast, and the description of why just never really caught up for me.

This was a little too all over the place. The pacing of which, with its horrendously repetitive pondering of why this was happening to Sarita, was far too slow, and then the sprinkling in of hyper-violence, just didn’t make sense for me. I was bored, then really engaged, and then it’d dissipate again. The big bad was described as this all powerful being, just to really not be all that climactic. It just had some unfortunate shortcomings.

With such a cool cover, I really wanted to love this one, and while I was kept on the line with the vampire stuff, the story was a bit of a loss for me.

In Devils Kill Devils by Johnny Compton, Sarita has lived her whole life being protected by a guardian angel — or so she thought, until he murders someone close to her before disappearing. She is then forced to unravel the truth before it sinks its teeth into everyone she loves.

It’s vampire season right now, and this is a great entry into the genre. This was such a unique take on a vampire story, and I loved the author’s note at the end talking about all the influences for his version of vampires.

You should read this book if you are looking for
- southern gothic vibes
- vampires, angels, and devils
- religious horror
- intersectional identities
- a badass girl MC

This was great as an audiobook!

This book started off strong with keeping me engaged as to what was happening, but then at multiple points in the book I got lost and mixed up as to what was going on. I found the reveal of what the supernatural thing that was happening to be interesting but there was just a bit lacking in the storytelling for me.
There were aspects of the story that I wanted more fleshing out that probably would have helped the confusion.

Johnny Compton’s second horror novel is a bloody southern gothic story that is rife with vampire lore and religious occultism.

Sarita has had a “guardian angel” since she was a child. Enigmatic and silent, he appears, saves her and leaves. Until her wedding night, when her “angel” savagely murders her husband.

This act of violence reveals that Sarita is much more important than she ever imagined and is destined to be the mother of the messiah.

This novel had some big plans, and for the most part Compton succeeds in achieving these plans. There are three main female-based storylines. Cela is an ancient vampire goddess whose centuries long machinations to save/cleanse humanity culminate with Sarita. Harrah, the mother of Sarita’s murdered husband, whose grief and fury make her a perfect pawn in Cela’s plan. And Sarita who refuses to accept this bloody destiny.

Though exciting and well-told, Compton’s pacing is off, with excessive and sloggy inner dialogue dispersed with bursts of gore and mesmerizing violence.

One third of this book was either confusing or unnecessary. Another third was really good and I was riveted and the last third was HOLEY MOLEY THATS AMAZING.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

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.

I'm still in my Hot Horror Summer era, and next on the list is DEVILS KILL DEVILS, a novel about angels and prophecies and vampires and revenge. From a story perspective, I enjoyed getting to know the characters, learning about the vampire lore, and speculating about how all the plot threads would come together in the end. However, by the three-quarter mark, I have to admit the novel had lost me a bit. A big part of that had to do with the narration — which wasn't bad! But Powers' performance was quite soft and almost dreamlike in every scene, which led me to drift out of focus on occasion. Still, if you like a vampire story and tales where men get fridged instead of women, this novel might be for you!

Devils Kill Devils is a slow-building horror story surrounding Sarita and her guardian angel, Angelo. Angelo has saved Sarita’s life many times but when he murders someone she loves right in front of her very eyes, Sarita begins to question Angelo’s motive and overall presence in her life.

I’ll admit I was off to a confusing start with this one. With the different characters and other-worldly introductions, I had to buckle my attention down. I think what threw me was that it began to sound very “fantasy” rather than “horror” and a fantasy fan, I am not.

The book begins with a bang and then immediately backs off in order to provide an intensely layered background. Unfortunately, I couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters.

The audiobook narration is mostly enjoyable but it is not without flaws. There are a few instances where the narration, just for a sentence or two, sound like they are in a different voice, almost robotic; almost like it didn’t turn out the way the producers wanted it to the first time so they went back to re-record it but in an entirely different voice and audio quality. Otherwise, I enjoyed the narration performed by Imani Jade Powers.

I am super interested in vampire stories so I was surprised to not like this one. Between the non-compelling characters, slow pacing, and fantasy elements I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. From what I did read, I knew this book wasn’t going to get a good rating from me so I chose to stop reading at around the 50% mark.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review! Available 09/24/2024!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for sending me an early copy of this audiobook! All opinions are my own!

This is going to be such a difficult review because I feel like everything I loved about this book would be a spoiler!

From the uniqueness of the worldbuilding to the complexity of the world itself, I really enjoyed how fresh this book was from start to finish. It had me hooked from the beginning with the total mystery of the supernatural elements, but even once you figure that piece out, it has its claws in you already and you end up never wanting it to let go!

I did feel that the start was a bit slow as far as actually building up the world and the scenario that it was going to place the characters in. But once the ball really got rolling, I absolutely needed to know more!

I don't want to say much more than that, but if you like the premise, then definitely give this a try because it's more than you could ask for!

So I also did a review on the original book I had to check it out in audiobook the second time around was so much better I really like the narrator and everything about this book read it or listen to it you won't be disappointed

If Sylvia Moreno Garcia decided to get a little more vicious in her writing, you might get Devils Kill Devils. Fascinating mythology, and an absolutely stellar first act make for an interesting read. Very different than The Spite House as a heads up.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance audio copy.