Dec 8, 2025
Devil House By John Darnielle:
Devil House critics: “Why did this book not focus on one murder? Why did it delve into ‘truth’ and ‘the dangers of storytelling?’ Why would I want to read about the crisis of faith a true crime author has even though it’s described in the summary?”
#read a different book then?#idk what else to tell you#book had me in tears#the incongruity of memory is one of john’s most common themes and I feel it’s largely under represented#and here he’s legitimately writing about how fictionalized memory gets built so it’s five stars from me#spoilers in these tags:#{buffer tag………….}#yes#the last page is unsatisfying#the page before the last page tells you that’s what our protagonist feels about the murder he was supposed to write about#hell he tells you that really early too#so no I’m not going to call it bad writing#ESPECIALLY because the final ‘let down’ is from someone else’s perspective#it’s illustrating its own point#cansglasschrome#the mountain goats#ish#devil house