The Devil Makes Three Book Review
Hi friends! Welcome to my The Devil Makes Three book review! I’m so excited for this one as I actually enjoyed this book a lot. Let’s jump in!
Title: The Devil Makes Three
Author: Tori Bovalino
Rating: 4 Stars
CAWPILE: 8.2/10
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror, YA
Content Warnings: Blood, gore, body horror, decapitation, unintentional self harm, stabbing, vomit, descriptions of a decaying person
Format: eARC
Publisher: Titan Books
Date Published: September 14th 2021 (expected)
Goodreads Description: When Tess and Eliot stumble upon an ancient book hidden in a secret tunnel beneath the school library, they accidentally release a devil from his book-bound prison, and he’ll stop at nothing to stay free. He’ll manipulate all the ink in the library books to do his bidding, he’ll murder in the stacks, and he’ll bleed into every inch of Tess’s life until his freedom is permanent. Forced to work together, Tess and Eliot have to find a way to re-trap the devil before he kills everyone they know and love, including, increasingly, each other. And compared to what the devil has in store for them, school stress suddenly doesn’t seem so bad after all.
I received a review copy from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Purchase Links
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The Devil Makes Three Book Review
Characters – 8/10
I’m going to be your typical adult here and wish the characters were older. I initially thought they were college-age, but turns out they’re seventeen and eighteen. The book reads like they’re supposed to be 20 and I think this could have been a good crossover book. We need more NA in fantasy (lookout for a post on this topic next week).
Other than their ages, I really enjoyed the characters. The Devil Makes Three follows two characters, Tess and Elliot. Both of them have distinct voices and they’re so fleshed out. I loved their individual backstories and their POVs. They both carry so much weight and they’re so strong and courageous. I love them.
Atmosphere – 10/10
Let me tell you, this book is creepy AF and I loved it. Bovalino did an excellent job with the atmosphere. It is a YA book, so it might not be on the creepy level of a King book, it still gave me the heebie-jeebies. Bovalino expertly uses some very cool imagery to scare us and I am here for it. She knows how to set a mood and I need her to write more creepy academia books stat.
Writing – 8/10
I liked the pacing of this book. It’s a bit slow in the beginning, but once it picks up it does not let you go. Overall Bovalino didn’t do a bad job, this book just lacked a certain spark for me. I wish I could combine it with Ninth House and Addie LaRue to make something that just blows me away. All three of these books were missing some depth for me.
Read my review for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue here!
Plot – 9/10
This book has a fantastic premise. Ink demons don’t sound scary, but you’d be wrong not to be terrified. The plot was missing some key scenes for me, and I do wish the book was about 100 pages longer. But I really enjoyed what we got.
Intrigue – 7/10
I think one of the elements I was missing in this book was a deeper connection between Tess and the demon. Or even Elliot and the demon. We do get some of the demon’s POV, but not enough to humanize him and make us root for him. I would have liked to dive deeper into his connection with Tess.
The “human” conflict in the story was also enjoyable. Elliot’s dad can go screw himself. One thing that I also really loved was that the teenagers actually go to an adult when they’re out of their depth. It’s a small detail, but one I really enjoyed. Adults don’t often play big parts in stories like these and it was refreshing to see.
Logic – 8/10
Another missing piece was a deeper dive into Elliot’s magic and some more demonology. I would have liked some Buffy-style research and a deep dive into the lore of the demon. Other than that, I’m happy with this book. The haunted library vibe is immaculate and I’m here for it.
Enjoyment – 8/10
Overall I really enjoyed this book. Enough that I might even reread it at some point to annotate my physical copy. The Devil Makes Three is creepy and an amazing story. I highly recommend it.
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Great review Bianca! I always wish characters in my Ya stories were older 😅 This book sounds amazing though. Creepy and atmospheric with a great plot? Sign me up!
I hope you give it a shot!
I haven’t heard about this book a lot but it sounds intriguing!