The Devils You Know

by M.C. Atwood

In this riveting debut, equal parts Cabin in the Woods and The Breakfast Club, five teens will discover what lies within a local, infamous house is darker, and more personal, than any urban legend.

Plenty of legends surround the infamous Boulder House in Whispering Bluffs, Wisconsin, but nobody takes them seriously. Certainly nobody believes that the original owner, Maxwell Cartwright Jr., cursed its construction—or that a murder of crows died upon its completion, turning the land black with their carcasses. If there were truth to any of the local folklore, River Red High wouldn’t offer a field trip there for the graduating class.

Five very different seniors—Violet, Paul, Ashley, Dylan, and Gretchen—volunteer, each for private reasons, none of which have to do with trip itself. When they’re separated from the group, they discover that what lies within Boulder House is far more horrifying than any rumor they’ve heard. To survive, they’ll have to band together and ultimately confront the truths of their darkest selves.

• ISBN13: 9781616957889
• Publish Date: 3 October 2017
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Soho Teen
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
2.5*

This one sounded quite exciting from the synopsis. And definitely perfect to read for the Halloween season! And while it was creepy, there were certain aspects that fell short for me. Let's first discuss the things I enjoyed though!

• The plot itself was really quite interesting. This house clearly had a lot of secrets, and weird shenanigans happening at every turn. Really, there was not really a dull moment in the book. It was on the shorter side, but the pages were used well and the story moved quickly.


• The characters definitely act like typical teens. It's quite refreshing, really. They were all unique personalities for sure, and sometimes it was pretty clear that they weren't thinking things through. They all also had secrets that I think they were more worried about than the scary ass dolls that were trying to kill them. Which let's be real, is exactly something we'd feel in our teen years.


• I was definitely invested in the outcome. I wanted to keep reading to see what would happen to the characters, and what the secrets of the house were. The character development also kept me quite interested.

Of course, there were also some things I didn't really care for, so here we go:

• Some of the language choices and thought processes were... weird. Look, I know I am not a teen, but I have literally never heard a human being of any age say "fuck-a-doodle-doo". Ever. And I really never hope to again. This gem, along with many others, was delivered by Dylan. Over and over and over. He was probably the most frustrating character, and not just linguistically. A lot of his whiny behavior I could kind of excuse as teenage angst, but then there were times that I just couldn't anymore with his nonsense. And Paul spends half the time thinking about marrying Violet, a girl he's spoken to literally once before this. Insta-love is rude enough when the characters aren't physically fighting for their lives.


• I feel like I didn't get as many answers as I'd have liked. Not about the house, not about the characters. I just wanted a bit... more from the ending, really. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't enough.


• Even though there were a lot of creepy aspects to the story, I never fully felt them. Of course I understood on a logical level, but it never fully segued into anything that actually made me feel creeped out. And even though the stakes were, again, logically high, I didn't feel them as such.

Bottom Line: While the plot and characters were quite intriguing, it just missed the mark in a few ways.

*Copy provided for review

[limabean74]

This is one of my most anticipated reads for this year and it did not disappoint. I have been looking for something creepy like this for a while, it had a lot of elements I like and some I was a little meh about but overall, I enjoyed this book.

The book is told in multiple POVs. Ashley, Gretchen, Dylan, Paul and Violet, each MC has their own chapter. The book follows the 5 kids into Boulder House, it's this weird house that was built into a boulder by a man named Maxwell Cartwright, Jr. , the house has a bunch of seriously weird rooms. Each room is a different theme, it’s an attraction that draws a lot of people but every so often the house looks for souls to add to its collection. The inside of the house reminds me of old amusement park figures. I can picture it being like creepy old doll like figures.

When I started this book I wasn’t sure I was going to like it because honestly each character irked me. The beginning chapters introduces you to each characters and build their back stories keeping a few things secret that you can either figure out on your own or find out later in the book. As the story progressed I started to like it even more and I also started to like each character. I did have an issue with Dylan, his “yo” drove me crazy, but I didn’t want to see him anything happen to him. Each kid has a bit of teen angst going on and you get a lot of there personalities in the beginning but as time goes on they all grow a little and you find a lot out of each one of them. I think it covers a lot of social issues in between all the horror! I also really liked the wizard.

The story for me was creepy and even has some serious build to it. Like each room just gets creepier and the descriptions of what is going on and happening to them made me have a hard time putting this one down. The twist with the characters were enjoyable and the last page of this book will have me thinking for a very long time. (I can’t tell you)

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, I liked the build of characters and the story. It was pretty creepy but not terrifying, however, it might be for some people. I highly recommend for anyone that really wants a fun, creepy read that is reminiscent of a good old fashioned B-horror movie.
 

Thanks for stopping by to check out my review.

Have a great day and Happy Reading!

This review was originally posted on Because reading is better than real life