Quirky Cat
I simply cannot get enough of fantasy horror, so naturally, I couldn't resist the opportunity to read and review Lucas Hault's The Devil's Whispers. If you're a fan of retellings and dark atmospheric reads, the odds are good that you'll enjoy this one.
Gerard Woodward is used to being summoned and wanted – he's a famous lawyer. Yet this latest summons is...unusual, to put it mildly. It's not just that he's staying in a literal castle. It's everything else about it, including that he feels more like a prisoner than a guest.
Perhaps that is a mercy, given the alternative. Is it safer to be locked within the walls or free out where the monsters roam? This is a question Gerard must answer if he wants to find his way back into the light.
I'm a huge fan of retellings and thus will jump at the chance to read any in my path. So when The Devil's Whispers came along, I didn't hesitate. However, I want to be upfront here: The Devil's Whispers reads more like an altered version of Dracula than a proper retelling. If you're okay with that, you'll probably enjoy this book.
Perhaps it would be better to say that The Devil's Whispers is an homage to Bram Stoker's Dracula. Clearly, Lucas Hault is a fan – every page radiates this fact. Again, some readers will appreciate this, while others will only be bothered by the direct parallels on the page.
I'm torn. On the one hand, the writing is quite good. On the other, it wasn't quite the level of deviation I expected from a retelling. It felt like the twists could have used some more fleshing out to make it unique. Then again, it is quite difficult to live up to the classics, so I'm striving to keep that in mind here.
Overall I'd say read The Devil's Whispers if you're looking for a love letter for fans of Bram Stoker, as that is very much what this tale is.
Thanks to TCK Publishing for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Read more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks