This book is a little hard to rate, but the prose was poetic and got me through almost on vibes alone. Atmospheric is a good term to describe this book. 

I really enjoyed all the religious themes.

I liked seeing the devil in his - and her - many forms, both within the tales and within the larger narrative.

The structure of the book starts off fairly straightforward, but morphs into something like a series of short stories linked by an overarching narrative. They’re all related, of course, but it’s jarring sometimes being told a bit of folklore or a poem in between “normal” chapters. It wasn’t bad, by any means, but I did not go in expecting this. 

On a similar note, I did not expect most of the main characters to be teens. I’m not a fan of that in my adult fiction, as a general rule, and this was no exception. They weren’t as egregious as some teen characters, but there was the requisite pining over crushes, parent troubles, and unfinished homework — things I didn’t think were all necessary for the plot. 

There was a stronger element of magical realism than horror as well. There were definitely some interesting things done with evil and folklore, real-life tragedy and danger, but I don’t know that that makes this horror. Maybe horror-lite, if I was being generous. Also be aware that the pace is slow, the characters are more important than the plot, and not everything is going to be handed to you. 

If you go in expecting all of the above, and the premise speaks to you, I think it’s worth the read. There were some lines that made me laugh, some good quotes, and some really interesting concepts here.