Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > Diavola

By the time I was 10% into this book I was seriously feeling sorry for Anna, the protagonist of this story, because if I had a family like hers I would never voluntarily go on a trip to Italy with them (even if they were paying for the whole thing). I love my family and we’re very close, but we would be tested to travel to Europe together and even pretend to try and stay civil. The family in this book? Let’s say they’ve got denial down to an art. Wow.

By 45% I remembered a secret only stays a secret if you never tell anyone…and I wished Anna had a family with a scintilla of tact. I also realized Anna and I had a lot of things in common: Being used to taking the blame for the bad things that happen to our family, apologizing constantly to our family members for things that aren’t our fault, keeping our mouths shut when we want to say something because we know it’s either going to upset someone or no one’s going to believe us, and making sure to dumb ourselves down around our loved ones lest they accuse us of “acting smarter” than everyone else (or “showing off”).

AKA: Both Anna and I are the black sheep of our families.

This book is an absolute blast to read: Engaging, compelling, intriguing, intelligent, fierce, creepy, insightful, sometimes funny, and sometimes sad. It has lovely (in that haunting, bloody way) nightmare sequences, creepy daytime scenes inside the house that might be hard for those with squeamish stomachs, truly scary calls involving Anna’s family, and lots of fascinating Italian art history information that not only worked well into the story of the book but was also just plain cool to read. This book shines its brightest when it focuses on Anna, especially in the last 20% of the book, but also anywhere else in the book. All in all, it’s just a fantastic read.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Ghost Story/Gothic Fiction/LGBTQ Fiction/Occult Fiction/Paranormal Fiction/Psychological Thriller/Thriller