From Powells.com
Discover the books that made our 2022 list.
Staff Pick
The perfect Halloween read, Devil House is the We Do it Different on the West Coast of novels, the alternating light and dark of a picturesque Golden State story with something indiscernibly and undeniably sinister between its pages. John Darnielle (or, Mr. Goats, as I lovingly refer to him) has never disappointed me before, and it is both a relief and a joy to see his artistic talent transcend from my stereo to my bookshelf. Recommended By CJ H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
From John Darnielle, the New York Times bestselling author and the singer-songwriter of the Mountain Goats, comes an epic, gripping novel about murder, truth, and the dangers of storytelling.
Gage Chandler is descended from kings. That's what his mother always told him when he was a child. Years later, he is a true crime writer, with one grisly success — and a movie adaptation — to his name, along with a series of subsequent less notable efforts. But now he is being offered the chance for the big break: to move into the house where a pair of briefly notorious murders occurred, apparently the work of disaffected teens during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Chandler finds himself in Milpitas, California, a small town whose name rings a bell — his closest childhood friend lived there, once upon a time. He begins his research into the murders with diligence and enthusiasm, but soon the story leads him into a puzzle he never expected — back into his own work and what it means, back to the very core of what he does and who he is.
Devil House is John Darnielle's most ambitious work yet, a book that blurs the line between fact and fiction, that combines daring formal experimentation with a spellbinding tale of crime, writing, memory, and artistic obsession.
Review
"Devil House has all the gross-out hallmarks of horror and true crime while also questioning the moral implications of the genres." — Los Angeles Times
Review
"This masterwork of suspense...operates perfectly on many levels, resulting in a must-read for true crime addicts and experimental fiction fans alike." — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"An impressively meta work that delivers the pleasures of true-crime while skewering it." — Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
About the Author
John Darnielle's first novel, Wolf in White Van, was a New York Times bestseller, a National Book Award nominee, and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times' Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction; his second, Universal Harvester, was also a New York Times bestseller and was a finalist for the Locus Award. He lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife and sons.