I picked up this book via Kindle Unlimited because I needed another book in the horror genre for "Rach's Reading Club" . I should have picked a different one.

I'm going to include the full synopsis here, because it's sort of relevant to what I'm going to be talking about:



First of all, "legions of readers who have been captivated by this novel" might be overselling it a bit. The book has 341 reviews on Amazon, over 20% of which are three-star reviews or worse.

Second of all, the reason why the reviews of this book are so mixed is because it commits the cardinal sin of trilogy writing which is abruptly ending the book on an arbitrary cliffhanger before the premise of the book is fulfilled. That synopsis above? It's for the whole trilogy. In this book, it's more than 225 pages of setup, followed by a few dozen pages where the titular "interview with the Devil" starts and then abruptly ends (literally mid-conversation) with a to be continued...



So if not to explore the actual premise of the book, what was contained in the first 225 pages of the book, you ask? Why, a self-published author's own delusions of grandeur and wish fulfillment of course! Protagonist who's a writer? Check. Writer-protagonist who writes brilliant prose that is beloved by millions and brings him fame and riches? Check. Successful writer-protagonist who is charismatic and deeply intelligent and is surrounded by sexy women who all think he's just the sexiest? Check.

Seriously, the protagonist in this book writes a "nonfiction narrative" called The Skeptic about how he doesn't believe in organized religion and it's so popular that he sells tens of millions of copies, becomes rich enough to buy a Manhattan brownstone, famous enough to appear on late night talk shows and news programs, and talented enough that an aspiring literary agent he met in college (a hot and sexy woman, of course) still remembers the writing sample he showed her at a party ten years ago and jumps at the chance to publish his novel (and jumps at the chance to jump his bones too!). It's such a good book that Satan himself takes notice and decides that the guy is the best writer he's ever encountered, which is why he wants Joe to write up the interview he grants to him.



And here's the biggest thing... horror is meant to build suspense and make you question everything, right? Well the author repeatedly presents possibilities that he immediate rules out. Is all of Joe's success actually a manipulation by the Devil to play on his vanity or his greed? Nope, the author makes it clear that Joe's just that talented of a writer. Is the sexy and savvy literary agent who's interested in him actually the Devil in disguise (or one of his minions), tugging Joe's strings? Nope, the author makes it clear that Joe's just that talented of a writer. Every time there's an opportunity to create a bit of mystery about why Joe's life is turning out this way, the author waves it away and keeps hammering the narrative that Joe is just a generational talent of a writer. Again, pretty clearly wish fulfillment from an author who characterizes his own work as "experiences" and says that he brings both a unqiue AND a traditional sensibility to the genre.

Who knows, maybe I'm being overly harsh and at the end of the entire trilogy the reader will look back on an intricately plotted trilogy of books where the Devil is revealed to have played a masterful long con on successful writer-protagonist, toying with his ego, pride, and desire for attention at every step of the way. But that's something I'll never know because the first book focused on such a tedious, self-important character and then abruptly cut the narrative off just as it was getting interest in favor of selling a second book, that I'm okay not actually knowing how it turns out.

This is the author's first book, so I'm sure some grace is warranted for an author still developing their craft... but I plan on it being both the first and last book of this author's that I read.

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Created Jan 18, 2025 at 7:28pm • Submit your own review...