The Devil Makes Three

Title: The Devil Makes Three
Author: Tori Bovalino

Publisher: Titan Books
Year: August 2021
Pages: 383
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Horror
Reading Time: 23 - 29 September
Binding: Illumicrate Hardback
Goodreads

Stars:
★★★★☆

Blurb:

 When Tess and Eliot stumble upon an ancient book hidden in a secret tunnel beneath their school library, they accidentally release a devil from his book-bound prison, and he'll stop at nothing to stay free. He'll manipulate all the ink in the library books to do his bidding, he'll murder in the stacks, and he'll bleed into every inch of Tess's life until his freedom is permanent.
 Forced to work together, Tess and Eliot have to find a way to re-trap the devil before he kills everyone they know and love, including, increasingly, each other. And compared to what the devil has in store for them, school stress suddenly doesn't seem so bad after all.

Review:

 This is not a book I would have expected to pick up myself but that's the beauty of having subscriptions such as Illumicrate. Receiving something that may push the limits of what you may have picked and introducing some variety to our reading experiences. I think the general theme of the ink and books makes this a generally good pick for a book box subscription and with Illumicrate often toeing the line between adult and young adult this book perfectly represents a book that is young adult based on the main characters ages however has creepy and gory elements pushing it towards adult.

 This book is a major mix of genres, I don't think it fits cleanly in to any genre. Young adult in that it's characters are of the required age. Horror in the gore. Thriller in the suspense. Fantasy in the supernatural. Urban fantasy in the real world setting. Minor romance.

 The horror element is what is going to make people pick this up or stay far, far away. So let's talk about that first. I was not overwhelmed and I am by no means a horror movie or book fan, it's something I only occasionally venture in to however others on the Illumicrate readalong were switching their reading time to ensure they read in daylight and were getting very creeped out. We have gore, lots of gore. Some self harm so trigger warning there. There is general creepiness that you see in paranormal books. I thought it was pretty tame but it is all very subjective. Perhaps if it was a film I would have been worse, I think visuals get to me more than words.

 I thought the setting and immersion in to the real world as an urban fantasy was fantastic. A library being our main setting, what better way to appeal to readers? We're mainly set in the US but have references to the UK. It doesn't require a whole lot of world building and we're kept to a few other buildings and personal spaces so that it's more personal. What really impressed me was the situational setting, our characters experience money and health problems and it is just so relatable and real. It added a whole other element to the book for me outside of what I usually feel in fantasies I read more regularly.

 We centre around Tess and Eliot, two characters from wildly different backgrounds. Tess is overworked and stressed out due to family money troubles. She's got the responsibility of her sister (who's a little brat) and herself. Throughout the book it feels like she's somewhat burned out and it give this edge of blasé that I think dampened the horror elements when she experienced them. She's a trooper and just gets on with things which I can totally relate to. Eliot is a rich boy with and English accent and a very different motivation to protect his family. Separated parents with an ill mother, he is on a mission and his drive is admirable.

 I did get to a point during the middle where I felt the plot was moving quite slowly. It just seemed like nothing was moving and side characters and plot were introduced as a bit of filler. It got better and it didn't necessarily stop me from wanting to read at any point. It probably developed that same as a typical horror/thriller plot. 

 As much as young adult fantasy has it's tropes I think thriller and horror really lends itself to some clichés, the ending had me rolling my eyes at how cliché it as. I don't particularly care for things 'fitting the genre', that doesn't make it good. So I found a few areas were quite predictable in this way, not in that I knew where things were going like I often do with a YA fantasy but that I wasn't very often surprised by the book.

 As far as we can currently see this is set up as a standalone and I don't think has any business in expanding further than this, it was an enjoyable break from my norm but taking it further I think would be stretching the capabilities of the story too much. It was a good book, let's leave it at that!