Devil House

A Novel

By: John Darnielle

Narrated by: John Darnielle

Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

This program will include original music from the author and his bandmate Matt Douglas from The Mountain Goats.

"Darnielle brings a lyrical, literary tone to a novel that's part crime, part horror and wholly original."—Bookpage

From John Darnielle, the New York Times best-selling 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. 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 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.

A Macmillan Audio production from MCD Books.

©2022 John Darnielle (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

2022, Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, Long-listed

2022, Hudson Booksellers Best of the Year, Long-listed

2022, The Philadelphia Inquirer Best Books of the Year, Long-listed

Beautiful.

Extraordinary in too many ways. Seems to wander, takes odd-feeling turns, then settles into a comfortable stride and just turns again. Gets where it needs to be before you realize it needs to be anywhere. The author’s reading of the material may be the best way to take it all in. If anyone has enjoyed Darnielle’s work before, they with see this for what it is. Some sort of culmination. I don’t know. The tragedy and spectacle sometimes settles in and feels like real live heartbreak.

Could Listen to John Read The Phonebook

Having a book read by its author is such a wonderful treat, especially when it’s someone like John Darnielle.

There’s a lot to dig here: beautiful prose, big questions about the nature of story, storytelling, and the responsibility of storytellers.

Ultimately I was left a little hollow by the end but overall the journey was solid enough.

This book is in bad need of an editor.

The story was impossible to follow and I never knew what the hell was going on. It read like someone found a notebook full of random essays and just published it and called it a book. Three stars is generous in my opinion. Just a baffling lack of structure.

Pure, gripping, sublime

I am astounded by the scope of the creative prowess of John Darnielle as a writer of books and music. This story is a great journey for anyone who is on the periphery wondering at the popularity of the true crime genre and wants a very insightful and clever meta-look at it. Immersive into end.

Amazing.

Totally incredible work. I love John’s books and this is a real treat. Bravo. Bravo.

Devil House

This is the first audio book I have ever completely listened to. The performance was well done, with light musical transitions between some chapters. John Darnielle does an excellent job delivering the material, though I had no expectation to the contrary as he is the author.

The story itself was great but at times I struggled with the chapter changes…most of the book is told from the second person perspective, the author addressing “you” referring to different characters as you, as if he is speaking directly to them. It can be a bit confusing at the start of the chapter before understanding which you the author is addressing. There is also a few chapters at the end where the “camera” zooms out a few more frames a new “you” is introduced which again, was jarring at first.

Despite me typing a whole paragraph about this, it was a minor flaw in an otherwise very enjoyable book. Darnielle captures the human element perfectly, as he does in his music, creating eminently relatable characters out of folks who at first blush one would say are nothing like us. His way with words can at times be so simple and yet so effective (and affective). I laughed, I cried, I felt for these characters. All of them. Except maybe Michael lol.

Recommend for: true crime fans, enjoyers of Darnielle’s other works

I don't know if he's a better writer or narrator.

phenomenal story, and the fact that the author is the one reading it... there are too many different facets that went into this book to write a worthy review, go see for yourself. But I do believe the audio version brings another level to this book.

A book worm destroys the book it lovingly devours.

Finished John Darnielle’s Devil House tonight, sitting the hot tub, letting the last paragraphs sink into me, work me, kneading fingers, like the hot water. For the past 6 years, I’ve taken in volumes, mini-encyclopedias of information every week, Trump at the Mad Helm, a World Pox, music theory in 6 dimensions strung tight. It’s been wonderful, but it’s also precluded much in the way of getting novels into my head. And a good ol’ crime book, starting back with Ellroy, I gone through such a spate of them, losing myself through much of my 30’s with the way reading Crime grips you, you who are not a criminal, but you who can feel the gong beat of a black heart within just as well as the next. Crime is good, good for you because it’s antiseptic, it’s clarifying, it’s a deep dive that the literate can return from in the way the criminal cannot. A black hole that sucks hard, but that can returned from to greet the light, once it’s fully purged by going through to the end. I love that about reading Crime but, well, over the better part of the past decade, Crime fell off my radar. There was real crime to attend to in the world. The truer than True Crime being committed at the highest rungs of power in this country daily. Current events pressed in and pressed out the work of forensic musing. Darnielle’s brought me back to the place of exquisite wonder, that place you move though god-like and voyeuristically, the spaces where people come to their hedonic apogees in the moments before they fall, always Icarus-like, to their nadir’s. That’s the glee of reading Crime, there is always a pantheon-worthy rush before the ultimate cessation. And in the Devil House, there is no end to the adrenalized musings over the ghastly and the godly. It’s a book about the creation of a book about creativity that is powerful enough to lead to destruction. You dig in, you fall through the worm holes of invention, you devour the book, and then, sated from literary ingestion, what’s left? The chalk lines on the carpet? The cuneiform on the walls? The angel made of porn boxes? That’s the glory of crime fiction, when you come to end, you find, indeed, you’re as culpable as the rest of them. Darnielle reads his own book and invests it with the all the necessary personae to people his dream as if it were yours. He gets in your head and stays there. It’s a hell of a ride. I’m so happy to have been back at it, hard on with all this great Crime.....

Just finished; time to reread

One of those good books that has layers, with something to get out of it at different levels of engagement. Can't wait to see what it's like the second time through.

Books narrated by the author get a whole 'nother level intensity, especially when the author also happens to be a great vocal performer.

Reading rhythm ruined an intriguing story

Darnielle’s halting reading rhythm, as though every sentence has one or more unnecessary periods, unfortunately ruined what should be a captivating story with a unique structure.