Devil in Ohio

By: Daria Polatin

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

When 15-year-old Jules Mathis comes home from school to find a strange girl sitting in her kitchen, her psychiatrist mother reveals that Mae is one of her patients at the hospital and will be staying with their family for a few days. But soon Mae is wearing Jules' clothes, sleeping in her bedroom, edging her out of her position on the school paper, and flirting with Jules' crush. And Mae has no intention of leaving.

Then things get weird.

Jules walks in on a half-dressed Mae, startled to see a pentagram carved into Mae's back. Jules pieces together clues and discovers that Mae is a survivor of the strange cult that's embedded in a nearby town. And the cult will stop at nothing to get Mae back.

©2017 Daria Polatin (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

" Devil in Ohio kept me up until 3 a.m. with the lights on - in a good way. It's a haunting thriller for readers who like fear, humor, and heart in one package." (Meredith Goldstein, advice columnist and feature reporter for The Boston Globe, author of Chemistry Lessons)

"Gripping, urgent and addictive, Devil in Ohio balances the dark exploration of cults with a compelling and often humorous take on teen social dynamics. This is the debut you won't want to miss." (Aditi Khorana, author of The Library of Fates and Mirror in the Sky)

This is good!!

Needed a good edgy thriller this week, told through the eyes of this family mainly mother and daughter and WOW!! excited to see the Netflix movie

The ending felt hollow.

I was really enjoying this book up until the end. It had maintained a creepy atmosphere all through until the end where I felt like it resorted to jump scares.

hated the ending

liked this story at first but I guess I must have had high expectations given the Netflix series. It definitely flopped the ending for me...bummer

Disappointed

I watched the T he Devil in Ohio on Netflix and loved it!!! I thought now I need to listen the book!!! Books give more insight! Not in this case! The last half hour was the best part of the book!

Would love to know how this became a series.

How did this book get made into a series? It isn't bad. It just isn't good. The author is the show runner. How did that happen? I feel like some backs were scratched. A little wink wink nudge nudge. I love Emily Deschanel so I will watch the show, but how many REALLY great books DIDN'T get made into TV series this year?

book review

this book was better than the show on Netflix I'm wondering if there's a part two it would be very exciting

Show is better

The Netflix show is better in my opinion. Watch that instead of reading book.

Good Read

wanted to read this book b4 the Netflix show released. excited to see the show!!!

Liked Book; There are TRIGGERS for some

INITIAL THOUGHTS: 1. I've tried to figure out what part of this is true and what was artistic license, but Ms. Polatin mentions that she changed a lot to "protect" identities and all of that. So, I'm going to go ahead and consider this fiction. 2. The show and the book are COMPLETELY different in so many ways, besides character names and a few other things. The ending of the show was a punch to the gut, but the end of the book is open-ended. The author left a clue at the end of the book, but I looked for a full two hours to find out what something meant, but I can't. 3. I'm actually a HUGE fan of Ms. Campbell's narration; I know there are things about her that people don't like and I can hear them too; the thing is she read Josh Malerman's 'Bird Box' and its sequel 'Malorie' and, because I was so enthralled and LOVED Malerman's books, I found myself liking the way the narration went. So, folks are going to disagree with me, but that's the reason the "performance" received a better score than the actual book. 4. (This really should belong with initial thought number 2, but I don't feel like re-writing it). In my opinion, the main character in the show was Suzanne, the mother, and I assure you that the MAIN character in the book is Suzanne's daughter, Jules. I feel like it took away from the insecurity of the way this book could have gone with "more" teen angst to cause drama. Also, they made the youngest daughter adopted in the show when she wasn't in the book; I TOTALLY get why they did this, but I don't think they needed to at all.


BASIC STORY: Jules Mathis, a 15 year old sophomore, is a talented photographer and has always wanted to join the school newspaper where her extreme crush, Sebastian, runs it. That is where your first-person narrative comes from and there are parts of the book, in third person, that takes you with various characters, but mainly Suzanne. Suzanne is a psychologist for the local hospital and a girl with the satanic pentagram somehow burned or carved or whipped onto her has arrived at the hospital. Most of the people from this society are devout, but Mae, the girl with the huge pentagram, ran and, by extreme luck, made it to the highway miles away from where the cult lives and was brought into the hospital where Suzanne works. Because Suzanne has become so worried and can relate to the abuse, she does everything in order to prevent the cult from coming to claim her; unfortunately, this leads to Mae becoming a foster child for the Mathis family. Things begin to happen to each member of the family and each of them, besides Jules' mother, knows something is wrong and want nothing more than Mae to leave the house....... From one family member to the next, each of them sees a side to Mae that Suzanne refuses to see.... the questions from the Mathis family are: does Mae have ulterior motives? Does she believe in what her family believes in? Her family and community are extremely dangerous.......... is Mae?

My first reaction of this book was relatively good. I enjoyed the characters and I thought the writing was well-done. Since I'm considering this book to be fiction, I will say that most of the characters were developed and the storyline moves you in this direction where you have no idea what to think. So, as far as how to take this book, I have to say that I liked it, which isn't the best thing in the world, but it works. I do have to admit that I found myself having to stop listening, because of Suzanne's decisions. She's doing things, in order to protect Mae, that make me feel sick to my stomach about her own family. So, while I do find the characters interesting, I have to say that I had serious issue with Suzanne and her... I'm going to so IDIOTIC decisions.

SCORE: As far as the book/storyline and everything else, I think it's in the B range in my person scale. Cassandra Campbell, the narrator, receives an A- from me.

IN CONCLUSION: To me, both the book and the Netflix limited series were worth the read and the view. I found myself enjoying the subtle and the big changes. If you end up watching this show, I am not joking when I say you will receive a figurative sucker punch to the stomach in the last 5 minutes. As far as the book like I said, it was open-ended, so I don't know how things will work out for the characters. I love these kinds of books, in all honestly, but I do think that this one needed more than what the author gave us.

Watch the show! Read the book! See the differences! The only thing I will say is that this is a trigger for those with trauma, so please be careful. I would feel terrible if one was triggered based on a review I wrote. HAPPY READING/LISTENING EVERYONE!

The Netflix Show Is Better

Too simple and bland a story. There’s so much more going on that should have been addressed. And it meanders a lot before it gets to any real point and then it all rushes to the end.