The Devouring Gray
By: Christine Lynn Herman
I was a little leery of this one due to people saying it reminded them of so many other things. I mean The Raven Boys and Stranger Things comparisons are right there in the blurb on the cover as well as some strong Riverdale vibes but for some reason here it didn’t bother me.
It actually worked for me. Maybe you just have to be in the mood for an old-fashioned small town monster romp?
Tragedy and a sick family member sends Violet Saunders back to her mother’s hometown of Four Paths. A lovely little place where there’s a monster trapped in another dimension linked to the town. Violet is a descendant of the four founding families that are supposed to protect the town- which is already pretty much living under the thumb of the Sheriff.
All the descendants have special powers in order to do their jobs and Violet not only has to figure hers out- without any help from her mother. But figure out why the Gray and the monster are drawn to her. All the while navigating the usual teenage stuff like who betrayed who during their initiation ceremonies and at least one seeming zombie walking around.
Like I said The Devouring Gray is just a fun monster read. It’s got a lot of the usual but I liked how the powers were used here (especially that some people who should don’t actually have them.) I also really enjoyed Harper a descendant who lost her hand and is technically disgraced but all is not as it should be there and she’s in the woods training with a sword for another chance.
The family element also adds an area of interest. Harper’s story gets surprisingly dark and the resolution to why Juniper (Violet’s mom) isn’t helping her or more forthcoming isn’t what I expected either in a good way.
On the other hand Justin and Isaac are the weaker characters here and there’s a bit that comes up about there relationship near the end that I thought they definitely could have/should have done more with. Also I think Herman was going strong for the Ronan vibes with Isaac and didn’t get there and yes that’s mainly because he was always my favorite Raven Boy.
The audio book was a good read for this one. I had no problem distinguishing the characters the only thing would be the little song that’s song throughout which was nice enough in the beginning but got old pretty fast.
Recommend: Yes. It’s a good book for traveling to- especially camping. Just keep the comparisons to other work in mind because they are definitely valid.
Ok this is interesting-an audiobook of a fantasy/horror novel? I suppose there are audiobooks for everything, but it never occurred to me that they would add these supernatural elements (like songs or music) to a book like this. How very cool!
I love when audiobooks add stuff like that 🙂 Holds my attention better!
Yah so true
Even though i don’t usually read this genre, for some reason i find this book quite intriguing and intend to read it.
The Riverdale comparison makes me a bit wary tho… i mean, if they are comparing it to the netflix series. Really liked the first season, but then after that it turned weird, and i stopped watching it, but there’s a dude on youtube who reviewed the later seasons and wow… not sure what happened there 😀 I’m just glad i’m not watching it anymore.
I should say Riverdale before it went off the rails 🙂
I’m really glad this worked so well, cos I definitely want to check it out. Great review!
I don’t think there’s any harm in a book reminding you of other books especially of ones that we’ve enjoyed. I guess, you’re right, it comes down to what mood you’re in.