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 bestselling 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.
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 25, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781250818942
- File size: 323317 KB
- Duration: 11:13:34
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from October 25, 2021
In this riveting metafictional epic, Mountain Goats singer-songwriter Darnielle (Universal Harvester) flays the conventions of true crime to reveal the macabre and ordinary brutality behind sensationalized stories of violence. True crime writer Gage Chandler has spent the last five years living in the “Devil House” in Milpitas, Calif., where he’s been working on a book about an unsolved murder that took place there in 1986, during the height of the Satanic Panic. Interspliced with Gage’s investigation are long excerpts from one of his previous books, The White Witch of Morro Bay, which recounts the gruesome end for two teenage boys who broke into their teacher’s apartment. Gage’s multilayered narrative of the Devil House murders slowly builds from conjecture to the victims’ ventriloquized voices, lending itself well to Darnielle’s themes about the artifice of the genre: “Formalities, when carefully tended, quietly congregate to make form,” Gage notes. This masterwork of suspense is as careful with its sharp takes as it is with the bread crumbs it slowly drops on the way to its stunning end. It operates perfectly on many levels, resulting in a must-read for true crime addicts and experimental fiction fans alike. Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb, the Gernert Company. -
John Darnielle narrates an uneasy novel about a true-crime writer who is delving into the Satanic panic of the 1980s. A small town contains a sinister secret: An abandoned porn shop covered with occult graffiti was the site of a double murder. Gage Chandler is a true-crime writer who is eager to discover the human truths that push people to murder. The author himself reads the audiobook, but his narration is lacking. Darnielle has an unusual cadence that is off-putting, and the story's abrupt narrative shifts are difficult to stick with in audio form. Snippets of music and sound effects punctuate scenes, adding an engaging level of meta commentary. Darnielle's story is a unique blend of crime drama, horror adventure, and social commentary that is better read than listened to. J.M.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine -
June 1, 2022
Mountain Goats singer/songwriter Darnielle (Wolf in White Van; Universal Harvester) narrates his third audiobook with the same brisk lucidity that his prose has, differentiating characters only as much as necessary but hitting notes of wry observation with the tone his true-crime writer protagonist, Gage Chandler, might employ. When starting a new true crime book, Gage's creative process requires direct access to the scene of the crime for full sensory detail, so naturally he buys and moves into a former porn store in suburban Milpitas, CA, site of a 1986 double homicide, though its most intriguing details have disappeared under new paint. Gage's unreliability as a narrator--and as a writer--is overshadowed by his sensitivity toward his subjects and Darnielle's engaging performance. Suspense builds, though, as perspectives shift and new context reflects on Gage's writing career as a whole, puncturing the illusion of journalistic detachment in his lurid line of work. VERDICT Highly recommended for fans of unexpected, yet perfectly set up twists; with music by Darnielle and bandmate Matt Douglas.--Lauren Kage
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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