The Devil You Know

by Adrian W. Lilly

Seventeen-year-old Julie Collins has moved to an isolated new world that is as haunting as it is beautiful. She and her mother are spending their final days with Julie’s father as he dies of cancer in his boyhood home. But someone else walks the halls of the old mansion, the ghost of a teenage boy. He appears to Julie and shows her a vision of a ceremony…and a sacrifice. And suddenly, Julie is trapped in a century-old demonic ritual—and only she can stop it.

Genres: Horror, Thriller

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 8, 2012

About the author

I am the author of The Devil You Know, Red Haze, and The Runes Trilogy (The Wolf at His Door, The Wolf in His Arms, The Wolf at War), Road Trips, and The Moon in Your Eyes. My writing focuses on strong character development and the nuances of fear that build toward horror.

When not writing, I enjoy hiking, biking, canoeing, camping, organic gardening, home canning, and anything else in the realm of sustainable living. I’m a fan of Gothic suspense movies and novels as well as campy 70s and 80s horror flicks.

Reviews

[Angel Gelique · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up.

"Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t."
—Folk saying

Seventeen-year-old Julie Collins should be doing all of the fun, carefree things high school seniors do. She should be dating. She should be going to the mall. She should be planning for college.

But she shouldn't be fighting for her life.

Yet, after her family relocates to an isolated rural area, Julie finds it difficult to adjust to the strange occurrences she experiences. From ghostly visions to a "school" full of bizarre students, life has definitely grown stressful. Then she meets Paul Quinn, another newcomer to the bizarre neighborhood. They team up and discover a sinister plot that threatens their very lives.

I found the premise of this book intriguing, but thought the story was a bit too slow-paced and largely predictable. I didn't much care for the characters, either, though by the end of the story, I started liking Julie and Marie-Do a little more. I also thought the dialogue between the characters wasn't very believable. The teenagers just didn't act like typical teenagers--and it had nothing to do with their unusual predicament.

Despite the criticism, I found the story entertaining. Overall, the writing was decent and the ending was, for the most part, satisfying.

[Irene Well Worth A Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Devil You Know is most definitely a story about Julie. You will not be allowed to forget this. The author goes to great pains to make sure you remember her name. In fact her name appears a full 1,746 times in the book. Julie raised, Julie saw, Julie pushed, Julie heaved, Julie felt, Julie refused, Julie Julie Julie! No I did not count them. By the time I was 10% through the book I was put off by the number of sentences that begin with the word Julie, and typed it into the kindle's "search this document" feature.
While I did enjoy the story itself it was a bit distracting that so many sentences began with Julie. I felt that it dragged on longer than it needed to It also may be better suited to the young adult section.
I received a free copy for review.

[Adrian Lilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sharing a quote from the review by The Kindle Book Review:

"If you are a fan of this genre, if you are a fan of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or John Saul then you will become a fan of Adrian Lilly..."

It's important for me to note, as an author, that this is not a fast-paced novel. Readers who do not enjoy a Gothic, slower read, one about subtle spookiness and the poetry of autumn, may not enjoy this novel. It's creepy...not a slasher.

[Sienna Logan (Lost to Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

For more of my reviews visit http://losttobooks.blogspot.com

When I read the description for The Devil You Know it sounded like my kind of book so obviously I was pleased to accept it to review. The book is set over the month of October with each chapter starting a new day. I thought this was a great idea which made the book easy to follow in relation to time and was quite original. It wasn't until the end that I connected October leading up to Halloween but when I got to that part in the book it all made sense and I liked the correlation.

My favourite character in the book was Paul. I just grew to love him more and more as the novel went on and the relationship between Julie and Paul was developed well. It was believable when they turned to each other for support and the romance that developed subtly was a nice addition.

This book however was a pretty slow read and parts seemed to drag on. I'm not sure if that was because I found the stroyline predictable and had guessed how it ended 30% in so was just waiting to get to that point, but for me I struggled to get through sections and nearly found myself giving up towards the 70% mark. The only reason I didn't was that I had spent so many hours reading that far I needed to finish it to make it worth while.

As well as this because of the predictable nature, this book didn't really hold my interest very well and the choppy style of writing that jumped from different points of view and dreams made it slightly confusing and less engaging for me. The other thing that really irritated me was the character Marie-Do (Marie-Dominique) I don't know why but the name just really annoyed me to read and every time she came up the name really distracted me, however this is personal preference.

Overall this wasn't a totally unenjoyable book. It was a bit slow and parts were hard to read or predictable but it did have good points like the relationships and everything tying in nicely with the timeline and ending. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be but I guess that's a bonus as I won't be freaking myself out tonight.

[John Caliburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book on Amazon while I was looking for something scary to read. And I'm glad I found it! This book is awesome. It could be even scarier than anything I've written (which I reluctantly admit).

It's about this girl Julie who is moving to her father's old house. And then her life turns to hell. At first, the story was a little slow, but then I realized that the pacing was perfect to slowly build up the suspense. She becomes isolated with no phone signal or internet, she doesn't get any letters from her best friend, and she can't leave town.

Also, everyone in town is strange and creepy, and there is a dark secret about her parents. But then there was Paul. He's like the only normal person in town. They fall in love with each other, but it's not that sappy kind of love, because as you read about how they love each other, the back of your mind begins to suspect that Paul could be evil. Maybe, maybe not. You'll have to read the book if you want to find out.

The reason I gave it 4 stars was because there were two things I didn't like:

1) There are evil people (I'm not telling you who) that are trying to kill Julie. However, they were completely evil, with no feelings of regret at all of what they're trying to do. I wished that the author gave those evil people more emotions and reluctance. It would have given the story more depth. Kind of like in that movie: "Who Can Kill a Child?" (1976 version).

2) I hated the name Marie-Do. That name just jumps out and breaks me out of the story.

Despite all that, I would highly recommend this book. This review was written on Sept 26, so Halloween is coming up. Any of you who are reading this review should go buy this book because it seemed like the author specifically wrote it for Halloween. Plus, it only costs $1 for about 300 pages of horror. Read it. You won't regret it.

[Ishan · Rating 2 out of 5]

i really wanted to give it 2.5 stars but Goodreads has no provision for that.
Story starts of with a girl(Julie) shifting to her parents old home. (as her father suffers from cancer and wants to relive his old memories for the time being). The new place she moves in is creepy and gloomy. The students and teacher at his new school are creepy and bizarre and she starts having nightmares.
wait! so you think its a haunted house story ?? absolutely not ! you are in for a surprise.
One of the things that i couldn't connect to was that the evil people in this novel have no emotion at all. Author should have added some emotion (like guilt or something) to make that seem real. They just keep enjoying being evil and overconfident.
Story builds up well and some parts were really enjoyable and some parts were sort of ok.
The blooming of the subtle romance between Julie and Paul (the only normal one around the place) was justified.
There are lots of foggy scenes description.

Before starting keep in mind that : This book is one of those that builds up slowly and those who like fast paced fiction may find it a little bit dragging. But after reading it completely i realized that it was needed for the novel to build up.
Overall it's not 'outstandingly scary' but i guess if i had read it some years before, maybe in my teenage years , than it would have been.

NOTE :i received this book from the author for an honest review.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book a couple of weeks ago while searching for the perfect Halloween read. The Devil You Know definitely fit the bill. I stayed up later than I should've because I just couldn't stop until I finished it. Adding to the spooky atmosphere of the story, I was home alone at the time. Anyway, the story revolves around Julie Collins and her love interest Paul. I don't want to give any of the surprise twists away so I'll try to recap this without any major spoilers. The story follows Julie, a senior in high school. She is uprooted from her comfy upper-crust life in Chicago when her parents move the family to the backwoods community of Cape Nema in the UP of Michigan. They move into a big mansion which was her dad's boyhood home. Things look up a little for her though when she meets Paul, who is also new to the school. Julie feels isolated being so far away from the life she knew and to make matters worse there's no internet and her cell phone doesn't get any bars up there either. Even her attempts to write letters to her best friend back home, Marie-Do, fail. Julie and Paul soon find out things in Cape Nema aren't as they seem and there is a sinister element residing there. Julie and Paul discover they can only trust each other, everyone else in the creepy town has their own agenda. I recommend reading this with all the lights on full power! Happy reading.

[Alysa H. · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

I enjoyed the teenage characters, who seemed smarter and more pragmatic than those in many other YA genre books while still seeming their age. I especially the friendship between Julie and Marie-Do. This book also has a great creepy-woodsy atmosphere, and a quiet malevolence that was sustained nicely as the book went on. That, plus a few gross-outs and some solid subtext, kept me reading to the end. BUT...

The romance between Julie & Paul felt totally shoehorned in, and was written quite awkwardly. Did the writer think there had to be some random teenage het romance for the book to sell? Better to have concentrated on friendship here, I think.

Where this book fails most is not in the overarching plot but in the details -- a long series of transparent contrivances, one after the next after the next -- which fall apart at the slightest breath. And also, in the writing itself. There are so many repetitions, grammatical problems, and word-choice issues that I almost gave up fairly early on. Ironically, the use of big words is a minor plot point, but perhaps Lilly should have spent more time getting the small ones right first.

This is quite obviously a first novel and needed more revising before it was released. That being said, I do think the author shows promise and I'm curious to see what his later books are like.

[Heather Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh myyy!!! I just finished this book and absolutely loved it! Set in October against a backdrop of changing leaves, a backwards small town and an ominous mansion with secrets of its own, this riveting tale immediately draws you in and doesn’t let go. For the main character, this is the world she is forced into during her senior year of high school when her family moves to Cape Nema, the town in which her father grew up, as they cope with his terminal cancer. Right away, you feel the uneasiness of the main character as she steps into the mysterious and creepy old mansion, her new home. You feel her isolation as the town seems to be without cell phone or internet service…(Oh I know, GASP!), and her parents become distant, apparently from the emotional and physical ravages of her father’s cancer. The sense of isolation grows as she attends her new school where she witnesses the bizarre behavior of the teacher and the other students. The only normal person at the school is the hunky student whose parents also moved him to Cape Nema a few weeks earlier. Together, they begin to unravel the horrible secrets of the town, the mansion and their parents. Spoiler alert! There are spiders; lots of them. Be prepared for your skin to crawl.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

With every turn of the page the darkness of this story creeped in like a fog around me. I found myself engulfed in the shadows chasing Julie and my heart raced right along with hers as the world she thought she knew unravels. This is a fantastic read especially in time for Halloween!

[Andrea Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this creepy and suspenseful read. I struggled to put it down from the moment I started...coming from a person who has been known to leave books for months, that's saying something.

[Stefanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I didn't think this book was as good as people were saying it was. A little disappointed. It wasn't terrible though. Still enjoyed the story.