What do you think?
Rate this book
Two-Step Devil
From a New York Times Notable "writer of great originality" comes a bold novel about love, faith and two societal outsiders whose lives converge in the contemporary American South.
It's 2014 in Lookout Mountain, Alabama, where the Prophet—a 70-year-old man who paints his visions—lives off the grid in a cabin near the Georgia border. While scrounging for materials at the local dump, the Prophet sees a car pull up to an abandoned gas station. In the back seat is a teenage girl with zip ties on her wrists, a girl he realizes he must rescue from her current life. Her name is Michael and the Prophet feels certain that she is his Big Fish, a messenger sent by God to take his apocalyptic warnings to the White House. Michael finds herself in the Prophet’s remote, art-filled cabin, and as their uncertain dynamic evolves into tender friendship, she is offered a surprising opportunity to escape her past—and perhaps change her future.
Moving through the worlds of the Prophet, the girl, and a beguiling devil figure who dances in the corner of their lives, Two-Step Devil is a propulsive, philosophical examination of fate and faith that dares to ask what salvation, if any, can be found in our modern world.
It's 2014 in Lookout Mountain, Alabama, where the Prophet—a 70-year-old man who paints his visions—lives off the grid in a cabin near the Georgia border. While scrounging for materials at the local dump, the Prophet sees a car pull up to an abandoned gas station. In the back seat is a teenage girl with zip ties on her wrists, a girl he realizes he must rescue from her current life. Her name is Michael and the Prophet feels certain that she is his Big Fish, a messenger sent by God to take his apocalyptic warnings to the White House. Michael finds herself in the Prophet’s remote, art-filled cabin, and as their uncertain dynamic evolves into tender friendship, she is offered a surprising opportunity to escape her past—and perhaps change her future.
Moving through the worlds of the Prophet, the girl, and a beguiling devil figure who dances in the corner of their lives, Two-Step Devil is a propulsive, philosophical examination of fate and faith that dares to ask what salvation, if any, can be found in our modern world.
269 pages, Hardcover
First published September 10, 2024
232 people are currently reading
9040 people want to read
About the author
Jamie Quatro
11 books229 followersJamie Quatro’s debut novel, FIRE SERMON (Grove, Jan 2018) is a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and an Indie Next pick for spring 2018. Her 2013 collection I WANT TO SHOW YOU MORE was a New York Times Notable Book, NPR Best Book of 2013, Indie Next pick, O, The Oprah Magazine Summer Reading pick, and New York Times Editors’ Choice. The collection was named a Top 10 Book of 2013 by Dwight Garner in the New York Times and a Favorite Book of 2013 by James Wood in The New Yorker, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize.
Quatro’s fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Tin House, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, McSweeney’s, Vice, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. Her stories are anthologized in the O.Henry Prize Stories 2013, Ann Charters' The Story and Its Writer, and the 2018 Pushcart Prize Anthology. A contributing editor at Oxford American magazine, Quatro teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program, and lives with her family in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 435 reviews
October 16, 2024
A devilishly ambitious book.
Watch my BookTube video featuring books with Satan & demons .😈
"You cannot stand for the horrific and the beautiful to touch, cannot fathom a system in which one person benefits from the suffering of another. But it is so."
Two-Step Devil explores the carnal and the divine in daily life through the story of a seventy-year-old man called the Prophet, who transforms his prophetic visions into art pieces, and a teen girl named Michael, who the Prophet first sees trapped in a car with her wrists zip tied. He believes she's a messenger sent by God to take his visionary warnings of the coming end-times to the White House, so he contrives to rescue her.
Thus begins a story of an unlikely friendship between two strangers who live on the margins of society. While the Prophet’s backstory is unveiled, Michael’s future unfolds. Meanwhile, the devil emerges from the shadows to taunt the Prophet, and eventually, the reader.
I applaud Jamie Quatro for taking risks in this book. The structure is playful and roguish. The story is complex and gritty. The writing is sinuous and alluring. I never quite knew where Quatro was taking me, but curiosity compelled me forward.
Highly recommend if you're in the mood for an unusual and surprising read.
My heartfelt thanks to the generous folks at Grove Atlantic for sending me an early copy of this surprising book.
--
ORIGINAL POST 👇
📢 New book coming from Jamie Quatro! 👀
Two-Step Devil concerns the Prophet (a seventy-year-old man who paints his visions) whose life is upturned when he sees a car at an abandoned gas station and spots a teen girl inside with zip ties on her wrists.
And just like that, I'M HOOKED!
Some of the lines in Quatro's previous novel, Fire Sermon, took my breath away, so I'm very curious to explore her writing further in her upcoming book.
Two-Step Devil is said to be a propulsive story of an unlikely relationship between two strangers. I'll be reading it soon because I was generously sent an uncorrected proof by Grove Atlantic. ❤️
I'm looking forward to this book so much!
Watch my BookTube video featuring books with Satan & demons .😈
"You cannot stand for the horrific and the beautiful to touch, cannot fathom a system in which one person benefits from the suffering of another. But it is so."
Two-Step Devil explores the carnal and the divine in daily life through the story of a seventy-year-old man called the Prophet, who transforms his prophetic visions into art pieces, and a teen girl named Michael, who the Prophet first sees trapped in a car with her wrists zip tied. He believes she's a messenger sent by God to take his visionary warnings of the coming end-times to the White House, so he contrives to rescue her.
Thus begins a story of an unlikely friendship between two strangers who live on the margins of society. While the Prophet’s backstory is unveiled, Michael’s future unfolds. Meanwhile, the devil emerges from the shadows to taunt the Prophet, and eventually, the reader.
I applaud Jamie Quatro for taking risks in this book. The structure is playful and roguish. The story is complex and gritty. The writing is sinuous and alluring. I never quite knew where Quatro was taking me, but curiosity compelled me forward.
Highly recommend if you're in the mood for an unusual and surprising read.
My heartfelt thanks to the generous folks at Grove Atlantic for sending me an early copy of this surprising book.
--
ORIGINAL POST 👇
📢 New book coming from Jamie Quatro! 👀
Two-Step Devil concerns the Prophet (a seventy-year-old man who paints his visions) whose life is upturned when he sees a car at an abandoned gas station and spots a teen girl inside with zip ties on her wrists.
And just like that, I'M HOOKED!
Some of the lines in Quatro's previous novel, Fire Sermon, took my breath away, so I'm very curious to explore her writing further in her upcoming book.
Two-Step Devil is said to be a propulsive story of an unlikely relationship between two strangers. I'll be reading it soon because I was generously sent an uncorrected proof by Grove Atlantic. ❤️
I'm looking forward to this book so much!
September 9, 2024
Wow. This book blew me away.
The Prophet has had a life full of suffering, much of which he has drank his way through. For nearly as long as he can remember, he has received visions from God. Now, he’s old and isolated, lonely in his cabin in the backwoods of Alabama, spending his days sketching his visions down on whatever he can find. When he’s out at the abandoned junkyard one day, the Lord sends him a real-life vision—a calling to be a real-life prophet—when he witnesses an Innocent being kidnapped and takes it as a sign that he is the one who is destined to rescue her. The girl—Michael—joins the Prophet on his destiny, the two forming an unlikely alliance filled with surprising tenderness.
This story is wildly creative and has such a captivating narrative. The characters are engrossing and deeply compelling. The Prophet, specifically, makes for a complex character study. With meditations on faith, religion, and redemption, Two-Step Devil is a bold, weird, and intensely gripping read; I will recommend it to readers far and wide.
I will be really interested to see readers' thoughts and interpretations, as well as the author's discussions, once this releases. Hovering between four and five stars because the ending threw me for a loop so I still need to sit and ponder it but overall, I was very taken with this novel so I'm rounding up. I don't think that I grasped everything that Quatro laid out during my first read through so I definitely want to return to it again with a closer eye but even still, there is a clear-cut brilliance in this novel and a uniquely fascinating narrative voice that is hard to deny.
Thank you Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review. Available 09/10/2024!
The Prophet has had a life full of suffering, much of which he has drank his way through. For nearly as long as he can remember, he has received visions from God. Now, he’s old and isolated, lonely in his cabin in the backwoods of Alabama, spending his days sketching his visions down on whatever he can find. When he’s out at the abandoned junkyard one day, the Lord sends him a real-life vision—a calling to be a real-life prophet—when he witnesses an Innocent being kidnapped and takes it as a sign that he is the one who is destined to rescue her. The girl—Michael—joins the Prophet on his destiny, the two forming an unlikely alliance filled with surprising tenderness.
This story is wildly creative and has such a captivating narrative. The characters are engrossing and deeply compelling. The Prophet, specifically, makes for a complex character study. With meditations on faith, religion, and redemption, Two-Step Devil is a bold, weird, and intensely gripping read; I will recommend it to readers far and wide.
I will be really interested to see readers' thoughts and interpretations, as well as the author's discussions, once this releases. Hovering between four and five stars because the ending threw me for a loop so I still need to sit and ponder it but overall, I was very taken with this novel so I'm rounding up. I don't think that I grasped everything that Quatro laid out during my first read through so I definitely want to return to it again with a closer eye but even still, there is a clear-cut brilliance in this novel and a uniquely fascinating narrative voice that is hard to deny.
Thank you Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review. Available 09/10/2024!
August 14, 2024
3.5/4
Two-Step Devil is a strange and disturbing novel that tells the story of Winston (The Prophet), his strange companion, Two-Step who appears from time to time and Michael, a young girl who Winston rescues from sex traffickers.
In the first part of the book we see into Winston's previous life. His wife has died from cancer and he is estranged from his son's family. Winston is also dying slowly from cancer but has refused treatment possibly because it interferes with his visions. And it is the visions that keep him going. He has had them for decades and now paints what he sees, much to the amusement of Two-Step.
The second part of the novel gives us Michael's horrible story from seduction to being forced into prostitution. Winston enlists Michael to help him take his vision to the White House but Michael also has other plans.
I chose this book because of the title, which intrigued me although I can't honestly remember why Winston has christened his vision of the devil as Two-Step. There are parts of the book that I found baffling but otherwise it was an interesting story but with some heavyweight issues including drug abuse, child sex abuse, child prostitution, physical abuse and mental health.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the advance review copy.
Two-Step Devil is a strange and disturbing novel that tells the story of Winston (The Prophet), his strange companion, Two-Step who appears from time to time and Michael, a young girl who Winston rescues from sex traffickers.
In the first part of the book we see into Winston's previous life. His wife has died from cancer and he is estranged from his son's family. Winston is also dying slowly from cancer but has refused treatment possibly because it interferes with his visions. And it is the visions that keep him going. He has had them for decades and now paints what he sees, much to the amusement of Two-Step.
The second part of the novel gives us Michael's horrible story from seduction to being forced into prostitution. Winston enlists Michael to help him take his vision to the White House but Michael also has other plans.
I chose this book because of the title, which intrigued me although I can't honestly remember why Winston has christened his vision of the devil as Two-Step. There are parts of the book that I found baffling but otherwise it was an interesting story but with some heavyweight issues including drug abuse, child sex abuse, child prostitution, physical abuse and mental health.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the advance review copy.
December 23, 2024
عجیب و خلاقانه. نیمهٔ ابتدایی رو خیلی دوست داشتم.
۳/۵
۳/۵
November 1, 2024
Mind blown. I will be thinking about this book for a long time. What starts out as a gut wrenching, tragic story, turns into a many layered deep dive into the truth (and fallacies) of our perceptions of good and evil. This fully took hold in the last quarter of the book and didn't let go. My brain hurts, and I need a book club or lit class to discuss this hard-hitting work of art.
May 14, 2024
It is a master novel and a hopeful gut punch about the world right now. It will take me a while to digest the meatiness of it. A strategic yet winding story that makes you think about faith/doubt, sexuality, abortion, hope/hopelessness, crime, religion and childhood/parenthood. I simultaneously wanted to rush through to the end to understand where the author was taking me, while wanting to reread for the nuances. I loved that I had no idea what was going to happen in the end. It reminds me that the left and right in politics are closer in their ideologies than we might originally think and that there is too much nuance behind some topics to make overt judgements.
November 1, 2024
In ‘Two Step Devil’ by Jamie Quatro, we meet Winston, a seventy-year-old man who lives off the grid in Alabama and goes by The Prophet. A lot of loss and loneliness marks his life. Two Step Devil is his only companion whose visits are announced by smoke appearing, and he spends his time painting visions he receives [“the movie screen dropped in front of him, same as always when a vision cut in. Clean-sheet white, five feet square”]. One day, when searching for materials for his next art piece, he sees a car pull up at an abandoned gas station. In the back seat, he sees a girl with zip ties on her wrist. He believes she must be an angel sent from God and is his Big Fish to help get his message to President Obama. What ensues is a journey I couldn’t predict.
This was as clever as it was captivating because Jamie utilizes different forms and the voices of The Prophet, Michael (the girl), and Two Step Devil. At first, I was apprehensive about The Prophet, as I assume many readers will be. The book's tone feels unsettling initially, and you're unsure where this journey will take you, which should excite anyone who picks this up. Rest assured, it's a thoughtful exploration of loss, religion, art, sex trafficking, good vs. evil, substance abuse, redemption, and more.
"The way to get the bad things out of your head was to draw them. Over and over, you could empty your head by getting what you saw out on a piece of paper."
As much as the plot drives this, the writing places you in The Prophet's POV so you empathize with him and perceive the world through his eyes. We live in his confusion, speech, and understanding of the world, which sometimes feels childlike but is genuine. Jamie does a great job making him feel real, and I loved how she portrayed the visions. I saw each with one clarity.
"Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. And had I not shown up to oppose you, your story would have been a different one.
The less you know, the better, but I also really loved the purpose Two Step served and seeing Michael's POV. There’s a lot of meaning in this story, and I am really interested to see how readers respond. A commonality among the reviews I’ve read is how original and singular this story is, which I also fully echo. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking a thought-provoking and surprising reading experience. Now that I know how this story ends, I’m already itching to re-read it closely.
Thank you, Grove Atlantic, for the gifted copy!
This was as clever as it was captivating because Jamie utilizes different forms and the voices of The Prophet, Michael (the girl), and Two Step Devil. At first, I was apprehensive about The Prophet, as I assume many readers will be. The book's tone feels unsettling initially, and you're unsure where this journey will take you, which should excite anyone who picks this up. Rest assured, it's a thoughtful exploration of loss, religion, art, sex trafficking, good vs. evil, substance abuse, redemption, and more.
"The way to get the bad things out of your head was to draw them. Over and over, you could empty your head by getting what you saw out on a piece of paper."
As much as the plot drives this, the writing places you in The Prophet's POV so you empathize with him and perceive the world through his eyes. We live in his confusion, speech, and understanding of the world, which sometimes feels childlike but is genuine. Jamie does a great job making him feel real, and I loved how she portrayed the visions. I saw each with one clarity.
"Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. And had I not shown up to oppose you, your story would have been a different one.
The less you know, the better, but I also really loved the purpose Two Step served and seeing Michael's POV. There’s a lot of meaning in this story, and I am really interested to see how readers respond. A commonality among the reviews I’ve read is how original and singular this story is, which I also fully echo. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking a thought-provoking and surprising reading experience. Now that I know how this story ends, I’m already itching to re-read it closely.
Thank you, Grove Atlantic, for the gifted copy!
April 27, 2024
Made me feel things again
Read
September 1, 2024I didn’t fully understand this, but I’m definitely in awe of it
September 11, 2024
Just like when I read The Satanic Verses - I had to read Two - Step Devil twice to capture how outstanding this novel really is By no means am I comparing the two novels but showing sometimes as a reader when you put a little more effort into what you're reading it really pays off.
Winston, otherwise known as the Prophet - is a seventy - year - old - man who receives visions from God - who in turn paints these visions on anything he can find in his remote cabin near the Georgia border.
On a side note: My opinion of the Prophet is he is a bad ass who has been through hell and back and nothing can kill the Prophet but the Prophet himself.
While scrounging for materials at the local scrapyard, the Prophet sees a car pull up to an abandoned gas station. In the back seat is a teenage girl named Michael - The Prophet feels certain she is a messenger sent from God to take his end - time warnings to the White House. Furthermore the Prophet realizes he must rescue her from her current life.
Michael finds herself in the Prophet's remote, art - filled cabin and as the relationship evolves into tender friendship, she is offered an opportunity to escape her past and perhaps change her future.
What really worked for me is the Author divides the book in two parts so you hear the Prophet's story and Michaels story in their perspective.
Winston, otherwise known as the Prophet - is a seventy - year - old - man who receives visions from God - who in turn paints these visions on anything he can find in his remote cabin near the Georgia border.
On a side note: My opinion of the Prophet is he is a bad ass who has been through hell and back and nothing can kill the Prophet but the Prophet himself.
While scrounging for materials at the local scrapyard, the Prophet sees a car pull up to an abandoned gas station. In the back seat is a teenage girl named Michael - The Prophet feels certain she is a messenger sent from God to take his end - time warnings to the White House. Furthermore the Prophet realizes he must rescue her from her current life.
Michael finds herself in the Prophet's remote, art - filled cabin and as the relationship evolves into tender friendship, she is offered an opportunity to escape her past and perhaps change her future.
What really worked for me is the Author divides the book in two parts so you hear the Prophet's story and Michaels story in their perspective.
January 15, 2025
This is the kind of book you finish and stare at the ceiling in awe for hours after. This book truly struck me. It reads like a classic and I hope to see it become one, I could also see it becoming a banned book (compliment)
When the book changed to Michael’s point of view and the play between the Prophet and two-step, I haven’t been that enraptured in a story in a long time. The truth in this story stings but it is beautifully and bravely told. This book is one of a kind and I’ll be singing its praises for a long time.
When the book changed to Michael’s point of view and the play between the Prophet and two-step, I haven’t been that enraptured in a story in a long time. The truth in this story stings but it is beautifully and bravely told. This book is one of a kind and I’ll be singing its praises for a long time.
September 1, 2025
With vigor and confidence, Quatro crafts a unique wonder of a book. Bold in its risk taking, we journey into the head of The Prophet, seeing the son he lost, and the girl he rescues. All while conversing with the devil himself, deep in the woods of Lookout Mountain.
February 16, 2025
Two-Step Devil is equal parts original, risky, and challenging. There are many moments of discomfort in this story, and isn’t that where growth/learning happens? I have limited reading time so I rarely reread books, but this is one that would really benefit from a close second read.
I was uneasy during most of the time spent in the Prophet’s POV, although I loved the political quote below. I was riveted in every moment we were in Michael’s POV, and fairly confused by the Two-Step pieces at the end, but that didn’t diminish the enduring elements of this story, especially the parts that made me squirm in my mind to grapple with the concepts, including:
“You cannot stand for the horrific and the beautiful to touch, cannot fathom a system in which one person benefits from the suffering of another. But so it is.” I won't reveal the spoiler that this relates to, but it's a heavy idea to sit with.
Here's my favorite part from the Prophet's perspective:
“Politicians were the ones at fault, setting the whites against the Blacks so they wouldn't join together to fight the real enemy: the Unholy American Trinity. Businesses taking the sweat of the poor and turning it into fancy cars and airplanes; government taking money from their paychecks to make rich neighborhoods prettier and show the world how America is better than other countries; preachers humiliating them for enjoying God-given pleasures, food and drink and women. The lady he visited at the brothel. And as long as there was a race problem, the government gained power, businesses got richer, and preachers fattened themselves and their churches.” Brilliant!
Overall, this was a highly creative story that pushed boundaries, and I look forward to reading more from the author.
I was uneasy during most of the time spent in the Prophet’s POV, although I loved the political quote below. I was riveted in every moment we were in Michael’s POV, and fairly confused by the Two-Step pieces at the end, but that didn’t diminish the enduring elements of this story, especially the parts that made me squirm in my mind to grapple with the concepts, including:
“You cannot stand for the horrific and the beautiful to touch, cannot fathom a system in which one person benefits from the suffering of another. But so it is.” I won't reveal the spoiler that this relates to, but it's a heavy idea to sit with.
Here's my favorite part from the Prophet's perspective:
“Politicians were the ones at fault, setting the whites against the Blacks so they wouldn't join together to fight the real enemy: the Unholy American Trinity. Businesses taking the sweat of the poor and turning it into fancy cars and airplanes; government taking money from their paychecks to make rich neighborhoods prettier and show the world how America is better than other countries; preachers humiliating them for enjoying God-given pleasures, food and drink and women. The lady he visited at the brothel. And as long as there was a race problem, the government gained power, businesses got richer, and preachers fattened themselves and their churches.” Brilliant!
Overall, this was a highly creative story that pushed boundaries, and I look forward to reading more from the author.
January 10, 2025
this was an experience. a strange novel mixed with the right amount of suspense and mild horror. the only thing i didn’t like sometimes was the lack of quotation marks but it suited the type of book this was tbh. made me feel weird things
September 27, 2024
Wildly experimental in form and structure, this book displays an explicit desire to connect with its audience, but unfortunately it missed me. The characters were compelling, and the story was unique enough to keep me engaged while reading, but I didn’t necessarily have an overwhelming drive to pick it back up. This is one of those books where I acknowledge and appraise why others thoroughly enjoy it, but it simply wasn’t for me.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the e-arc!
———————————————————————————
“How a thing looked was important. Not just Is it useful? but Is it nice to look at? Trees made fruit, and fruit is useful, he'd said to Zeke. But before fruit comes flowers, and there's not a thing to be done with them but look.”
“Politicians were the ones at fault, setting the whites against the Blacks so they wouldn't join together to fight the real enemy: the Unholy American Trinity. Businesses taking the sweat of the poor and turning it into fancy cars and airplanes; government taking money from their paychecks to make rich neighborhoods prettier and show the world how America is better than other countries; preachers humiliating them for enjoying God-given pleasures, food and drink and women. The lady he visited at the brothel. And as long as there was a race prob-lem, the government gained power, businesses got richer, and preachers fattened themselves and their churches.”
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the e-arc!
———————————————————————————
“How a thing looked was important. Not just Is it useful? but Is it nice to look at? Trees made fruit, and fruit is useful, he'd said to Zeke. But before fruit comes flowers, and there's not a thing to be done with them but look.”
“Politicians were the ones at fault, setting the whites against the Blacks so they wouldn't join together to fight the real enemy: the Unholy American Trinity. Businesses taking the sweat of the poor and turning it into fancy cars and airplanes; government taking money from their paychecks to make rich neighborhoods prettier and show the world how America is better than other countries; preachers humiliating them for enjoying God-given pleasures, food and drink and women. The lady he visited at the brothel. And as long as there was a race prob-lem, the government gained power, businesses got richer, and preachers fattened themselves and their churches.”
November 3, 2024
Look, can I tell you *exactly* what this novel is about? No. But I can tell you that the vibes are impeccable. The voice is astounding. The characterization so creative and captivating. The sense of place immersive.
The Prophet, an old man from Alabama who paints his visions, rescues a young girl who is a victim of sex trafficking, and the two, strangely, become companions before they have to part ways as each confronts an inevitable next step in their own life stories.
We also get flashbacks of the Prophet’s life as well as his relationship with his son, who doesn’t believe in his father’s visions. This story explores religion, politics, abortion, family, illness and death, and so much more.
The title references the devil figure that appears to the Prophet, who is named Two-Step and wears cowboy boots and a hat and might be my favorite character of the whole book. If you hear me start to greet people with “Greetings, fleshsacks!” just know it’s from him.
Thank you so much to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the eARC. I know I’ll be thinking about this unique, creative, powerful story for a long while.
The Prophet, an old man from Alabama who paints his visions, rescues a young girl who is a victim of sex trafficking, and the two, strangely, become companions before they have to part ways as each confronts an inevitable next step in their own life stories.
We also get flashbacks of the Prophet’s life as well as his relationship with his son, who doesn’t believe in his father’s visions. This story explores religion, politics, abortion, family, illness and death, and so much more.
The title references the devil figure that appears to the Prophet, who is named Two-Step and wears cowboy boots and a hat and might be my favorite character of the whole book. If you hear me start to greet people with “Greetings, fleshsacks!” just know it’s from him.
Thank you so much to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the eARC. I know I’ll be thinking about this unique, creative, powerful story for a long while.
Read
May 17, 2025Wtf did I just read (compliment)
July 27, 2025
Jamie Quatro takes Southern Gothic to new places in this dark, exhilarating novel of two unforgettable characters. I’m glad this book is short, cuz I don’t think I could have taken much more.
July 18, 2024
Voice.
Voice, voice, voice.
In “Two-Step Devil” by Jamie Quatro, the main character, known principally as The Prophet, speaks with a voice that you’ve heard all your life and that you’ve never heard before.
On vomit: “That’ll clean.”
On hens: “I used to let them roam but it was feeding the coyotes, is why I'm down to five.”
The reader hears the kudzu wrapped around each word, the tomatoes swelling, the chickens scratching. Quatro has so wholly embodied the Prophet, or rather, the Prophet has so wholly embodied her, that the Prophet’s speech is effortlessly authentic: “God weren’t ashamed to be a baby in a trough, and he ain’t ashamed to use a vegetable as his messenger.”
Even though I grew up far north of the book’s Lookout Mountain setting, I heard my grandpa in the Prophet’s voice, other ancestors, generations who lived off the soil and with animals. Their voices rose from the page like smoke. The book conjured them, much like the Prophet conjures his own spirit being, the Two-Step Devil, whose visits are announced by smoke seeping through the cabin’s walls. When heard through the Prophet’s point of view, Two-Step’s voice mirrors the Prophet’s: “Look at you. Third-grade educated, a-fooling yourself with all this vision talk.” However, in the second half of the book, the reader experiences Two-Step outside the Prophet as intermediary, and his voice is condescending, flowery, at one point listing more than twenty names for Satan. And the reader realizes that Two-Step might be more than a figment of the Prophet’s imagination.
Visions drop before the Prophet on a five-foot screen, warning of future calamities. One seems to predict 9/11. He is driven to recreate them, painting the scenes on scraps of wood, on the walls and ceiling of the cabin, window glass, objects found in a nearby junkyard. His wife has died, but his son, Zeke, remains. Zeke sings with “a throat full of wonders,” and the Prophet is sure the gift was God’s purpose for the boy, to use his silver voice to share his father’s visions with the world outside their remote cabin. But Zeke rejects his father’s visions and refuses to use his voice, opting instead for the suburbs, his stomach growing large and soft.
Given the emphasis on voice throughout the book (Indeed, the Prophet claims that his voice can actually heal, and visitors pay him for this cure), I was disappointed initially in the scenes written in the point of view of Michael, a girl who comes to stay with the Prophet. These scenes are coated in drug use, so her narrative is grainy, muddled with painful memories that are also steeped in drugs. When other characters’ voices are so prominent, hers is bleary. At one point, the Prophet even asks her to serve as his voice. As I thought on this, it occurred to me that this lack of voice is representative of her lived experience. Like other women and girls in her situation, she has little agency, so I don’t begrudge her the comfort of drugs. I no longer want her to use her voice. I just want her to survive.
Big thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the eARC of this unusual, unforgettable book, one that I will continue to think about for the days and weeks to come, maybe longer.
Voice, voice, voice.
In “Two-Step Devil” by Jamie Quatro, the main character, known principally as The Prophet, speaks with a voice that you’ve heard all your life and that you’ve never heard before.
On vomit: “That’ll clean.”
On hens: “I used to let them roam but it was feeding the coyotes, is why I'm down to five.”
The reader hears the kudzu wrapped around each word, the tomatoes swelling, the chickens scratching. Quatro has so wholly embodied the Prophet, or rather, the Prophet has so wholly embodied her, that the Prophet’s speech is effortlessly authentic: “God weren’t ashamed to be a baby in a trough, and he ain’t ashamed to use a vegetable as his messenger.”
Even though I grew up far north of the book’s Lookout Mountain setting, I heard my grandpa in the Prophet’s voice, other ancestors, generations who lived off the soil and with animals. Their voices rose from the page like smoke. The book conjured them, much like the Prophet conjures his own spirit being, the Two-Step Devil, whose visits are announced by smoke seeping through the cabin’s walls. When heard through the Prophet’s point of view, Two-Step’s voice mirrors the Prophet’s: “Look at you. Third-grade educated, a-fooling yourself with all this vision talk.” However, in the second half of the book, the reader experiences Two-Step outside the Prophet as intermediary, and his voice is condescending, flowery, at one point listing more than twenty names for Satan. And the reader realizes that Two-Step might be more than a figment of the Prophet’s imagination.
Visions drop before the Prophet on a five-foot screen, warning of future calamities. One seems to predict 9/11. He is driven to recreate them, painting the scenes on scraps of wood, on the walls and ceiling of the cabin, window glass, objects found in a nearby junkyard. His wife has died, but his son, Zeke, remains. Zeke sings with “a throat full of wonders,” and the Prophet is sure the gift was God’s purpose for the boy, to use his silver voice to share his father’s visions with the world outside their remote cabin. But Zeke rejects his father’s visions and refuses to use his voice, opting instead for the suburbs, his stomach growing large and soft.
Given the emphasis on voice throughout the book (Indeed, the Prophet claims that his voice can actually heal, and visitors pay him for this cure), I was disappointed initially in the scenes written in the point of view of Michael, a girl who comes to stay with the Prophet. These scenes are coated in drug use, so her narrative is grainy, muddled with painful memories that are also steeped in drugs. When other characters’ voices are so prominent, hers is bleary. At one point, the Prophet even asks her to serve as his voice. As I thought on this, it occurred to me that this lack of voice is representative of her lived experience. Like other women and girls in her situation, she has little agency, so I don’t begrudge her the comfort of drugs. I no longer want her to use her voice. I just want her to survive.
Big thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the eARC of this unusual, unforgettable book, one that I will continue to think about for the days and weeks to come, maybe longer.
April 26, 2025
Two Step Devil blends a little Omensetter’s Luck, a little Master and Margarita and the Robin Williams/Jeff Bridges movie The Fisher King…or something like that.
With two unreliable narrators at the helm (a delusional old man who lives off the grid and goes only by The Prophet, and a young teenage girl reluctantly escaping trafficking), the story keeps the reader guessing, presenting major plot points almost casually, requiring close attention to piece the narrative together. This subtlety, combined with its dark, layered themes, makes Two Step Devil a rewarding read for literary readers willing to give a modern novel a try.
With two unreliable narrators at the helm (a delusional old man who lives off the grid and goes only by The Prophet, and a young teenage girl reluctantly escaping trafficking), the story keeps the reader guessing, presenting major plot points almost casually, requiring close attention to piece the narrative together. This subtlety, combined with its dark, layered themes, makes Two Step Devil a rewarding read for literary readers willing to give a modern novel a try.
January 27, 2025
3.5. definitely not a book I’d ever choose to read if it wasn’t for book club, buttt it was easy and addictive to read in the beginning and an interesting, sad, but thoughtful story. However it lost me at the section between two step and the prophet. It felt like a messy ending, for a book that was so well structured in the beginning / middle. In all, the overall theme of good vs evil, and the gray areas of life made for a unique story suited to what’s going on in the world right now.
August 26, 2025
This is an incredible book. So shocking in its exploration of religious ecstasy and the life of a young girl who is a victim of trafficking.
It takes place in Lookout Mountain, Alabama and features the Prophet who is a hermit in a cabin that he paints with stories that come to him in dreams and visions. Michael is the girl he rescues from an abandoned gas station, Two-Step Devil is a figure who jumps off the painted wall and starts talking to the Prophet.
It’s a joy and a horror to read.
It takes place in Lookout Mountain, Alabama and features the Prophet who is a hermit in a cabin that he paints with stories that come to him in dreams and visions. Michael is the girl he rescues from an abandoned gas station, Two-Step Devil is a figure who jumps off the painted wall and starts talking to the Prophet.
It’s a joy and a horror to read.
January 15, 2025
This book is an easy read. It draws you in within a few pages. But it’s not a book without problems and unfortunately some clumsy handling towards the middle and end.
The first two parts of the book are easy and enjoyable. A bizarre mountain man with a fairly straightforward but unpleasant past becomes an unlikely hero. He rescues a young woman who’s being sex trafficked. You might be excused for thinking, “Wow! It’s great that this book will expose the horrors of sex trafficking and shine a light on something we should be working harder to abolish in our country.” That’s not where the book takes you however.
The second section of the book is fun to reveal both the tragedy that has been the young ladies life, and reads like the inner thoughts of an uneducated and abused young girl might actually play out.
From there, the book falls off the rails and never recovers. The section of the play between the old man and the Two-Step Devil is a tour de force in terrible theology that is a blend of Protestantism, Catholicism, and Mormonism. A blend in the way that does not come together into any semblance of real religious convictions of someone who’s ever seriously studied any of the three. It’s very much sympathy for the devil thoughts, but convoluted with a terribly silly and heretical retelling for the Gospel message. I don’t know the faith background of the author, and I think the goal was to come off as provocative. However, for this reader it just came off as annoying.
From there, the story continues to fall off the rails faster than a runaway train. The multiple hypothetical endings are confusing. Not in the sense that I can’t follow what is being done, but confusing in the sense that I don’t know what the takeaway message is. I don’t know if the author does either.
I believe the message is there is both good and evil in all things and we need one to have the other. But I think this is a rather simplistic message that a non-believer would write. The Christian message is that yes there is much evil and human suffering in this world caused by evil decisions of individuals. But God has defeated evil through His suffering on our behalf and he calls His followers to defeat evil as well through self-sacrifice and love.
The story could have ended well with the tragedy that even though the young girl had her baby and was put in a foster family home, and yet fails back into the life she’s been conditioned into by her abusers. Tragic, real, and yet the beauty of redemption in that the child who would have been killed gets to live on and have a fulfilling life. Instead we got this fever dream mess at the end.
I give it one star because the first part was so fun.
The first two parts of the book are easy and enjoyable. A bizarre mountain man with a fairly straightforward but unpleasant past becomes an unlikely hero. He rescues a young woman who’s being sex trafficked. You might be excused for thinking, “Wow! It’s great that this book will expose the horrors of sex trafficking and shine a light on something we should be working harder to abolish in our country.” That’s not where the book takes you however.
The second section of the book is fun to reveal both the tragedy that has been the young ladies life, and reads like the inner thoughts of an uneducated and abused young girl might actually play out.
From there, the book falls off the rails and never recovers. The section of the play between the old man and the Two-Step Devil is a tour de force in terrible theology that is a blend of Protestantism, Catholicism, and Mormonism. A blend in the way that does not come together into any semblance of real religious convictions of someone who’s ever seriously studied any of the three. It’s very much sympathy for the devil thoughts, but convoluted with a terribly silly and heretical retelling for the Gospel message. I don’t know the faith background of the author, and I think the goal was to come off as provocative. However, for this reader it just came off as annoying.
From there, the story continues to fall off the rails faster than a runaway train. The multiple hypothetical endings are confusing. Not in the sense that I can’t follow what is being done, but confusing in the sense that I don’t know what the takeaway message is. I don’t know if the author does either.
I believe the message is there is both good and evil in all things and we need one to have the other. But I think this is a rather simplistic message that a non-believer would write. The Christian message is that yes there is much evil and human suffering in this world caused by evil decisions of individuals. But God has defeated evil through His suffering on our behalf and he calls His followers to defeat evil as well through self-sacrifice and love.
The story could have ended well with the tragedy that even though the young girl had her baby and was put in a foster family home, and yet fails back into the life she’s been conditioned into by her abusers. Tragic, real, and yet the beauty of redemption in that the child who would have been killed gets to live on and have a fulfilling life. Instead we got this fever dream mess at the end.
I give it one star because the first part was so fun.
March 17, 2025
Where to begin!
I'll start with how the book is written. Quatro breaks a few writing rules and she does so successfully. In the vein of McCarthy, no quotations are used around dialogue. It works. I was never confused about who was speaking. It makes you think, do we really NEED the quotations? Maybe. Probably? IDK. I think writers have to earn the right to break rules, and by earn, I suppose I mean be good enough to do it, and make the attempt your own. Any writer can drop dialogue tags, but should they, is the question. It takes skill, that's what I think.
Another one was around the book's structure. That too, worked for me. I loved the variations. In the beginning you get a straightforward story, (sans quotations) about a man called The Prophet. He's got the gift of sight, and he paints these prophetic art pieces using various different objects from walls to saw blades to depict his visions. (From a personal standpoint, I would've sworn Quatro was writing about a very close family member of mine - not the painting part, but definitely the persecution belief, the vision belief, and more) Her creativity here exploded off the page. The white screen that drops down. The description of the "Two-Step Devil" who graces it, and holds odd little conversations with The Prophet.
Then there's what The Prophet witnesses involving a young girl who's caught up in sex trafficking, and what he comes up with to "resku" her. I mean, there were some LOL moments, dark humor that had me chuckling.
At some point in the story, Quatro flips to script writing - this is with Two-Step, and I truly loved this part. It almost seemed necessary. It was efficient, and it fit with this character. The way TSD addressed the reader/humans - as fleshsacks - was comically accurate coming from him and also revealed this lack of ability to relate, or maybe it was more that he viewed us as weak and pathetic.
There are parts where TSD tells of his own fall from grace, yet it's altered, a "reimagining" of the Fallen Angel and his relationship with his brother, Jesus, as well as an "update" on Jesus. (some might be offended by this, btw)
The last part of the book comes from the young girl, the sex traffic victim. This has some really nice twisty plot points - don't assume you know what's happening because Quatro keeps you on your toes.
Highly recommend!
I'll start with how the book is written. Quatro breaks a few writing rules and she does so successfully. In the vein of McCarthy, no quotations are used around dialogue. It works. I was never confused about who was speaking. It makes you think, do we really NEED the quotations? Maybe. Probably? IDK. I think writers have to earn the right to break rules, and by earn, I suppose I mean be good enough to do it, and make the attempt your own. Any writer can drop dialogue tags, but should they, is the question. It takes skill, that's what I think.
Another one was around the book's structure. That too, worked for me. I loved the variations. In the beginning you get a straightforward story, (sans quotations) about a man called The Prophet. He's got the gift of sight, and he paints these prophetic art pieces using various different objects from walls to saw blades to depict his visions. (From a personal standpoint, I would've sworn Quatro was writing about a very close family member of mine - not the painting part, but definitely the persecution belief, the vision belief, and more) Her creativity here exploded off the page. The white screen that drops down. The description of the "Two-Step Devil" who graces it, and holds odd little conversations with The Prophet.
Then there's what The Prophet witnesses involving a young girl who's caught up in sex trafficking, and what he comes up with to "resku" her. I mean, there were some LOL moments, dark humor that had me chuckling.
At some point in the story, Quatro flips to script writing - this is with Two-Step, and I truly loved this part. It almost seemed necessary. It was efficient, and it fit with this character. The way TSD addressed the reader/humans - as fleshsacks - was comically accurate coming from him and also revealed this lack of ability to relate, or maybe it was more that he viewed us as weak and pathetic.
There are parts where TSD tells of his own fall from grace, yet it's altered, a "reimagining" of the Fallen Angel and his relationship with his brother, Jesus, as well as an "update" on Jesus. (some might be offended by this, btw)
The last part of the book comes from the young girl, the sex traffic victim. This has some really nice twisty plot points - don't assume you know what's happening because Quatro keeps you on your toes.
Highly recommend!
February 10, 2025
i honestly wasn’t so sure at first, but the perfect mix of religious preaching, religious destroying and discussion of what society is
February 13, 2025
Jamie Quatro you are the Prophet I am so serious. Wow this book literally has impacted me in ways I’ve never been impacted before, it is a masterpiece, I need to re-read immediately. Just absolutely insane I can’t even write a coherent review. Maybe I’ll try to write up something more articulate in the morning because WHY IS THIS BOOK NOT PLASTERED ON EVERY SHELF? I WILL MAKE SURE THE PEOPLE READ!!!!. I FUCKING LOVE THIS BOOK
August 26, 2025
waow…. that bload my mind 🤯
January 20, 2025
4.5. Hooboy . . . will review this when I figure out how exactly to do so.
Edit, the day after: After thinking more about it, I have to give this 5/5. I am stingy with 5 stars, but there it is.
I received the audiobook from NetGalley. The audio was released on Christmas Eve (after the September book release) and I fear this book may have been forgotten in the whirl of Holidays, Best Ofs, recaps, and future projections. Which is a shame, because this book is riveting and unlike anything else I’ve read. The book narration is the best I’ve ever heard (more on that at the end).
This is a quiet book with hidden ambitions and an impact that lingers long after its final word. It is character-driven, and good god does Quatro write authentic voices. The first half is told from the POV of an old man, The Prophet, and its pace matches the old man’s—it is insular, dreamlike, almost languid. The second half of the book switches POVs to the girl, Michael, and the tone becomes desperate and jittery. Emotionally, this part of the book felt like the first 3/4s of Native Son. You have been warned.
But like I said, this book has ambitions, they’re just not yapping at us at the start. The book deals with religion, misogyny and class, of course. But also: isolation, friendship and zealotry. Circumstance and complicity. Authenticity, free will and “the self.” Is everyone really just playing a part, slaves to biology/desires/personalities? (The character who most typifies escape from circumstance and the courage to be his true self is The Prophet’s son, who escapes insular mountain life to create a cushy new life for himself in Nashville. He works as a Johnny Cash impersonator. Tricky, tricky, Quatro.)
The climax of this book, sandwiched between Michael’s chapters, is told in play form. And it was here that I thought the book may have jumped the shark. Why tell the story this way? I can only come back to the book’s focus on free will and complicity. Told this way, the reader sees the characters at a remove, a much different experience than previous chapters. The characters indeed are just playing parts, and the reader can judge them accordingly. But then Two-Step, our impish apparition, addresses the reader directly. The reader is now part of the story, complicit, and their judgements, rationalizations, backgrounds and inclinations will resolve the story especially for them. This is no different from the way reading any other book works, of course. But its impact is greater given the subject matter and made flagrant with this narrative trick, the literary equivalent of the camera in Peeping Tom.
So that’s how my story resolved: a clever narrative trick charmed the shit out of me, who is prone to intellectualizing. I no doubt missed some things because this book is chock full to bursting, and my audio-processing is inferior to my language-processing. At some point I will read the book book. In the meantime, I’ll likely be disappointed with most of the books I read in comparison.
A note about the audio: narrator Christine Delaine is phenomenal. I hate unqualified praise like that (it is a difficult sentence for me to even write, despite being true), because it’s usually bullshit. But she is truly phenomenal. I am not the Appalachian kind of Southern, but I fully expected her to be from the South. I googled her, and while the results are inconclusive, I would hazard a guess that she is not. Just supremely talented and dedicated. Someone give her more novels to read.
Edit, the day after: After thinking more about it, I have to give this 5/5. I am stingy with 5 stars, but there it is.
I received the audiobook from NetGalley. The audio was released on Christmas Eve (after the September book release) and I fear this book may have been forgotten in the whirl of Holidays, Best Ofs, recaps, and future projections. Which is a shame, because this book is riveting and unlike anything else I’ve read. The book narration is the best I’ve ever heard (more on that at the end).
This is a quiet book with hidden ambitions and an impact that lingers long after its final word. It is character-driven, and good god does Quatro write authentic voices. The first half is told from the POV of an old man, The Prophet, and its pace matches the old man’s—it is insular, dreamlike, almost languid. The second half of the book switches POVs to the girl, Michael, and the tone becomes desperate and jittery. Emotionally, this part of the book felt like the first 3/4s of Native Son. You have been warned.
But like I said, this book has ambitions, they’re just not yapping at us at the start. The book deals with religion, misogyny and class, of course. But also: isolation, friendship and zealotry. Circumstance and complicity. Authenticity, free will and “the self.” Is everyone really just playing a part, slaves to biology/desires/personalities? (The character who most typifies escape from circumstance and the courage to be his true self is The Prophet’s son, who escapes insular mountain life to create a cushy new life for himself in Nashville. He works as a Johnny Cash impersonator. Tricky, tricky, Quatro.)
The climax of this book, sandwiched between Michael’s chapters, is told in play form. And it was here that I thought the book may have jumped the shark. Why tell the story this way? I can only come back to the book’s focus on free will and complicity. Told this way, the reader sees the characters at a remove, a much different experience than previous chapters. The characters indeed are just playing parts, and the reader can judge them accordingly. But then Two-Step, our impish apparition, addresses the reader directly. The reader is now part of the story, complicit, and their judgements, rationalizations, backgrounds and inclinations will resolve the story especially for them. This is no different from the way reading any other book works, of course. But its impact is greater given the subject matter and made flagrant with this narrative trick, the literary equivalent of the camera in Peeping Tom.
So that’s how my story resolved: a clever narrative trick charmed the shit out of me, who is prone to intellectualizing. I no doubt missed some things because this book is chock full to bursting, and my audio-processing is inferior to my language-processing. At some point I will read the book book. In the meantime, I’ll likely be disappointed with most of the books I read in comparison.
A note about the audio: narrator Christine Delaine is phenomenal. I hate unqualified praise like that (it is a difficult sentence for me to even write, despite being true), because it’s usually bullshit. But she is truly phenomenal. I am not the Appalachian kind of Southern, but I fully expected her to be from the South. I googled her, and while the results are inconclusive, I would hazard a guess that she is not. Just supremely talented and dedicated. Someone give her more novels to read.
November 20, 2024
Came for the cover; stayed for the writing. This book is great if at times a bit confused by itself.
February 12, 2025
Wow lol
I shall be needing a lot of fantasy books to cleanse the palette after this!
I shall be needing a lot of fantasy books to cleanse the palette after this!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 435 reviews