Empty Devils

by Chris DiLeo

With his daughter in a casket and his wife in a cult, David Eden is on the brink of losing touch with reality. So when he begins conversing with his daughter’s ghost and then encounters a nightmare monster in the cemetery that can’t possibly be real but is most certainly deadly, he is convinced he’s lost it. But David is also out to get vengeance on the white supremacists he blames for his child’s death, and he’s about to learn that sometimes it takes a monster to defeat one.

Genres: Horror

231 pages, Paperback

Published March 25, 2025

About the author

DiLeo is a high school English teacher in New York's Hudson Valley, and a horror/thriller novelist—he also has two coffins in his office. You know, for decoration . . . (Check out his photos to see a picture.)

Amazon reviewers are saying, “DiLeo’s horror skills are undeniable. He’s a master of suspense and understands the parameters and power of the monsters he’s created . . . [DiLeo’s] prose is first-rate and engaging . . . [It’s] like reading a horror movie . . . [With] deftly blend[ed] suspense, action . . . Dark, dramatic, and thoroughly chilling . . . [You’ll be] grabbed by the first page until the very last word . . . Disturbing and perturbing, and rampantly unsettling . . . [There will be] nightmares for a lot of us . . . DiLeo is definitely on the very dark and disturbing side of the scale.”

Reviews

[Matt M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grief horror novella about a man grappling with the loss of his daughter, who was killed by a white supremacist at a protest. This book is bold, beautifully written, and you can feel David’s pain on the page as he contemplates revenge against the Neo-Nazis responsible. Chris DiLeo has created a fantastic work with monsters, human and otherwise, that examines what it takes to go through the stages of grief and how love is what we have to resist hate.

Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book!

[unstable.books · Rating 5 out of 5]

What’s worse? Monsters that are just monsters or monsters that are human? This book is an unflinching and raw look at grief and rage. Chris, you absolutely nailed it with this story. Capturing raw emotion and supernatural elements made for a simply unsettling and horrific ride. Because what worse horror is there than utter helplessness? Thank you Chris for sending me an ARC! This book is available now.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

This is the book we all need to read right now. It's full of grief and love and pain, but it's also oh-so-satisfying. Loved it.

[Christine HorrorReaderWeekend · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy moley. What an incredibly affecting, timely, beautifully written and heart-crushingly devastating horror book.

This book opens on the day of the funeral of David Eden’s lovely, talented social warrior daughter. She was murdered at a protest on the streets of her hometown when a skinhead, white supremest ran her down.

David is enraged. And is riddled with guilt because he should have been beside her, could maybe have saved her.

DiLeo wonderfully captures David and Penelope’s relationship, their inside jokes, their shared pain over her mom’s schizophrenia, their reliance on each other, their closeness. It is so real and so relatable, such great dialogue and intimate interactions that David’s grief and rage is TACTILE. I felt it in my bones.

When David realizes that he is being haunted by Penny and the monster in her sketchbook, he finds a way to use his rage to get revenge.

This book is timely, especially with what is happening in the streets of LA. Horror books are political. And this book satisfies an itch I did not know I had.

READ IT. READ IT NOW. Order it directly from Sobelo Books.

[The Wintermute System · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story about a father who loses his daughter to Nazis and fights back. Inspired by Heather Heyer, may her memory be a blessing.

[Matt F · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 60%

I’m not sure what book the other reviewers read who are giving high ratings… seems like they were all sent free copies.

The author’s writing comes off as pretentious. At times, it’s obvious he strives to write long sentences for the sake of writing long sentences. Also, I do not care if you’re attempting to write an intelligent character, constantly quoting Shakespeare does not make them or your writing deep.

The plot is boring. We get it, your daughter died.

Every encounter with the skinheads thus far has been lackluster. The skinhead Jesse is written to be so overly dumb that he doesn’t act human. Yes, walk onto the front lawn of a skinhead crack house and start insulting the huge dude on their front porch. As long as you do it intellectually, he’ll be so confused that he’ll just stay on the front porch to be an unsolicited stranger’s verbal punching bag.

I found this description of Mercedes, the girl at the skinhead house to be juvenile: “She could be pretty if… (she) stopped smoking weed or snorting coke or whatever it is she did.” After pointing out she’s so skinny and pale she might be captive. Yes, smoking weed makes you skinny and appear deathly. You clearly described a tweaker or someone strung out on other hard drugs maybe pills, but your intellectual main character thinks she’s a pot head or coked out (even though she’s drowsy and out of it)?

Normally I don’t mind short chapters but these feel like a cop out to move from one boring scene to the next. For example: Main character goes to see crazy wife. Queue short scene where crazy wife says she saw daughter’s ghost too. No way! Scene over.

You go to your daughter’s grave and see the most unimaginative mutant creature imaginable (that is somehow mistaken for a deer or an alligator but must be a bear?). Oh, the chills when reading about the big beetle-bear with spider eyes.

Editing is bad especially for such a short book. I didn’t take note of the early errors I found because I intended to just power through the book for the sake of its shortness, but here’s one of my favorite nonsensical bits on page 88 a bit before I stopped reading:

“Walking at my side, Corbet asked what we were walking up to. ‘What I mean is what’re we about to find?’”

Huh? Redundant much? Did reading all that Shakespeare teach you to write like that?

I read over half the book and have no idea how the title “Empty Devils” has any relation at all to anything I’ve read. Also isn’t this supposed to be a horror book? Where’s the horror? The beetle-bear?

Writing is always a reflection of the author, but for the love of whatever you find holy, please keep your politics to yourself or present them in a believable/tasteful manner. At first it was subtle enough with the bad guy skinheads. But I could not continue after the Rittenhouse shooting was referenced and the race politics out of nowhere went from subtle to monumental. All done so in a manner that doesn’t even feel like it’s a true reflection of the character referencing the event but clearly just the author forcing his views on us.

“You remember that kid who shot up those protestors in Wisconsin? He was walking around with one of those ARs.”

It reads like an out of touch Reddit comment written a decade from now, and the author goes on to pepper us with race politics.

I don’t even care if the plot starts to pick up the page after I stopped reading. Whenever I begin reading fiction, my faith in the author is that their primary goal is to tell the best story they can, and I lost that faith in this instance.

As I’m finishing this review, I thumbed through and began to read the Authors Notes and Acknowledgments. Explains a lot. I didn’t need to read more than two sentences. The second is a Donald Trump quote which has been thoroughly debunked in the context used here and probably still keeps the author up at night. At least it’s the last sentence I’ll ever read from Chris DiLeo.

[L.P. Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biased because I'm one half of the publishing duo that launched this rocket into the world. Empty Devils is singular. It is the story for this moment. It is our greatest fear and our remedy. Loss of a child, but not just a loss. A loss to monsters.

I live vicariously through fiction, placing myself in the shoes of the characters and wondering what I would do. In this story I felt the rage, the helplessness, and the hope. Chris has a remarkable voice. There are so many heralded books on your horror shelves you can read and forget about in the same day. You will not forget Empty Devils. Thank you for bringing it to us, Chris.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

With his wife in a cult and his daughter in a coffin, David Eden is about to lose his sense of reality. When he sees his daughter's ghost, he thinks he is going insane. He wants retribution against those he believes killed his daughter. He might have to transform into a monster in order to defeat one. Which is more terrible, monsters that are simply monsters or human-like monsters? An honest and unvarnished look at anger and loss may be found in this book. It was an incredibly frightening and unnerving experience because of the author's masterful portrayal of unadulterated emotion and mystical components.

[Chris Wolff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book about the overwhelming grief of a father, David Eden, struggling through the untimely loss of his daughter, and the forces of evil that claimed her. Eden had already been grappling with a wife who was dealing with mental illness and trying to find relief for it, and the burden that put on himself and his daughter who just wanted her mom. In the midst of his loss, and his attempts to come to grips with it, he seeks vengeance on the neo-Nazis that were behind his daughter's death, and has to confront a frightening monster that is revealed. This story gripped me from the beginning with one of the best opening lines of any book, "With my daughter in a casket and my wife in a cult, I went to see the skinheads." DiLeo also has a lot of fun with language, Shakespeare, and kicking some ass throughout the book. A fun subtle nod into meta-fiction as well on pages 63-65. Anyway, this was heartbreaking, thrilling, horrific, which is to say all you want in a horror book.

[Matthew]

If Jim Thompson & M Night Shymalan wrote a book together, it might read like this.

The prose is sparse, the dialogue snappy, and the plot moves like wildfire. There are moments of heartbreaking introspection with a ghost followed by wild and brutal action scenes with Nazi skinheads. The voice is tender, funny, and the English teacher protagonist quotes Shakespeare every chance he gets.

Let's call this a "grief thriller." It also does not give into despair, which is crucial for this reader.

[Philip Bones · Rating 4 out of 5]

An emotional rollercoaster in so many ways, running from violent action to heartfelt love and the characters engage you with their realism. You can't help wonder what you might do if you were in the hero's situation, and that makes the following of the story all the more enjoyable. It was suitably creepy, had enough real world connection to be entirely believable, and was a read that was exciting and satisfying.

[Andrew Atkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book by this author I have read. The first one, ‘Whatever Happened To Jo Rose?’ contained Shakespearean references and subject areas requiring the reader to make judgements relating to family values and morality. The same applies to ‘Empty Devils’. The latter is an entertaining read and kept my interest alive right to the (relatively) unexpected ending.
I received a review copy via Hidden Gems and my thanks to them. This is my independent review.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

His daughter is dead and his wife is caught up in a cult. He fear he is losing his mind when his daughter ghost appears to be near him. He wants revenge on the people he blames for killing his daughter. He may need to become a monster to defeat a monster. See how he gets on
I received an advance copy from hidden gems and is a powerful read

[Mary Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its good book
18 and over
I received a free copy of this book via Hidden Gem Books, and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

This is where I say the author gives enough information.
So, I do not give anything away.
1 like

[Chris Panatier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. My first DiLeo but not my last!

Here’s my blurb:

“A bloody tale of loss and vengeance, Empty Devils is razor sharp and cuts deep. The “fuck your feelings” crowd will hate it.”

Chef’s kiss.