Z’s Reviews > When Devils Sing > Status Update

+Southern vibes
+Big cast
+Cool concept
+Devil in the first chapter
+Inequality, privilege, trauma, power and how the wealthy bleed the poor but the commentary took front seat to the devils and I wanted it 50/50? Maybe idk
-Dawson, Reid they don’t get much closure imo
-Not gay enough
-terrible pacing for the climax
-ending felt empty of some important details

3.5* round to 3, enjoyable but ending was so abrupt

It doesn’t have that high of a rating but I actually enjoyed it and the climax was thrilling but felt short as many books fall into
It could’ve used some cuts and sharper editing but honestly as an audiobook it was an enjoyable read, I think I just wanted a little more of the devils, more blood and a better wrap up

I don't like epilogues and this was no exception

Loved the idea of having three devils, needed a little more backstory there but I liked that it was realism, they were there enough to be creepy but not enough to be fantasy? Idk

We never meet the 3rd brother?!?! How??? When Jack Devil says he died in the fire I’m like who was it????? We don't even get a HINT that he was there nor how he dies just a throwaway line?

Epilogue: Neera signed with Grant but the toll on her body is hard, she is completely under his jurisdiction but when she okayed she was her own, Isaiah visits her backstage

Sam and her brother move to Mexico, Reid is still in hiding w the survivors waiting to see if the podcast gets traction to be safe

Reid and the 7 survivors are on a pontoon and he tells Dawson they’ll go into hiding then expose the crimes

Isaiah runs to his dad who he can tell knows what happens on Lake Clearwater

Neera is cornered by Grant and reunites w her mom on his boat

Wiley chases after Sam and Dawson, D distracts him and gives her a knife that she uses when Jonah runs after her and she stabs him, she gets on a boat to see Jack when she gets to land, he says his brother is dead so he’s free and doesn’t care what she does now but he knew she’d make it out alive, he gives her his car keys and adoption papers for her brother

finallllly Neera plays, Isaiah and Reid put in ear plugs

As Neera sings black goo oozes from eyes and mouths, they put plugs in the captives eyes but the cicadas are emerging from the chasm relentlessly, Isaiah puts a torch into it to break the chain and urges everyone out of the clearing and Reid stays to light it on fire then runs too

Jonah is in charge of Sam’s cleansing and dumps her boiling water on her, neither her nor Dawson know if Reid is here as a friend or foe

Isaiah is recording and can’t do anything until Neera sings, two people are hung w their throats slit and then swarmed by cicadas from a crack in the earth, a mini earth quake kinda Cabin in the Woods vibe and then disappear into a cavern, Isaiah’s phone dies

Sam wakes up at the crossroads, chained next to Dawson, they both say I’m sorry but she refuses to die her brother has no idea what happened to her

The boats crowd and fill the lake mirroring the cicadas in the sky

The Langley’s gather around tributes who each get cleansed w scalding hot water, Neera’s mother is whisked away and a different person is put in her place

in exchange for her family’s safety and erasure of their debts he will own her completely everything she creates, she is selling her soul again

Reid wakes up on July 4th his 18th birthday and their dad asks him and his two siblings if they want to join in on the Rendering, as long as one does the whole family benefits, Reid answers first despite being the meekest and least Langley of the bunch, they all agree