Diavola by Jennifer Thorne – Review

Published: March 26, 2024

Publisher: Tor Nightfire

Series: N/A

Genre: Horror

Pages: 296 (Kindle)

My Rating: 4 Stars

Synopsis:
Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family mythology.

Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive.

It isn’t easy when she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he’s practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone—including her blandly docile husband and two kids—falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, just wants some peace and quiet.

The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso seems like a perfect place to endure so much family togetherness, until things start going off the rails—the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself.

(Warning: May invoke feelings of irritation, dread, and despair that come with large family gatherings.)

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I had my eye on Diavola prior to its release in 2024, but never quite got around to it because honestly, I just don’t prioritize horror books. When Tammy from Books, Bones, and Buffy had it on her Best Books of 2024 list, I decided it was time to give it a go! It was about 20 degrees and snowing where I live, so I also thought it might be a nice escape to warmer climes, as it’s set in an Italian villa and follows a family as they vacation and are subsequently haunted. Much to my delight, Diavola was a nice setting to escape to even if it was a horror novel, as there is much focus on the scenery of the small towns, museums, and some nice food descriptions.

For the first half of this book, I honestly thought the true horror was just going to be the family dynamics in this story. The main character is Anna Pace, the black sheep of the family, and as it says in the synopsis, she just doesn’t quite fit in. Her parents are well to do and each year gather the entire family (Anna, her twin brother Benny, his partner, older sister Nicole, husband, two kids) and jet off to some nice location where they can get some nice posed pictures and endure one another’s company for a week or so. This year, the location is the Villa Taccola in the small Tuscan village of Monteperso and it looks lovely but Anna keeps seeing strange things and on top of that, she does have to deal with her awful family.

This book has some creepy and weird moments, but the horror element doesn’t really pick up until the latter half and even then, it doesn’t truly escalate to true horror until probably the last quarter of the book, which went in a direction I didn’t expect. Like I said, the ghost was awful but I think dealing with the Pace family was worse on numerous levels. Anna, while she seems to be only a semi-reliable narrator, is so obviously apart from the rest of her family that it was uncomfortable. Her parents don’t seem to be capable of praise, her older sister seems to think Anna might want to steal her thoroughly average husband away, and even her twin brother ends up not being quite the support system he initially seemed to be (aside from his current shitty boyfriend choice). The only people who truly liked her were her two nieces and they had still picked up on some of the familial criticisms. It was amazing to see these people gaslight Anna even as they themselves physically experienced the paranormal!

Overall, I appreciated this book on a number of levels from the talented display of toxic family dynamics to the setting to the frenetic unravelling of Anna Pace. While it won’t make my annual favorites list, it certainly kept me engaged and I listened to the audiobook in a matter of just a few days. The ending was, as I said, very unexpected but ultimately wildly satisfying so if you’re feeling bleak partway through the book, just keep that in mind!