A review by charlottesometimes
Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne

slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This book had absolutely zero atmosphere, horror or otherwise. It read like the author initially wrote a sort of family drama / cliched ‘American woman finds herself by going on a package holiday somewhere’ story, and then thought maybe it might sell better if it could be classified as a horror. So she went through her draft and took out every mention of the protagonist talking to herself, or possibly some embarrassing diary/imaginary friend/pop culture figure she is using as a crutch, and replaced it with her talking to a boring ghost whose hairdo she doesn’t like. 

It was at some points almost embarrassing to read: the cringy sassy dialogue, the lack of self awareness from the main character, her banal remarks reported to us as though they were hilarious and insightful, her actually directly telling us multiple times how special and different she was from everybody else, with no irony whatsoever. She just straight-up believes she is better than you, me, and the rest of the world. 
TBF, she does appear to be correct in her thinking, within the world of this novel. Or at least every single other character is absolutely obsessed with her, as
though they somehow know she is the main character, and are generally jealous.

The characterisation in general is weak, everyone only existing for us to the extent to which they annoy the heroine. All her problems are small and dull, and generally as much her fault as anyone else’s. Everybody treats her badly, but in a very boring and repetitive way. And she meets their treatment in kind. Meanwhile she is sexy and clever and everyone is drawn to her. Also she is bisexual just to be cool, but not in any meaningful way. But maybe just enough to earn a lucrative and marketable LGBT+ tag for the book?

A lot of the story is also unbelievable to a degree that it reads as though it was written by a child: an American abroad may or may not have disappeared, but nobody at all checks?; a family take a rental in a haunted house which is widely talked of on the internet, and connected with the tragic death of an influencer, and not one of them is aware of it or googled it beforehand?; an Italian village preys on tourists, but no one notices because apparently Italy isn’t a part of the modern world? Well, it’s not the US, so it may as well be the village from Dracula, I guess; a woman speaks perfect Italian because of doing a bit of Duolingo, and is thus indispensable to her family because none of her family can google buongiorno?; a woman clears an entire train carriage in New York rush hour because her hair is a bit greasy and she mutters to herself once?; A random couple pay $200 for a sketch someone is doing on a park bench? 

And the ghost? She could have been fully removed from the book without the story changing in any fundamental way. And even she gets bored and finally just hands the protagonist a series of dream visions to cover the backstory the heroine wasn’t going to bother finding out for herself and wrap the plot up, eventually.
And I can’t blame her. If I was stuck haunting this awful cow, I would take the first opportunity to open her laptop and type up a quick ‘How to Free Me From the Torment of Haunting You’ doc too.