Stunning book

Loved it, brilliant story performed excellently. There is a lot more in here than in the netflix film 5 stars from me

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like criminal minds episode

keeps you guessing, some pretty interesting crimes that are disturbing! like watching criminal minds in book form though!

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Brilliant

My second listen, absolutely loved it. Don’t miss the film, you won’t be disappointed it sticks to the book so well

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Fantastic narrator

Fantastic narrator who breathes life in every character and makes them feel alive. Immersive book and deeply sad story.

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A grim, intertwining, uncomfortable classic

There's dark, and there's this. The book seemingly meanders through the grim lives of a cast of characters in the southern States, but in an atmospheric and fascinating fashion. Richly detailed and performed, 10/10

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All roads lead to a sad depressing ending.

Seen through the lives of various people from the rural farmlands of Ohio, the devil is partly the quagmire of their circumstances and partly just the depravity of the human soul. The narrator does a great job with the rural mid western accent, giving each character a personality, pulling the listener into each of the stories. Made me want to read the book once again. Definitely not for the soft of hearts that believe in good things happening to good people!!!

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6 people found this helpful

excellence all the way

1st review. Just finished this one 3 past midnight. Plan to listen to Naked Lunch by this voice actor next. He is also superb (like the author) and made me look for other ones by him. Book is not a happy one but damn it is good. Just visited different time and different country. What a trip!

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Outstanding

The book is absolutely gripping. Fantastic storyline, characters and descriptions. I was sat listening with my hands on my head and my mouth open in shock at some points.
Although the plot has many twists and turns, it is delivered in an effortlessly seamless way.
The narrator is so talented at voicing this book. I would describe it as a ‘performance’ rather than ‘reading.’
Each character is captured wonderfully in their own personal way.
I really enjoyed it.

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gripping, gritty and horrifying. a must listen

I came because of Netflix. But I stayed for the brilliant story and narration. 10 out of 10. dark and brooding southern gothic. If only there where more of his books recorded!

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Country Noir

Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrifi­cial blood he pours on his “prayer log.” There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial kill­ers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.

Bleak does not begin to describe this book. Full of awful people doing despicable things to each other this book destroys the usual cutesy, American dream, we are so used to seeing in book set in this era. I would say that with the exception of Arvin and one or two other minor characters there is not one single person in the whole book with a redeeming quality. This book is vicious and unrelenting in its violence and setting with crimes being committed with the casualness of ordering coffee. I loved it by the way...

That's not all it is though. there's small town desperation and the frustration of being "stuck". There's the grim smallness of absent ambition. Best illustrated by the character who feels eating a hot dog at a baseball stadium would be life changing.

Now I suppose we need to talk about the darkness, the murder, the animal sacrifice, the rape, the suicide, the prostitution, the sheer awfulness of people. Like I said this book is bleak, real bleak, and desperate. There are no excuses presented for the character's actions beyond the terrible grimness of crappy lives and desperation.

But that's The Devil all the Time, grim desperation occasionally illuminated by fleeting acts of kindness.

My other reviews https://waylander101.blogspot.com/

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