Title: The Devouring Gray
Author: Christine Lynn Herman
Publication Date: April 2, 2019
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Format: Netgalley eARC

This book opens with the Five of Bones, which is a skeletal hand reaching out towards the reader. And if that’s not the best way to start a book, I don’t know what is.

I mean, that pretty much says everything you need to know about this book. Roll credits!

The Devouring Gray is chock full of monsters (human and otherwise), mystery, deception, and just enough creep factor to leave you wanting more.

And I do. So where’s the sequel? There’s a pretty hefty cliffhanger at the end, and I demand moooore!

❧ This takes place in a small town in upstate New York, and I’m from a small town in upstate New York, and oh the nostalgia.

Of course, my small town didn’t have a monster that brutally murdered the townsfolk. Pretty sure I would’ve noticed that. So at least it had that going for it.

Herman does a fantastic job of capturing all the humdrum of rural town life, which made the setting so terribly relatable for me.

The whole elite hierarchy of a small town, the rumor mill, the secrets and inside stories that outsiders aren’t privy to, the way it’s so hard to free yourself and it somehow always manages to pull you back in. Magic isn’t needed for any of that. I mean, there is magic in The Devouring Gray, which makes it all the more thrilling, but just the atmosphere was captured so perfectly.

❧ There’s lots of LGBTQ rep! Which can be good and bad.

On the one hand … LGBTQ rep! I mean, that’s always good, right? On the other, there are not one but TWO really cliche “fell in love with a best friend I can never be with” scenarios, which was super disappointing. And it was less LGBTQ and more … B. I’m pretty sure everyone non-heteronormative was bi, and there were a few of them.

In a lot of books I read, any LGBT characters become almost token. There’s the token black guy and the token gay. But they were normal here. There was no big muss or fuss made. Dare I say they were actually, *gasp*, people? Almost like they were human, just like the heteronormative characters. Imagine that.

❧ There is such a delicious creep factor pervasive throughout the book.

There’s secrets and lies and treachery and all the best shady things. In fact, they’re so pro at throwing shade that they have a whole world of it called the Gray.

The mystery rolled out slowly, and we discovered Four Pines along with Violet, the newcomer to the town, which I thought really heightened the level of suspense. Because obviously, something is going on in the town. Obviously. I mean, the dead bodies are sort of a big giveaway, but that aside, there’s a lot of shady things going on.

❧ The magic in this world is so. frigging. interesting. I actually looked forward to finding out what everyone’s power was.

The only people with magic are the four founding families: the Hawthornes, Sullivans, Carlisles, and Saunders. Or, as they’re called, the branches, daggers, stones, and bones. Which should give you a big hint about what their family powers are. I won’t mention them here, because half the fun is discovering them.

What I will say, since you see it in chapter one, is that May Hawthorne’s power involves tarot cards. Super ancient, super descriptive, super freaking creepy tarot cards! Which I just absolutely loved so much. And now I want these cards, obviously.

❧ I was so conflicted about these characters, because I both loved and hated them. Which I guess is realistic, but it sure made it hard to read them at times.

Let’s do a head count, shall we?

✿ Justin Hawthorne: Trying to live up to impossible expectations placed on him by a town and family that doesn’t appreciate him. Even though he really does think about the town. Even though he does his best to help when he can. In spite of being described as warm and kind and helpful, at some point, everyone just accuses his kindness as being selfishness in disguise, as a way to boost himself up by fixing everyone else’s problems. And he starts to believe them. WHY?! He’s otherwise strong and resilient and determined, even with his doubts, so why would he let them say this and act like it might be true?

✿ Isaac Sullivan: Is the Sasuke Uchiha of this book. Tragic past, family gone, last Sullivan standing. He doesn’t want to talk about it, thanks, and he may have slight anger issues. The kind that result in things being turned to ash. I found him endearing, though, because he was loyal and realistic and caring. But his character portrayal as far as anyone else was concerned boiled down to two things: violent and Justin’s sidekick. That was it. He never got any credit for doing something nice or of his own accord. It was always assumed he did things because Justin wanted him to or to help Justin. And then by the time we got to the end … ugh. Did not like. He definitely got the short stick characterization-wise.

✿ Harper Carlisle: Bad-ass chick who lost an arm and refuses to let that ruin her life. Kicks ass with a sword. Refuses to be a disappointment, even though everyone considers her as one. Doesn’t let anyone else define her. And yet. Everyone turns against her, including her family, but for some reason, Justin is the only person she seems to be extremely pissed at and unable to forgive. The amount of anger here was understandable at first, and then it just crossed over into annoying and inconsistent.

✿ Violet Saunders: I … still don’t know what to make of her. Her snap judgments really annoyed me. She believes everyone so easily without actually asking questions. Harper tells her something bad about Justin, and she just says, okay, I guess that must be true, without actually asking Justin about it. Despite having known them all for equal amounts of time. She’s constantly rude to all the people who are trying to help her. I did enjoy her character arc, though, and the way it came full circle at the end.

What I did love, though, was that all these characters have been through some stuff. They’re tough. They’re resilient. They refuse to give in and let their grief and hardships pull them under. The way they constantly rebounded was amazing.

❧ This book employs two of my least favorite YA tropes: all adults are evil and the fact that 90% of the character conflicts could have been solved if they just used their heads.

Listen. I’m an adult. Mostly. I also might be slightly evil. But even I draw the line waaaaay before any of the adults in this book. There wasn’t a single redeeming adult among them, as far as I’m concerned, which I hate as a trope. It’s not necessary to scapegoat all the adults in order to make kids these bad-ass heroes, and it really bugs me when books do this.

Also, I could forgive the lack of communication if these kids were younger, but they’re not. They’re all, what, 16 or 17. They’ve all grown up together. But instead of actually opening their word-holes, they all do this weird dance around each other where they assume the worst. And when someone is about to talk, they get shut down, which is even more frustrating. By the end, when people do actually start talking, it feels forced and unearned and downright confusing, because I wasn’t sure why these conversations were happening. I mean, other than the fact that it was the end of the book, of course.

❧ I just read almost 400 pages, and I’m still not sure what’s going on here …

I mean, I know this is just book one and another book is planned, but after all this time, I was expecting to have some idea of what the Beast is. And I don’t. For a book that’s all about the Beast and the Gray, they actually came into play very little and almost no explanation is really given for either.

❧ This book takes place over the course of a month, and I’m not buying that all these kids were able to become BFF with Violet in that time.

I grew up in a small town. I know the sort of bonds (and grudges) you can form over 17 years of knowing someone, plus adding in the complexities of family histories and rivalries, etc. I also know how cliquey it can be and how hard newcomers have it to fit in sometimes.

But then Violet shows up, and before too long, people are spilling their guts to her and trusting her with secrets they don’t talk about often, and I was confused. Especially considering that all the main characters are super secretive people who don’t feel like they can trust others just in general. Yet, they all basically immediately trust Violet for no reason.

Have you read The Devouring Gray or do you plan to? Which family power would you prefer to have?