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Diavola

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Diavola

Written by: Jennifer Thorne
Narrated by: Andi Arndt
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About this listen

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...

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.

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

©2024 Jennifer Thorne (P)2024 Dreamscape Media
Horror Supernatural Scary
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The perfect adult family vacay, with demons.

Jennifer Thorne's contemporary spin on the adult family vacation in a gothic haunted house set in a remote villa in tiny Monteperso, Italy, is a funny, painful, sometimes bleak treatise on the inescapable bonds of familial roles assigned in childhood. Combine that with a classic haunting, a hidden tower with a key that you were warned never to enter, and you've got the makings of the gothic thriller that is Diavola,

The seven vacationing family members were well drawn and adapted to traditional family roles. Mostly they were as unlikeable as possible. It seemed incredible that they had all gotten together for a family holiday every year for forever, without at least one of them killing another.

I did have some significant problems with the conclusion, which went on overlong, as thrillers are wont to do, and challenged the willing suspension of disbelief which had served me fairly well till then. I don't think a demon that's haunted a turret in Italy for centuries can just attach itself to a random human and end up riding the subway in NYC. But hey, maybe that's just me.

In general, I loved it. And narrator Andi Arndt's delivery was flawless.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Jumped the Shark

The dysfunctional family aspects of this novel were brilliantly told. Anyone who has experienced such relationships will recognize the roles played by at least some of the characters. Tuscan culture is beautifully showcased and for the first two thirds of the story, the paranormal aspect is intriguing.
Everything falls apart in the final third and I struggled just to finish this as the storyline became more ludicrous and the writing more self-indulgent. Listening to Anna's verbal streams of consciousness became tedious. By the time the big plot twist was revealed it was too late to be of interest. A literary "I told you so".

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À Ghost Story with Teeth

I loved it - it was creepy, mysterious (with payoff), and oppressive (both in terms of hauntings and familial tension).

Anna was a fully fleshed out character and her dysfunctional family vacation is one a great number of us can relate to. There was horror and humour and a really good STORY - I absolutely loved it (and I’m pretty picky about my scary stories - I’ll read them all but only truly enjoy a few).

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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Unlikable main character

Very much disliked this character and never improved as I’d hoped. The storyline could have been interesting but the “scary scenes” weren’t. The story was not very cohesive especially at the end. Would not recommend it.

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