Bloomsbury USA Children's
June 2, 2015
256 pages
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Eighteen-year-old Arcadia wants adventure. Living in a tiny Florida town with her dad and four-year-old brother, Cadie spends most of her time working, going to school, and taking care of her family. So when she meets two handsome cousins at a campfire party, she finally has a chance for fun. They invite her and friend to join them on a road trip, and it's just the risk she's been craving-the opportunity to escape. But what starts out as a fun, sexy journey quickly becomes dangerous when she discovers that one of them is not at all who he claims to be. One of them has deadly intentions.
A road trip fling turns terrifying in this contemporary story that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
The Devil You Know unfolds in a great way. It isn't stated - in the summary, through POV switches or anything else - what the danger is. Or from whom. Still, the story s permeated by a sense of unease.
Readers are left to question whether some of Cadie's decisions seem unwise and make them anxious because they actually are not smart choices or because of a sense of foreboding.
You will, without a doubt, feel the tension and alarm as Cadie's story, their road trip progresses, but also some of what Cadie feels. Though she has doubts, she wants this escape, wants an adventure - and wants him. It isn't how Cadie normally operates, on most any level, but she wants to be different.
We get a glimpse into Cadie's life at home, with her brother and father, learn about what the past few years have been like for her (socially, at school, at home). Knowing some of who she is, along with who she wishes to be and the struggle she's facing connect readers with her character. It helps make her decisions - stress inducing though some may be - understandable. You can also forgive some of them because she's not making them out of some reckless disregard for logic and safety.
She's the normally responsible one, who doesn't leave High Springs and spends her time caring for her little brother so you want this first-time adventure, this bit of carefree fun to be just that, carefree and fun. But thanks to Doller's writing and some hints (and red herrings, too) you know, somehow, it will be quite the opposite.
When I read books where the story is comparable to a (well done, good) horror movie, this is exactly what i want them to be.
parts of this song were in my head while I was reading, so I thought I'd share it:
digital copy received for review from publisher via NetGalley
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