April Genevieve Tucholke

Violet is in love with River, a mysterious seventeen-year-old stranger renting the guest house behind the rotting seaside mansion where Violet lives, but when eerie, grim events begin to happen, Violet recalls her grandmother's frequent warnings about the devil and wonders if River is evil.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Rachel Kanyid

2.5/5..
Meh.
I was very un-impresssed with this book.
I think it had a promising premise, but it was just... very unbelievable, and very cheesy...
None of the characters seemed like real people at all, and there was very little development for any of them. 
I wish it had been better, because I felt like it COULD have been a really awesome book, with the different mysteries surrounding the little town, especially Violet's family, but over all there were just way too many ideas with way too little explanation.

Idk.... I really didn't want to keep reading this around halfway, but the second half made it a bit better i guess? The romance was weird i think

Steysha

Shawna Gavas

Despite the high ratings, I didn't find this book entertaining or enjoyable in the least.

I found that the characters were not all that likable. I felt no connection to any of them and didn't really care what happened to them. The best part of the book was the setting....an old creepy mansion that was in a state of dilapidation. 

More than once, I considered putting the book aside but decided to push through to look for some redemption that never came.

Don't waste your time. If you're looking for a creepy read, there are far better ones out there!

Lisa Collins

2.5 stars

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I just want to start this off by saying that Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea was basically nothing like I was expecting. That's not to say it was bad but the synopsis and even the title are a little bit misleading. While I was expecting something to do with an actual devil —that is, a devil in the religious sense—it was more of a “Devil” in the main character’s eyes.

The story itself is rather interesting but I'm not going to lie and say that I didn't have a little bit of trouble getting into it… because I did. There was actually a long stretch of time where I didn't even touch the book at all. I’ll allow that a couple of outside forces caused it, but I didn't really feel like I was missing anything. I could've dropped the book completely and never finished reading it and I don't know that it would have been a problem. Forgetting about my preconceived thoughts about what the story would be, though, I was rather impressed by the author’s imagination and storytelling. I know I say this a lot but I'm not sure that I've ever read anything quite like this book before.

Overall, I did like the story but I actually did have a few big problems with the book. I know it was explained in the storytelling but I feel like the main character's parents were just completely nonexistent. Realistically with the parents just abandoning their children and the entire town knowing it I'm pretty sure somebody would've called Child Protective Services instead of just ignoring it. I sort of felt like the parents being gone was convenient for the story and the author made up some reason for their absence to support it.

That aside, there was only one or two other things that I've found problematic. I felt like there was a lot of the author in the story. I find it very hard to believe that this teenager was so set in the past. Whether her grandmother was from that time period or not I just felt like the author’s knowledge of old movies and things like that leaks into the story quite a lot and in more than one character. I guess what I'm trying to say is the characters could have been more dynamic and rounded out. I saw a lot of common characteristics in several of the characters, so while they were good overall, they had too many similarities for me.

Overall I had a decent time reading this novel but I don't know that I would read it again. I know I most likely will read the sequel just to figure out what is going to happen but I'm not going to go on a crusade to get the ARC ahead of time. The end of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea seemed very “perfect”, if you will, and that made it feel a little bit dull.

If you like paranormal I recommend giving this book a try. It wasn't as creepy as I was expecting it to be or as people were saying it is but there are definitely some creepy aspects to it. All in all though it's mostly just weird. And I'm not sure if that's any good or bad way.

Megan Leprich

Very very odd book in the beginning and I gave up pretty soon. Really I could give this book zero reviews because I never actually read it. Definitely not my kind of book.

Hannah

Feb. 7 2015

kay this is officially a 1 star book. 
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Jan. 6 2015

1.5 Stars. 

lol i keep dropping my rating and at a time i thought I would pick up the sequel but idk if that is gonna happen now
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Feb. 27 2014

3 stars.

I loved the first chapter. I thought that it would be a great fantastic plot, with fantastic twists and gorgeous settings and amazing characters, while being confused at every turn. 

The only confusion I had is about the stupidity of the characters.

Speaking of. The main character, Violet, is seriously one of the most annoying characters ever. She seriously rubbed me the wrong way. She lives in her dead grandmothers room, wearing her dead grandmothers clothes, and digging up her dead grandmothers secrets. Did I mention that her grandmother is dead? Kay, hun, that's creepy. And her indecision towards River was so so annoying. "Oh he has the glow which he's so addicted on and he uses it on little children, he's such a monster. Then he starts kissing me and my fear evaporates and u suddenly don't care if he's using the glow on me." *facepalm*

The ONLY characters I liked was Freddie (her DEAD grandmother. does she count?) and Neely, River's twin brother.

The setting. Violet lives in Echo. In a mansion (living by herself with only her twin brother no less) that they can't afford by the ocean. Uh. What state are we in? Are we in the US? No? Yes? I don't know either, cause it never says! Don't get me wrong, I loved the setting But it needed some work.

I know I'm sounding negative, but I did enjoy it a lot. The writing was beautiful, and I really enjoyed the secrets and plot.

Overall, I enjoyed it enough to pick up the sequel.

Jessica Nottingham

Well, happily, I can check another book off of my mountainous TBR that I missed and had to go back to. Since I first laid eyes upon this book, with its eerie cover and gothic sounding synopsis, I've wanted to read it. Sadly, I can't say that I enjoyed it as much as I hoped to. There was just too much about it that I couldn't quite bring myself to overlook.
 
Let's start with the good. The writing falls into this category. With only a few small exceptions, the writing does elicit a gothic feel and does a stellar job of bringing the setting to life. I could smell the ocean air and see the ramshackle manor house that our characters inhabited. While the prose may have been a little airy at times, it definitely evoked that sense of otherness that I love about books like this. A house filled with secrets, a mysterious past, the quest for knowledge, all of it spoke to me. I could feel the tension, and it was wonderful. If you'd asked me to rate this book after the first two chapters, it would have been five stars all the way.
 
However the more I read the less I found to love. Violet, our main character, never caught my attention. Completely skipping over the fact that she falls in insta-love with River (which I despise, but at least was slightly explained away), her overall personality drove me insane. She was always trying to make sense of things, and yet it just made things more confusing for the reader. One moment Sunshine wasn't Violet's friend, but simply a neighbor. The next, Violet was upset that Sunshine was never on her side. Why would she be? She isn't your friend, is she? Her feelings flip flopped like that through the whole book, regarding all of the other characters. By the time the prospect of a love triangle was introduced, I wanted to scream in anger.
 
Add in the fact that her character never really grew at all, and I was a very frustrated reader. None of the characters really grew, to be honest. In fact, I felt like most of them could have been left out and nothing would have been different. If it were only just Violet and River, we'd probably have a very similar story. Truth be told, I felt like the only reason Sunshine was even in this story in the first place to was to be a foil to our young Violet. One girl pure, the other not so much. One girl decisive, to the point of recklessness at times, the other always over thinking things. Sunshine made Violet look like an angel and, while that is likely what was intended, it made me dislike her all the more for her poor decisions.
 
What can I say? It's tough for me to love a book when the characters and I clash. Weak-willed Violet, frustratingly evil but randomly attractive River, and even masochistic Logan, all made me want to quit early on. I finished more from a curiosity at how this would end than anything else. Pity, really. It's such a gorgeous cover.

madie anne 

holy mother of the the fucking devil. i love any story that includes the devil, especially if it entails a cute boy protagonist, but damn. this was one of the best books dealing with the devil and all things evil and everything else you could ever imagine. definitely one of my favorite reads of 2019.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

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