Diavola
By Jennifer Marie Thorne
ISBN: 9781250826121
Author’s website: jenniferthorne.com
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar
Summary
Anna has only 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 seem to fit. 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 has 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–including Benny’s demanding new boyfriend (it’s Christopher, not Chris). That is, until things start going off the rails–the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and, oh, 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.)
Review
Some will say that we are haunted by our past, that our actions haunt us for life, or even our loved ones are a lich that feeds from us, but in Diavola by Jennifer Thorne, there is actually a ghost.
Diavola starts with Anna Pace arriving early to Italy for her family vacation. She wants to have a proper vacation before meeting with her family and having to be on guard every time during the trip.
From the start, there are comments about her lateness, her job, her appearance, and the constant questions of why she broke up with her ex-boyfriend and his not being there. While Anna tries to ride the waves of her family vacation in the beautiful Tuscany house the family is renting, she cannot shake the feeling that something feels off about the house.
The villagers cross themselves when they learn where the family is staying. There are the sounds of whispers in the halls, and strange lights during the night, and Anna can swear that she sees a person looking out from the window on the side of the tower, but the tower is locked and on closer inspection it doesn’t have windows.
It all comes to a crash when her nieces start to talk about the strange kids they want to play with, her sister Nicole gets pushed, and her brother’s boyfriend leaves after a fight.
Anna sees a blonde woman in her dreams, in the condensation in the bathroom mirror, and feels her behind her. There is something wrong with the house and it wants Anna and her family.
Diavola was an interesting book that kept me on edge from beginning to end. Anna Pace was haunted by more than one ghost and was ready to fight to survive from the beginning.
The Pace family is an interesting bunch. There is Anna’s mother who seems to only want to have the vacation to have something to talk about to her friends back at home, and her father who only wants to read his books and tell everyone how he paid for everything. There is Nicole, Anna’s older sister, with her husband Justin and their two girls, Waverly and Jade. Nicole has a schedule for the whole vacation, and they need to stay on it to experience everything. At the same time, there is Benjamin, Anna’s twin brother, with his new boyfriend Christopher who is expecting a luxurious vacation that goes with his luxurious life. There are other characters in Diavola, but those are the other inhabitants of the Villa Taccola, who make themselves noticeable to the Pace family, and invite them to stay there forever.
While the premise of the book is a ghost story with a paranormal tale, it also takes the reader through the struggles of being the black sheep of the family; of having your family blame you for anything that goes wrong with their lives and having to learn to have a tight skin around them.
Sure, the ghost is trying to kill the Pace family and it puts them through hell in that Tuscany house, but it helps Anna finally free herself from the Paces.
Reading Diavola made me want to have a vacation in Italy too, but I also second guess future family vacations. It also renews my belief in not opening doors you are told not to open.
If you are a fan of ghost stories and the haunting that comes with family vacations, then I recommend Diavola. Just remember not to take something that is not yours.
