Good people rarely have happy endings.
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock is a deliciously repulsive collection of stories that showcases what truly desperate people do at their lowest point. Pollock’s historical thriller is constructed in seven separate parts, each with its own characters and decade, all taking place in rural Ohio. This novel is filled with horror, gore, and depravity, making it unsuitable for those with a weak stomach. The characters span from a serial-killing couple to a psychotic, sacrificial preacher, and while the book does bounce from person to person, it also follows one main character. Pollock loosely traces the life of Arvin, the traumatized protagonist, from birth to adulthood, detailing the horrors he witnesses and endures.
Pollock does a fantastic job writing horror. Before looking at other reviews, I just assumed it was your run-of-the-mill crime novel with an unsolved murder and a witty detective. Once I saw the gore warnings, I knew I had to read it—and it didn’t disappoint. The imagery paints a grotesque picture that goes far beyond anything you could think of. The carnage would be almost gratuitous if it weren’t for the fact that Pollock uses it to further the theme of the novel.
I often run into an issue with books written by male authors; they fail to account for their female audience, and it shows. This is especially true for books that fall into the crime, horror, and thriller genres. There is a fine line between writing realistic and historically accurate sexism, racism, and homophobia in the characters’ dialogues and writing it because it’s the author’s inner dialogue. There are plenty of books where the author vaults over this line with absolutely zero hesitation, and it’s clear that they wrote it to fulfill some sick discriminatory fantasy they have in real life. But Pollock does not do this. He writes about potentially triggering topics, but all of it is related to the plot or theme in some way. He doesn’t write violence for the sake of writing violence, unlike many male crime writers, which is why I love this book and why I respect him.
Rather than a jump-scare filled, ghost-and-demon horror novel, The Devil All the Time is purely realistic, macabre horror. That’s what makes it so effective—the possibility that it could happen to the reader. When I read supernatural horror, I’m generally not too disturbed because I know logically that it could never happen to me in real life. I don’t believe in monsters, so I could never be killed by one. In The Devil All the Time, though, the people are the monsters. These types of people—no matter how rare—exist in real life, and if I ever came across one, they very well could (and likely would) disembowel me. It’s a tough reality to grapple with, and I believe it’s because of this that a lot of people (according to Goodreads) dislike the book. It’s a little too graphic, a little too lifelike—and that scares people.
If you’re looking for a book with a happy ending, this is not for you. The characters you hate almost always win, and the ones you root for rarely do. But that’s the lesson here, isn’t it? Fucked-up people do fucked-up things in order to get what they want. The Devil All the Time is a very “kill or be killed” book. It’s just not possible in Pollock’s universe to be a good person and have a happy ending. It’s one or the other.
I give this novel 4.5 stars out of 5. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, even the parts that disgusted me to my core. If you don’t mind bloody carnage, graphic murder, and religious extremism, then I highly recommend The Devil All the Time.
Major trigger warnings: body horror, gore, religious extremism, sacrifices, suicide, murder.
Brief mentions of: grooming/pedophilia, bestiality, necrophilia, implied rape.
Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars