Wanted to like it for Lord Byron's sake, pushed myself to keep reading, but never grew fond of the characters or story-- or scared of the ghost. This title was listed on my library's "If you like ghost stories" list along with The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters--and I do understand that is setting quite a high bar--but one may as well say since I liked The Little Stranger, I'll enjoy Gus the Friendly Ghost. No. In my normal reading habits, I don’t read a lot of horror. I’m not an easily scared person, so it seems like a wasted genre to me. Therefore, I’m not as familiar with typical horror tropes, conventions, and plot devices as I’d like to be. Reading The White Devil by Justin Evans was a fun and entertaining, definitely creepy, informative to the time period Lord Byron lived in, and above all, definitely worth reading.This novel follows the story of Andrew Taylor, a 17-year-old American who’s been sent to an English Boarding School to get sober and regain respectability. Except it turns out that Andrew bears a remarkable resemblance to Lord Byron, who also attended the school. That appearance gets the attention of the ghost of a young man, Byron’s former lover, who then unleashes all of his angsty love and jealousy on poor Andrew, who really has no clue what’s going on. Then students at school start dying, and it’s up to Andrew, as well as some teacher friends and a (living) love interest, to figure out why the ghost is on a killing spree.The premise for The White Devil, obviously, is quite brilliant, and I think Evans did a great job intermixing the present with the past, creating a mystery that bore up under scrutiny and managed to capture my interest. Lord Byron is quite a fascinating person to study, adding in the presence of a jealous murdering lover and we’re golden.While plot, pacing, and characterization were very sophisticated and spot-on, I do think that maybe this book could have been a little better in some areas, notably in readability of prose. Evans is really a great writer, but sometimes his word choice or sentence structure felt a bit stiff and unnatural. Obviously this is an adult book about teenagers, but at times I didn’t really feel like Andrew was only seventeen. Mostly minor issues though.As far as scare factor goes, I was definitely underwhelmed. But this is coming from a person who has never ever been scared whilst reading in her entire life. So take my opinion as it may. And in spite of my gut reaction to The White Devil the creepiness and gothic aura are very present, which definitely added to the tone and feel of the book as a whole.Altogether, I liked The White Devil. It was an engrossing, mind-hooking read that more or less kept me on my toes, though it might have done better with more elements of suspense and horror. Not a bad book, though, by and large. Certainly one of the better ghost stories I’ve read (which, admittedly, aren’t many).
What do You think about White Devil (2011)?
Awesome, Halloween-time ghost story (and a terrific read over all).
—Gwen
