John Darnielle’s “Devil House” follows a true crime writer who moves into a home where two brutal murders took place
Perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of reading true crime novels — besides the profitting due to the suffering of others — is the author’s inability to make the victims and murderers seem like three-dimensional people. Characters in true crime novels and horror novels, for that matter, tend to fall into the trope of waiting around to be murdered — as if the victims’ whole existence centered around that final terminal moment when death triumphs over life.
But who were they before? Did they have plans to go to college? Maybe they wanted to become an artist. Perhaps they wanted to get away from an abusive household. Then, what about the murderer for that matter — not all murders are planned. What was going through their mind? Perhaps they were trying to protect the only home they have.
Gage Chandler, the protagonist of John Darnielle’s newest novel “Devil House,” proclaims himself to be an ethical true crime writer. “I try to honor the dead in my books,” he says, “It’s one of the things, I hope, that sets me apart a little from my partners in true crime.” Gage Chandler is a popular true crime writer who already has a few books under his belt, namely “The White Witch of Morro Bay,” a crime that ends with the death of two victims, Jesse and Gene, and the execution of the murderer, Diane Crane. Chandler, prone to an active imagination, goes as far as to imagine Diane Crane, the high school teacher of the victims, in the weeks leading up to the murders, picturing her shopping for groceries. Simultaneously, he focuses on Jesse and Gene and their reasons for trying to rob their teacher; both boys are victims of an abusive household and are willing to do anything to escape the daily harm that has rooted its way into their lives.
When Chandler’s publisher asks him if he’d be interested in living in a house where two brutal, and possibly satanic, murders took place, he jumps at the opportunity. The house’s history, much like the novel’s, is complex to say the least — once a soda shop, a newsstand and most recently (and at the time of the murders) a pornography store. Crime scene photos show a shocking scene of chivalric crests, maimed bodies on top of a gigantic stack of porn, frenzied words written on the walls and a seraphim created from adult videos watching over the corpses. Despite all this, the crime still remains unsolved.
However, soon into Chandler’s investigation, he realizes that things aren’t exactly what they seem, sending him down a rabbithole of obsession and a resounding feeling that maybe the novel about the devil house shouldn’t be written at all. He begins to wrestle with the notion that maybe he isn’t as much of an ethical true crime writer as he once thought he was.
“Devil House” rips and pulls you through itself. Reading this novel is like putting together a pictureless puzzle whose pieces don’t quite fit together, that is until you put in the final piece and then somehow it all magically comes together. Because that’s what this novel is … magic. What else can you call a novel that has multiple second person POVs and sections in Middle English? While confusing at times, the winding, nonlinear structure keeps readers on the edge of their seat. “Devil House” is John Darnielle’s most ambitious novel yet, and it pays off immensely.
It seems that this novel also contains sections that are semi-autobiographical. The novel’s main setting is in Milpitas, California (the city where “River’s Edge” took place), which also happens to be a city where Darnielle lived briefly. On a more heartbreaking note, the novel also depicts the life shattering effects that having an abusive parent can have on a child’s life — a page taken from Darnielle’s own traumatic past. The emotion in this section drips off every single word, staining the pages with matured understanding and calmed rage.
With every page, it focuses on giving a voice to the unfortunate and underprivileged — murderers and victims alike. At its heart, the novel says that people are complicated beings; no one is wholly evil or truly good, and everyone deserves to have their story told. Within the same vein, the novel offers a scathing critique on those who are quick to judge at-risk youth. Chandler says it best when he says, “People love to tell themselves stories about the grave dangers posed by wayward youth. They always arrive at the same questions — why don’t these young people care? How did they get like this? Where were their parents? — but the asking of these questions is an exercise in self-portraiture. They’re not good questions; they’re not even questions. They’re ghost stories masquerading as concern.”
With its non-linear storyline and ever shifting perspectives, “Devil House” will suck you into its jaws immediately, and you’ll quickly discover that the only way out is through.
