The book stars with introducing the protaganist: Tess Matheson, who’s working as an assistant at her elite private high school. Her character was more expected as a character who is not as privilaged as the other students, a cello prodigy who got into the school, and as expected of any older sibling-fiercely protective of her younger sister. She meets Eliot Birch, a seemingly rich bastard who has more than meets the eye. His mother’s dying from Cancer, his father is a grade A a-hole, and he secretly has an passion in grimoires and magic books, hoping that studying them will fix his life above. The two meet in the weirdest way possible and what they unleash is a lot bigger than either of them signed up for.

Honestly, I think the reason why this book was bumped down to a 2 stars was because instead of a chill that was supposed to come of excitment and thrill, I got chills from how creepy this book was. Which normally would be a fantastic thing but this book took that up to a whole new level. Like theres chilling creepy and then there’s the kind of creepy that makes you just freeze and look around your room to make sure there’s no demons in your room to haunt you. The plot of the story was also a bit slow and I felt like Tess and Eliot’s love life was so rushed throughout the book as well. I mean they go down into a no no basement thingy and decided to open a book that clearly looks like it’s posessed and suddenly he’s in love with her. Did we skip the chemistry between the two or something? My train of thought when he made a move was just ‘Y’all just nearly died and now you’re asking her out to dinner???’ If all it took was a near-death or truamatic experience to make someone fall in love with me, I would’ve had a line of guys asking for my number or to take me out to dinner. Sadly, my butt is still single so clearly that does not work. Obviously.

Speaking of chilling, I mentioned that instead of like getting good chills from this book I got what-the-heck-did-I-just-read-is-my-room-now-haunted kind of chills. To be fair, I have to give props to the author for writing it so well that it made my blood run cold but I am like the biggest baby in the world according to my older sister and I was reading this book at night like the idiot I am so yeah, not the biggest fan. Reading this book did remind me why I sometimes enjoy horror movies even though I cannot for the life of me do jump scares but I’m fine with blood and gore by itself for some reason. This book just reminded me a lot a horror movie that was a book instead because Tess and Elliot made a lot of uh, questionable decisions. The main reason why I love watching horror movies is to mainly make fun of the characters in the film for making dumb choices to move everything along. While it’s all staged, it’s still extremley stupid and entertaining to watch, and Tess and Elliot’s choices to go down into the forbidden basement in search for a grimoires or touch that clearly possesed book was just that. Except less entertaining and more exsaperating.

The Devil Makes Three was more of a book that I didn’t really enjoy most of it and clearly had more thoughts than I expected, just look at this moutain of a review, I did not expect this review to turn out as long as it did. Then again, with books you don’t tend to enjoy as much, writing a review becomes a whole rant and I am fantastic at those so to speak. Ahem. Moving on. Recommendation wise, I wouldn’t really recommend it but I think a lot more of you would enjoy it but this book was just not for me, I hope that if you do pick it up, you’ll enjoy it more than I did.

FINAL RATING: 

Whatever I was expecting when I started this book, I take it all back. This was the first book I read in 2022 and it just threw my expectations out the damn window and has now earned my forever respect

I know I read way too many YA Mystery/Thriller novels but I’m not exactly sure why I started reading them. I’ve always found them interesting and I end up trying to predict what’s going to happen or who the antagonist is. Most of them have similar plot lines and usually don’t catch my eye unless something drastic happens or I’m unable to untangle everything. Though with all the mystery books I’ve read, it's become easier and easier to guess the plot and I end up getting bored halfway. Clearly, this wasn’t the case.

The story follows two Black teenagers, Chimaka and Devon, who are enrolled in a very prestigious and very white private school. In their senior year, they suddenly find themselves becoming the targets of an anonymous texter named Aces who are revealing their darkest secrets for the whole school to see. Amidst the cards stacked against them, the two must work together to turn the tide and bring the game over in their favor.

I don’t think there was anything I disliked too much about this book since I gave it a high rating. But there were some things where I wished we saw more of, one being Chimaka’s love life. Okay seriously, I was able to guess Devon’s sexuality within the first chapter with my inner gaydar going I sense a closeted gay here. And hey, my gaydar didn't fail. I remember being so caught up in Devon’s love life, and begging whatever deity up there that he ended up with a certain special someone. Who’s that someone you ask? Well, you’re going to have to read the book to find out cause I ain’t telling. Give me bubble tea and I’ll think about it though (kidding, please go read the book because it’s really good). Chimaka, on the other hand, had a smaller and not so focused on love life as Devon did. Which honestly I didn’t mind, but I would’ve loved to see more of. I unapologetically squealed for all the cute moments and I want a sequel please and thank you.

I loved how this book addressed heavier topics (racism, homophobia, elitism, white supremacy) while still sticking to the dynamic plotline of a thriller. The themes weren’t just lightly spoken about but were enhanced and just made me question society itself. I wasn’t too sold on the mystery at first since I’d seen similar plotlines in some other books I’ve read, but holy guacamole. This book just completely hurled my guess of the antagonist and my anticipations of this being just “another thriller book” off of Mount Olympus. Like Daughter of the Deep, I would unquestionably recommend this book to anyone and everyone regardless of the fact if you enjoy mystery/thriller novels or not. This book teaches a valuable lesson and I hope that reading this will open up your mind a little bit more.

FINAL RATING: