The Devil's Only Friend

For all you peeps missing a Serial Killer gone Good, or at least good-ish, or even just mildly tiptoeing the very broad definition of monsterhood, I'd recommend this series.

John's 17 years old, has lost almost everything, but he's done the right thing and joined the "good guys" to hunt down demons. John still doesn't give a flying rat's ass about whether anyone lives or dies and he still likes to take home a rack of meat to stab viciously in his off hours, but at least he has the intellectual stimulation of hunting down monsters that have been alive for ten thousand years and pins all his hopes on giving himself that one gift he lives for.

The thrill of the kill.

It's all gravy that the peeps he's running with are a morass of grey areas show more and are hardly any better than the monsters he hunts. Maybe he'll have a chance at an open smorgasbord? lol

The writing is smooth, the characters compelling, and John is constantly straddling that line that makes us readers squirm and squirm and squirm.

I think this might be the best of the books so far. I know I had a great time. :) show less

Thickening plot, new game-changing reveals, and moral dilemmas galore — looks like the second half of this series will be even better than the first three books.

First person POV has never been my favorite, and I kind of expected it to get tiring right about now, but nope — John’s head is such a weird place to be; I don’t want to ever leave! The dichotomy of his character is so masterfully shown here… I can’t get enough.

Just to be clear: I loved this. The new killer was damn scary, even before he showed his true colors. I really enjoyed the chase, as always — Dan Wells writes a good thriller. What I did not love were John’s new coworkers (especially Nathan, that little bastard…) and I can’t say I was bothered by their show more fate.

And that ending! Whew, it gave me chills. show less

This review contains spoilers for the first JOHN WAYNE CLEAVER trilogy.

John Wayne Cleaver is a seventeen-year-old boy who wants very, very much to kill people. Lots of them, one right after the other, in terrible, bloody ways. Paradoxically, because he longs to do that, he has been taking extraordinary lengths to avoid becoming a serial killer. His struggles were related in a trilogy consisting of I Am Not A Serial Killer, Mr. Monster, and I Don’t Want to Kill You. That trilogy showed how John’s efforts to avoid acting on his murderous desires ran smack into his discovery of demons, and the very genuine need to kill those demons to save the people he loved. Alas, John was not able to save the people he loved most. As this trilogy show more opens with The Devil’s Only Friend, John’s bitterness at his failures is on open display, even as he works with a special FBI unit dedicated to rooting out and destroying demons.

Brooke Watson, a girl John’s age who has been mentally broken by her contact with the demon called Nobody, accompanies the team, though she is not precisely a part of it. Her company tortures John, for in essence Brooke is possessed by a demon John killed named Nobody; Brooke retains that demon’s memories, and her mind was so warped by the possession that she still believes she is Nobody. Yet John faithfully spends time with Brook that goes far beyond what is necessary to do his work. The mind of Nobody insists that the Withered (as she calls the demons) are evil, and is eager to assist John and his team to get rid of them, so she’s a tactical advantage for the FBI. They keep Brooke in a secure hospital facility wherever they set up operations.

As the story opens the team is in Fort Bruce, a small city in the Midwest, where they are collecting data on two demons living there: Mary Gardner, a demon who works as a nurse in order to drain the health of others in order to keep herself healthy; and Cody French, who never sleeps, and must download his awareness into another human in order to get some rest — which drives the human mad. Alarmingly, just after the team completes one operation, Brooke reveals that yet another of the Withered is in town. Those who have read Next of Kin will recognize this character, but the team comes to the immediate conclusion that its members are being hunted by the demons. And although they reached that conclusion for the wrong reasons, they happen to be right.

The team unravels the puzzles of the demons, their powers, and how to kill them in this novel, giving it some of the characteristics of a mystery. And the team battles the demons with everything they’ve got, so it’s also an action novel. Both aspects of the novel work well, and they work well together. The pacing is excellent, as the team’s actions go from a seemingly simple operation to a more difficult one to one that seems all but impossible, leading to a climax where everything, including everything that happened in the first trilogy, comes into play. The only criticism I have is that the law enforcement personnel involved have absolutely no notion of the law, and especially of how due cause for a search is established. Perhaps Wells ought to consult with a lawyer or a police officer for his next novel.

What most intrigued me about this novel, and what lends it its bleak darkness, is John’s inner life. John narrates the novel, so he tells us how the mysteries are solved and watches the action (he’s usually not allowed to participate, for several reasons), always with a quickness of thought and a bleakness of aspect. John’s time with demons has not cured him of his desire to hurt and kill animals and other humans; in fact, he has plans for how to kill everyone on his team. He wrestles with his own internal demons, battles that are harder fought than any of those against the outer, physically real demons. Wells delves deep within the brain of a sociopath struggling not to commit sociopathic acts because he knows they are wrong, even as he longs deep within himself to see the blood, to feel the knife entering flesh. “I’m trying very hard not to become a serial murderer,” he tells another member of the team, and we are witnesses to that internal battle. (One of the scariest moments in the novel is when John actually does kill someone: “It was exactly like I’d dreamed it,” John tells us, and then goes on to explain in detail. It’s stomach-turning.)

The ending is both triumphal and bleak, and it’s hard to imagine where Wells will go from here. He has written a book that stands on its own, not dependent on the trilogy that went before and not truly needing the books that are going to come after. I can hardly wait to see what comes next.

Originally published at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/horrible-monday-the-devils-only-friend-.... show less

In The Devil's Only Friend, John Cleaver is at it again. As I hoped, the story has moved away from Clayton County. This time around, John and Brooke--now with many of the memories and personalities of the demon (Cursed/Withered) Nobody--are part of an FBI task force tasked with hunting down and killing as many of the demons as they can.

It's a cool way to take the story and I'm glad to see the change. I like seeing how John interacts with his new team members. It's interesting that they're all screwed up in their own ways, but they're still trying to hunt something even worse. I wish we'd gotten a bit more depth on them before the end of the book, but it's still a new situation to see John react to.

Worldbuildingwise, we learn far more show more about the demons than we've ever known before (except perhaps if you read Next of Kin first). I especially like how different each of the demons is. They not only each have different powers, they have completely different feeling personalities and many of them actually do manage to feel their age. It's an interesting bit of worldbuilding and each one we see just makes me want to see more.

Overall, it's a solid book. Serial killer after serial killer in the small town first trilogy was getting to be a bit much, but now they have the entire world to play in. There's a lot of potential there for the second trilogy. Given the ending (Wells really likes killing off his cast doesn't he...), I'm curious where it will go next.

Side note: If you get the chance, read Next of Kin after The Devil's Only Friend. Reading the short story first reveals a few things you would find out through the course of the book more naturally. I wish I had. show less

This series just keeps getting better and better with each book. Dan Wells is another awesome author and writes this genre and series really well.
I remember after reading the first book in this series, I couldn't handle it and didn't want to read anymore because of how creepy it was thinking about your next-door neighbor that could be the crazy psycho on the loose. Then because I couldn't stop thinking about the book, I had to know what happened next so here I am almost done with this series and I don't want it to end.
He is good at writing this psychological suspense and such that can mess with your head, scare you and suck you in and not let you go until you know what happens and all the answers.
The thing that I come back to a lot with show more this series is how well he writes this so it creeps me out and yet uses little to no violence, gore, swearing, and such because clean reads are always a bonus and clean reads that creep me out like this are rare.
If you haven't checked out books by Dan Wells, you really should cause you're missing out. show less

Review copy

Admittedly, I have never read the original trilogy of books in the John Cleaver series. One of these days I will need to rectify that. I'm also happy to say, it's not necessary to have read any of the other books to enjoy The Devil's Only Friend.

Reminiscent of Harry Dresden from the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, John Cleaver is a bit of an anti-hero, quick-witted with a sharp tongue, and an urge to kill. An urge that he controls in an unusual way. It's these tendencies that make him good at his job, working for a secret government kill team, using his gift to hunt and kill as many monsters as he can.

The Devil's Only Friend works very well as a stand-alone novel. The writing is crisp and clear. The action fast-paced and show more intense. I was barely through the first chapter when I realized I was going to love this book. Saving mankind is deadly serious business, but there's just a perfect dash of humor to break the tension once in a while.

Nothing quite goes as expected in this story and by the time it's over, John Cleaver finds himself asking, "Have I been wasting my time trying to be the good guy, when good and bad don't even make sense anymore."

I'd love to see this character on TV or in the movies, but for now, I'll have to settle for the printed word and am eagerly looking forward to the next book in the series.

Available in all formats from a variety of retailers, The Devil's Only Friend is published by Tor.

Highly recommended. show less

This book takes place a year after the last book. John continues to struggle with who he is and for the most part figures out what he wants/needs to do.

I like that, even though this is a series, that every book has an ending that's satisfactory and you could just stop and be fine not continuing, but also leaves it ever so slightly open for a continuation to take place. Not that I would ever stop reading anything Dan Wells writes. I think he may be one of my favorite new (to me) authors. I've yet to read anything by him that is not this series, but I'm planning to change that soon.