Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
April Genevieve Tucholke
360 pages
Released: August 15, 2013
Publisher: Dial
Source: library
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Another YA book with shockingly absent parents, but Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea was absolutely fantastic.  I spent most of the novel quite enthralled with the storyline.  Twins Violet and Luke live in a huge, old mansion in a small town.  Their parents are off painting who knows what in Europe. so they're left to their own devices for the summer.  Violet is reading outside one day when River West, a complete stranger, shows up to rent her guesthouse.  But soon things in town start getting strange; children claiming to have seen the devil, brandishing sticks in a cemetery; a man slits his throat and commits suicide right in the middle of town; a little girl goes missing... something's going very wrong and even though Violet thinks River has something to do with it, she's too in love to care.

Right, so how can you not be drawn in by a plot like that?  River was admittedly swoon-worthy when he's first introduced in the novel and even though it was obvious something was up with River, like Violet I just didn't care.  Their romance is front and center at the beginning of the book, and while it was insta-love, it wasn't the kind so many readers roll their eyes at.  Instead, their insta-love was an integral part of the plot because it was River who made it happen.

But soon it's not just Violet that's affected by River, it's practically the whole town and that's when I snapped out of my dreamy "I love this book because of the love!" and realized something was seriously wrong with River.  The difficult part, however, was figuring out what was wrong with River.  River is liar and it's hard to know when he's telling the truth.  So it was a bit of a relief when one of this relatives showed up to clear things up.  Meanwhile, people were dying and children were acting crazy.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a definite page turner.  If it wasn't one thing then it was another that kept me turning the pages.  Mixed in is a mystery surrounding Vi's deceased grandmother and their family history.  And if you thought all I've mentioned so far sounds crazy, just you wait until the climax of the novel!  I can't even... I was so concerned when I finished the book, I had to rush and find out if there was a planned sequel, and thank goodness there is.

Four stars!  If you love creepy book, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a must read!  It ended in such a fashion, I cannot wait to get my hands on the sequel... in summer 2014.  *gulp*  What a long wait.