The Devil All the Time

By: Donald Ray Pollock

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

Now a Netflix film starring Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson

A dark and riveting vision of 1960s America that delivers literary excitement in the highest degree.

In The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock has written a novel that marries the twisted intensity of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers with the religious and Gothic over­tones of Flannery O’Connor at her most haunting.

Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrifi­cial blood he pours on his “prayer log.” There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial kill­ers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.

Donald Ray Pollock braids his plotlines into a taut narrative that will leave readers astonished and deeply moved. With his first novel, he proves himself a master storyteller in the grittiest and most uncompromising American grain.

Well written and well narrated

The writing is spectacular against the dark themes. The character development was brilliant and not overdone, and their narration was extraordinary.

Great story!

I found this as a recommended book for Stephen King lovers. This has been the best so far among the list. Not too complicated, good visuals, interesting and exciting throughout. As a lover of dark, suspenseful, and unique stories, I got everything I wanted.

saw the movie... decided to get the book!

loved it. finished it! recommend it.
the Narrator does an awesome job, and even with time jumps you are never lost with what's going on

I'm so depressed now

I love the story, and Mark Beanball did an amazing job, but wow am I sad now!

Great reading for a dark story,

Not many books have moments that really stick with me for weeks or months after reading them, but this book had multiple. Coming from a southern background the setting really connected with me and the characters were extremely believable. If you're looking for a happy story I wouldn't pick up this book, but if you're up for a dark and gritty journey through a southern town you're in for a treat. On top of that the narration is spot on and the film on Netflix is very well adapted as well!