“Daughters Unto Devils” By: Amy Lukavics - Book Review
This book intrigued me immediately by being described as ‘If Stephen King wrote Little House on the Prairie’. I think the cover is very beautiful and the story was written exceptionally well. While this was a horror, I don’t think I would personally go as far as to say it is as scary as Stephen King. The book was published under Harlequin Teen so it is written for teens and young adults and while as an adult novel, it is pretty mild, I am giving it the four star rating because I feel it is fantastic for the desired age group.
Amanda Verner keeps counting her sins. Ever since the horrible winter last, she has had an uneasy feeling and senses God has left her. She saw the devil in the woods that winter and her mother had caught a fever so severe it deafened and blinded the baby in her womb. The baby’s name is Hannah and ever since she has been born, Amanda has prayed for the infant’s death if only to stop the screaming. She doesn’t tell her family of her thoughts, not even her sister Emily, with whom she was once very close with before the last winter. Her only escape from her thoughts and fears is when she is with the post boy, Henry. It is a sin to lay with someone before marriage. It is a sin to lie. But she doesn’t feel sins matter that much when God has abandoned her.
Clearly, the Lord has forgotten all about me, and therefore I would no longer be following his rules.
“When I die, I will see Hell,” I whispered after we were through with our sins of the flesh, but the post boy did not hear me over the sound of the water from the creek. “The devil has claimed me already.”
I wished that the boy would turn over so I could study his face. I didn’t know it very well yet, wasn’t even sure if his eyes were brown or blue, to be honest, but I wanted that to change. This boy had saved me from my hell on earth with the wonderful distraction that was his body. I should have known his name.
Henry, I remembered. His name is Henry.
She keeps Henry her own secret not telling anyone of him and sneaking off to see him when the time allows. Winter will be coming soon and is terrified what another one will do to her and her family being trapped in the mountains during the harsh conditions. Henry ends up betraying her and breaking her heart and she doesn’t know what to do. Her sister Emily knows she hasn’t been being honest so she is angry with Amanda, leaving her feeling even more alone. When their father announces they will be moving to the prairie to hopefully have an easier winter. She is hesitant. She’s never lived anywhere besides the mountains, but her father isn’t giving them a choice.
I am bombarded by the memory of Emily and me playing with each other as children, whispering secrets and singing songs and telling ghost stories around the fire pit outside.
Dearest friends forever, we’d promise each other. Forever and a day.
Resettlement or not, those days are over. Emily will never think of me as her home again. I think of the part of me that died here last winter, the part that will dwell inside the cabin, like a ghost and wait for Emily to come back. But she never will, of course.
The ghost will be forever waiting.
“Goodbye,” I whisper to the memories, to Henry, to the cabin.
“Goodbye,” I whisper to the lost part of myself.
They travel to the prairie and find a large abandoned cabin large enough for them all to fit comfortably. When they get closer however, they find it is in ruins. Blood covers the walls as if an ox had been slaughtered inside. Her father is not deterred though, and cleans the place right up. They meet their neighbors from the forest and while Amanda and her father are skeptical, the rest of the family is smitten with them. As time passes strange things begin to happen and Amanda begins to fear she will never escape her torment.
What is happening on this prairie? Is there evil within it, like the place in Henry’s story, torturing me from afar until the time comes to claim its prey? Is my whole family doomed to death after all?
Or is it, all of it…just…me?
This would be a fantastic read for the fourteen to eighteen age group. I would have been obsessed with this book in high school. I am a huge dark romance reader and live for the trigger warnings, so I read some pretty disturbing stuff and that may be why this just didn’t seem super terrifying or messed up to me, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an enjoyable read for me. One thing I am like about horror that I don’t like in my romance is the unhappy endings. It’s what you want when reading a horror and I think this book met the major requirements for a great novel.
Book Link: https://www.amazon.com/Daughters-unto-Devils-chilling-Harlequin/dp/0373211953/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1494904198&sr=8-1&keywords=daughters+unto+devils
*Did you enjoy this review? I would love to hear from you.
-Charity B.
