Title: The Devil You Know
by Trish DollerPublishing Info: June 2, 2015 by Bloomsbury Publishing
Source: Edelweiss
Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Young Adult
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: April 4, 2015
Related Posts: Something Like Normal
Eighteen-year-old Arcadia wants adventure. Living in a tiny Florida town with her dad and four-year-old brother, Cadie spends most of her time working, going to school, and taking care of her family. So when she meets two handsome cousins at a campfire party, she finally has a chance for fun. They invite her and friend to join them on a road trip, and it's just the risk she's been craving-the opportunity to escape. But what starts out as a fun, sexy journey quickly becomes dangerous when she discovers that one of them is not at all who he claims to be. One of them has deadly intentions.
A road trip fling turns terrifying in this contemporary story that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
I was really excited to read THE DEVIL YOU KNOW! I’m always looking for good YA mystery/thrillers, feeling like there’s always room for more, so I was really pleased to find out that this was a thriller (I thought it was just contemporary at first) and how the book played out as well!
The first half of THE DEVIL YOU KNOW mostly sets the scene. Usually that’s something that makes me feel really impatient because with most mysteries, I want some clues dropped or the mystery to be set up towards the beginning. I think because this was more on the thriller side, I didn’t really mind as much. It definitely also helps that Trish Doller just really sucked me in with her characters! I immediately liked Cadie (short for Arcadia) and there was a dangerous short of charm surrounding these two stranger boys who Cadie happens to meet. The book starts off with Cadie finally seeking some adventure after basically taking care of her family for so long after her mother passed away. In her desperation to let loose, the bad decisions start to fly, really allowing the book to pick up momentum and start to take shape.
I think the scariest part about this book is that I’ve been there. Okay, I haven’t run off with people I just met for days upon end, traveling here and there but I’m sure many of us in our teenage years and early 20s have made similar decisions — hanging out with kids we just met, putting ourselves in bad situations, leaving a bar with new friends, going back to someone’s apartment alone. Those sound familiar? Ever done any of those? I know I’ve done a few, and books like THE DEVIL YOU KNOW make me shiver thinking that I could have been in a situation just like Cadie.
It’s interesting and sad at the same time that a big part of this is putting your trust in the wrong people (actually in a few ways in this book). I used to be someone who was very trusting of others and generally aimed to see the good in someone, not assuming they had malicious intent. I don’t know what’s happened over the years — too many horror stories in the news? Maybe just growing up? I’m not sure — but I really feel like I tend to not trust new people that I meet, and that sort of saddens me. I think of all of the people I’ve met randomly in my life (at college, through a friend, on spring break (we still talk to some of those guys too)) and all of the relationships I would have missed out on…. But there’s also a way to be safe about establishing those friendships and Cadie was so desperate to have fun and just be a teenager that she put herself in harm’s way. Of course, she thought she was being safer by bringing a friend along but… well, we’ll let you read the book and see how everyone’s story line plays out!
I actually found myself hunting down twists at the end of the book and was really pleasantly surprised to find quite the neat wrap-up. Things didn’t get incredibly or overly twisty and it was kind of nice just to have that final answer and that was that. Don’t get me wrong, I really love twisty books, but I also love that Trish Doller had an answer to the book and it wasn’t necessary to include ten extra twists in there! It was kind of refreshing.
I sped through THE DEVIL YOU KNOW and it was so entertaining! I really enjoyed seeing the thriller-aspect develop as well as seeing the character development as the book progressed! It was a really great read for me and I recommend it for thriller veterans and newbies alike!
“The View from Goodreads” is a featured section in my reviews that I decided to incorporate! I tend to update my Goodreads status a LOT when I read — reactions, feelings, notes — so I thought it would be fun to share the sort of “reading process”! All status updates are spoiler-free (no specific plot points will be revealed) but will contain reactions to certain pages and/or characters!
Cadie // Character Obsessions: Freedom, having fun, friends, summer romance.
Oh, Cadie. Honestly, we’ve all been there but sadly Cadie’s poor decisions led to a REALLY bad ending. I really liked her, though! I really felt bad for her and also felt like she did need to have some more fun in her life! Although maybe not like she did. It was a really poor decision to run off with strangers and actually abandon her family for DAYS. One day, maybe two… okay. Eeeep that was a lot.
Kept Me Hooked On: Thrillers! I’m usually look for more mysteries but there’s something to be said about a good thriller. They usually have a bit of mystery themselves, but there’s more focus on the action and suspense than actually a whodunit. I really like the heart-pounding pace and THE DEVIL YOU KNOW just made me want to keep reading!
Left Me Wanting More: Respect. I think the only thing that really bothered me was that Cadie left her family for DAYS. I know she’s a teenager and all teenagers get a little disrespectful to their parents sometimes but leaving for days really felt too far over the line. Maybe that’s just a personal thing but I can’t imagine doing that!
Addiction Rating
Read it!
This book was so much fun to read… in a creepy way. I had a blast racing through it and it was definitely very exciting!
BOOKS LIKE THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
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8 thoughts on “The Devil You Know – Trish Doller”
So I think Abigail Haas ruined me on thrillers forever because her books were just so good hah. I enjoyed this one while reading it but it’s not sticking with me. I found Cadie to be a little too naive for my liking. Maybe because I’ve been raised to be a very cautious and safe person so in my head I was screaming “COME ON THAT IS A BAD DECISION” for most of the book hah.
I wasn’t too sure about this book so I passed up the chance to review it. But looks like I am missing a good opportunity here! I like the sound of the author taking the time to set the situation and all, and that it’s something so many people can relate to actually having done. And a neat wrap up to a thriller? You’ve got me already.
Check out my book review: http://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/2015/05/stone-cold-dead-review.html
This sounds really good! I need a new thriller in my life!
Oh! I think I’m now a little more excited for this book. They sent me a widget, and I was kind of concerned that I wouldn’t like it, but it looks like it’s worth a chance. I’m not usually into mysteries, but if they are done well (and it seems like this one is), I enjoy them.
Great review, Brittany!
Great review! I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to read that one, but your review makes it sound very interesting.
I can’t wait to read this one! And I’ve SO done those things you’ve talked about without a care in the world. It’s crazy how trusting I was as a teen and young adult when I thought I was invincible. I just hope my kid grows up to be a little smarter than his mother!
Yay, I enjoyed this one too! I think you make a good point about how Cadie was so trusting & how so many of us do similar things on a slightly smaller scale in regards to trusting people we don’t really know well enough. Like while reading, you KNOW something bad is going to happen, but even though Cadie is making a lot of mistakes, you totally get where she’s coming from for the most part(I definitely agree with you on the respect thing).
OOOh nice! I find myself looking for a few good YA thrillers every now and then! Because obviously I don’t already have enough to read! LOL! But this one really caught my eye! I might need to pick it up too! Glad to hear that you enjoyed it as well! Great review!