The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino (2021) Snapshot

Tess would love nothing more than to be left alone to practice her cello and make sure her sister is happy. But Tess’s summer is anything but what she wants – stuck at her boarding school’s library and a local pub, she is constantly annoyed by insufferable patrons. The worst being entitled fellow pupil, Eliot Birch. Eliot seems to be on a mission to find a specific grimoire he believes is part of the school’s forbidden collection.

With their carelessness and arrogance, these unlikely bedfellows unleash a demon because life wasn’t already complicated enough! But wait… There is more. The demon doesn’t want to be trapped again and is dead set on using Tess to accomplish her goal, and he will stop at nothing to get his way. 

Bovalino DELIVERED!! Tess and Eliot are fantastic characters, and I loved the evolution of their relationship. They couldn’t be more unlike the other on the surface. But inside, they both had traumatic events that shaped them, secrets that trapped them, and a resilience that kept them going. When their world collapsed, and a demon was thrown in the mix, I was hooked!

The Devil Makes Three is a YA book in which characters act their age, and adults are involved. Gore and creepiness are very much part of the plot – and they do come out to play. The demon in this book is fascinatingly seductive, magnetic even. I almost ruled for him, almost. Bovalino knocked the atmosphere off the park: this book is suspenseful, intense, enthralling, and dark. 

This book reads like a standalone, but there is a glimmer of hope that it might become a series. It’s probably wishful thinking, but I need more of whatever magic was in this book because I enjoyed it. 

I first read it as an audiobook produced by RB Media and narrated by Suzy Jackson and John Keating, and let me tell you. They made the experience even better. I loved how their chemistry was over the charts and their pacing impeccable. As Tess is American and Eliot, British, listening to the story enhanced the atmosphere and made the reading experience more immersive. I highly recommend the audiobook as a reading companion or by itself.

My total rating: 4.83

Until next book, be the hummingbird!