NetGalley Buddy Readers discussion

Grayson Hale, the most infamous murderer in Scotland, is better known by a different name: the Devil’s Advocate. The twenty-five-year-old American grad student rose to instant notoriety when he confessed to the slaughter of his classmate Liam Stewart, claiming the Devil made him do it.

When Hale is found hanged in his prison cell, officers uncover a handwritten manuscript that promises to answer the question that’s haunted the nation for years: was Hale a lunatic, or had he been telling the truth all along?

Unnervingly, Hale doesn’t fit the bill of a killer. The first-person narrative that centers this novel reveals an acerbic young atheist, newly enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to carry on the legacy of his recently deceased father. In need of cash, he takes a job ghostwriting a mysterious book for a dark stranger, but has misgivings when the project begins to reawaken his satanophobia, a rare condition that causes him to live in terror that the Devil is after him. As he struggles to disentangle fact from fear, Grayson’s world is turned upside-down after events force him to confront his growing suspicion that he’s working for the one he has feared all this time—and that the book is only the beginning of their partnership.​​

A History of Fear is a propulsive foray into the darkness of the human psyche, marrying dread-inducing atmosphere and heart-palpitating storytelling.

An eerie literary suspense debut following the harrowing downfall of a tortured graduate student who’s been nicknamed the Devil’s Advocate for his sensational crime: murdering a classmate, then claiming the Devil made him do it.


Trisha and I are starting this one today!

so excited to start this one. I really hope it's good!!

I'll be starting after I finish school and 1 other I'm reading!

9 chapters + note / 25%

(view spoiler)[ huh, this one is odd so far
his delusions are rough - I can't even imagine seeing it all
but now I'm wondering what all he is seeing. Did his friend ever really exist? the one that made him doubt God? and the girl he met at the church that she then wept at his door as he ignored her and then stopped going to church. What was that?! She was an adult right? Can't help but wonder if she was real either.

I like the notes at the end, that are giving us information about him later as we learn about his childhood

can't help but wonder who would pay $30K for him to write this book, right? lol sus for sure.

and can't help but wonder what killed him, right? the three birdlike claws - but nothing with just 3 claws even though his illness sounds like schizophrenia (hide spoiler)]

Through ch 10 -approx 25%

(view spoiler)[
Ooh ok these are delusions of some kind I think. I agree that it does sound like schizophrenia.

I'm not convinced anything we've been told really exists right now.

Book payment is super sus.

Also... The story is compelling but the book is annoyingly overwritten. Like they tried too hard to make it literary. "summoned an Uber" ? 🙄

(hide spoiler)]

YES! I agree with the "summoned" comment! It's a bit high brow in places which is odd with the content lol

Through 20 chapters / 53%

(view spoiler)[ another weird set of chapters and I'm losing interest.
I'm really tired of his "and then she went, for she was here" All the "for" sentences are distracting. . .and I still don't understand what's going on, I don't much care about his weird relationship with his dad. I feel like we didn't get too much more in this one (hide spoiler)]

Through ch 20 ~50%

(view spoiler)[
Ummm.. did anything actually happen in this quarter of the book...? No new clarity on what's happening at all. Bored now.

(hide spoiler)]

Trisha wrote: "Through 20 chapters / 53% "

Omg yes to the sentence structure / writing style comment! Super annoying

30 chpaters / 75%

(view spoiler)[ soooo I keep getting the hint that they are trying to make out his "affliction" or the history of his guilt was around him being gay
and that his mental health broke down because he couldn't accept he was gay (or his family couldn't). are you getting that hint too? That's the carlos thing right? and the thing with the devil/DB? I don't know, it's all so weird. I'm not feeling the gothic horror vibe anymore either. Just meh, I've lost interest and this feels like it's dragging (hide spoiler)]

Through ch 30 ~ 75%

(view spoiler)[
I don't like how the being gay is being treated in this book it's almost conflated with his "affliction"

What gothic horror? I'm just bored. basically nothing happens in this book.

(hide spoiler)]

I'm done
this was tough to push through

(view spoiler)[ I can't say the ending was a payoff. I feel like we already knew a ton of the information they thought they were revealing at the end. I feel like we already knew he was having feelings for men that he felt very guilty about

Meh. glad this one is done (hide spoiler)]

Done

(view spoiler)[

This was such a disappointment. The ending didn't really clear up anything that we didn't already know. I really hate the hating myself because of my sexual preferences trope. This had a lot of potential but never got there for me. I wouldn't call this gothic really.

(hide spoiler)]