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The Devil Crept In
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The Devil Crept In
Unavailable
The Devil Crept In
Audiobook10 hours

The Devil Crept In

Written by Ania Ahlborn

Narrated by Eric Michael Summerer

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Young Jude Brighton has been missing for three days, and while the search for him is in full swing in the small town of Deer Valley, Oregon, the locals are starting to lose hope. They're well aware that the first forty-eight hours are critical and after that, the odds usually point to a worst-case scenario. And despite Stevie Clark's youth, he knows that, too; he's seen the cop shows. He knows what each ticking moment may mean for Jude, his cousin and best friend.

That, and there was that boy, Max Larsen-the one from years ago, found dead after also disappearing under mysterious circumstances. And then there were the animals: pets gone missing out of yards. For years, the residents of Deer Valley have murmured about these unsolved crimes . . . and that a killer may still be lurking around their quiet town. Now, fear is reborn-and for Stevie, who is determined to find out what really happened to Jude, the awful truth may be too horrifying to imagine.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 7, 2017
ISBN9781494580339
Unavailable
The Devil Crept In
Author

Ania Ahlborn

Born in Ciechanow Poland, Ania has always been drawn to the darker, mysterious, and sometimes morbid sides of life. Her earliest childhood memory is of crawling through a hole in the chain link fence that separated her family home from the large wooded cemetery next door. She'd spend hours among the headstones, breaking up bouquets of silk flowers so that everyone had their equal share. Beyond writing, Ania enjoys cooking, baking, movies, and traveling. Learn more about Ania on her site, www.AniaAhlborn.com. Want to connect? Follow Ania on Twitter @aniaahlborn, or find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/aniaahlborn.

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Reviews for The Devil Crept In

Rating: 3.873966958677686 out of 5 stars
4/5

242 ratings20 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Good story. Would have been a 5 star but I felt like ending was weak.

    To me it is all about the ending

    I have read 4 books by this author and recommend any thing she writes.

    2 people found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wow another amazing book from this author. I definitely recommend it.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really loved Seed, and then I read The Neighbor, which I didn’t enjoy at all. But this book redeems her. I love the POV of Stevie, and Otto’s mother. I loved the description of the place. It is well worth the time.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great book. I loved little Stevie so much, and the parts with Otto’s mom reminded me of Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child. Horrifying tale all the way from the awful stepdad to the shadow in the woods.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The story was creepy great! Kept you guessing till the end.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Well, it's a horror story with a creature/monster, hurray!!! The plot was really good for one that's been done a 1000 times, but the author twisted it nicely to give you the desire to go on and the want know more. Great visual depictions, and the narrator was incredible. The author truly captured the disability of the main character, and the narrator really brought him to life. The horror was really good, and for me, I loved every minute of this story. Great writing, characters, horror, and the experience was sold by the narrator. Excellent all the way around.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I like the author but this was not my favorite.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Lovely classic monster lurking in the spooky woods story. If you like Steven Kings “It” you’ll enjoy this one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved it while I read most of it- I think the author wrote Stevie incredible. I’m someone who can have a hard time with communication when I get frazzled, and it was explained so well in this. She also wrote him really well as a child- he does these risky, illogical decisions and that’s exactly how kids are. They simply don’t think like the adults. It isn’t frustrating the way whole ass adults make decisions in horror.

    I’m having a little trouble deciding how I liked the final confrontation. I had a feeling it would end that way, but it fell flat. It was all these slow, dreadful things building and the end was extremely rushed.

    But the epilogue can both save or ruin the book for whoever is reading it, I think. The very last few lines definitely saved it for me. It says to me there’s a middle ground between Stevie’s inability to maintain reality and also everything about Jude, Rosie and Otto- as it the truth is somewhere between them. That little sprinkle of mystery made it worthwhile because it adds tons of facets.

    I’m not entirely convinced if the author actually has anything in the middle that makes sense to attach all of it, or if it was kind of a cop out to not have to explain the whole story and try to make everyone happy- those who wanted it to be psychological and those who wanted it to be paranormal.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The devil crept in is no joke. This is a horrific tale of two cousins and how their lives were affected by a creature from the pits of hell. I am not a horror genre aficionado but I do enjoy the occasional pulse pounding suspense that comes from reading a good horror book. This book delivered that as well as a side of gore.The book is divided into three parts and I liked that a lot. At the end of a part you can take a minute to digest what you have already learned before moving on to another part of the story. The story itself is told from alternating points of view with the main POV being from Stevie. His character is ten years old and his cousin Jude is the best part of his world. What this kid deals with in his real life is pretty sad.Jude is a hot mess. The kid has major anger issues and he is not all that kind to Stevie. Still, he treats Stevie better than everyone else. Learning about their adventures and plans together was endearing. I wanted them to have everything that they dreamed about. To see the transformation that took place in Jude was horrible. I kept hoping for a turnaround or that together Jude and Stevie would be able to overcome the situation but it was not in the cards.The secret that is uncovered in this story is too freaking creepy and horrifying. The scenes where we learn about what the secret is, how it came to be, and the mother involved in keeping the secret were just macabre. Almost to the point of unimaginable but at the same time you really feel for the mother. She is so mentally unhealthy but she did what she did out of a twisted love and sense of duty.What a story is all I can say! If you enjoy Stephen King’s style of writing (child-centered), then this story should resonate with you. I like the endings of a story to have some form of triumph but this ending was sad to say, realistic, and so, so sad for Stevie. I wanted so much more for this character. If you are looking for a twisted, revolting, and sinister read then I highly recommend this book to you.This review is based on a complimentary book I received from NetGalley. It is an honest and voluntary review. The complimentary receipt of it in no way affected my review or rating.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn is a horror story that opens with a twelve year old boy, Jude Brighton going missing. He and his cousin are usually together but this day, he didn’t show up. His mother is concerned when he doesn’t come home and calls the police. I settled in to find out if this missing child is a troubled boy who had run away from home, or a dare-devil kid who has gotten himself in trouble in the woods or is there someone or something in the woods that has taken him.The story is told by his younger cousin, Stevie, we learn that the woods and the fort that the kids have built have become their sanctuary this summer. Jude is having difficulty coming to terms with the death of his father, and Stevie has his own issues. He hates his stepdad Terry Marks and the influence he has over his mother. We also learn that there is another place in the woods, a seemingly abandoned house, that Jude and Stevie are terrified of, could this house have something to do with Jude’s disappearance? When Jude suddenly appears again, it seems like a miracle, but Jude has changed and is no longer the carefree boy that he was just a few days ago. Stevie is more worried than ever and vows to get to the bottom of Jude’s disappearance.This is one of the most gruesome and creepy stories that I have read. Obviously this author knows how to write horror, but unfortunately it went far beyond my comfort level. The Devil Crept in was a dark, nasty read that will be lingering in my mind for some time. Please note that I would not recommend this book to anyone who has difficulties with reading about cruelty to animals.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    With a possibly unreliable narrator, supernatural elements and a mysterious disappearance of a twelve year boy, The Devil Crept In is the latest eerie and somewhat creepy horror novel by Ania Ahlborn.

    Ten year old Stevie Clark is best friends with his twelve year old cousin Jude Brighton and when Jude goes missing, he is the only person in town who takes his disappearance seriously. Due to his stutter and overactive imagination, Stevie is a bit of a social pariah in town which makes his friendship with Jude that much more important to him. Everyone in town considers Jude a troublemaker so it is little surprise that the general consensus is he has run away from home. Stevie knows without a doubt that his cousin would never voluntarily abandon him, so Stevie gathers his courage to help search for Jude. A grisly discovery indicates Jude might be the victim of foul play so Stevie decides to investigate his best friend's disappearance in earnest. Deciding to venture to the spooky house that Jude is so fascinated with, Stevie is frightened by what he sees, but Jude's sudden reappearance puts an end to any further investigation. At first relieved his best friend has returned unharmed, Stevie becomes frightened by the differences he notices in Jude. Although no one seems aware that anything is amiss, Stevie is determined to understand what happened to Jude in the woods but will anyone believe him once he uncovers the truth?

    Told in three parts, part one delves into Jude and Stevie's somewhat tragic childhoods and follows Jude's disappearance and Stevie's search for his cousin. Stevie is an incredibly sympathetic ten year old boy but his various problems make him an unreliable narrator. At one time a happy, normal child, he inexplicably began stuttering and experiencing night terrors and hallucinations. His home life worsened dramatically following his father's abandonment and his mom's involvement with an abusive and volatile man who does not hesitate to mete out corporal punishment. Although always rambunctious, Jude essentially turned into a surly juvenile delinquent after this father's death. The two boys are now inseparable and Stevie is quite forgiving after he occasionally becomes the object of Jude's mean streak.

    The second part of the story provides the backstory of Rosamund "Rosie" Aleksander, an emotionally damaged recluse once married to a local doctor. Rosie is inconsolable after a tragic loss and her attempt to escape her pain leads her to a stranger and a mysterious retreat. Returning to her beautiful home in the woods, Rosie's deepest wish comes true but in a particularly cruel twist of fate, her dream soon turns into a horrific nightmare that tests her deepest bond.

    Part three is where the two storylines come together with a terrifying supernatural twist that will put even the most ardent horror fan on the edge of their seat when evil is unleashed in the aftermath of Jude's disappearance. Stevie finally uncovers the ghastly secret about the strange occurrences that have happened in and around town over the last several years. Just as he is piecing together the events that have plagued the town, Stevie also learns the stunning truth about what happened to Jude and in the aftermath of his discoveries, his life goes in a very shocking direction.

    Although initially a little slow-paced, The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn catapults to an adrenaline filled and sinister conclusion. An imaginative and suspense-laden novel that I highly recommend to fans of the horror genre.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Although I can eat paranormal novels for 3 meals a day, I am not so much a fan of real horror. Not in books or movies. Something about the description of this one caught and held my attention so I thought I’d give it a try. Before I knew it I had read half the book and was looking forward…no, I was compelled…to read the rest. The story was just unbelievable enough to make you wonder if maybe there could be a smidgen of truth in it…and that in itself was horrifying. Stevie was the only character in the entire story that was remotely likable…the others you just wished that the monster would have them for midnight snacks. I guess I would have to say that the book was interesting, entertaining and 100% horrifying. A worthy recipient of the 4 stars.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Tedious to read. The author takes a bunch of standard horror tropes and fails to do anything entertaining with them.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Creepy and good with a nice twist at the end. Love the unreliable narrator, they take you on a twisted ride.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Summer is here and my summer childhood memories have a lot of ‘wandering through the woods’ in them. My childhood home was near a wooded area along the Mississippi River, and my sister and I would wander down to a secret waterfall and to the banks of the river. So there is something a bit familiar about a story that involves children spending their time exploring in the woods. I’m thankful that nothing bad ever happened to us while on our adventures, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy reading about bad things happening to other people in the woods! So I was very interested when I heard about “The Devil Crept In” by Ania Ahlborn. Kids disappearing in a forest that holds many secrets? Oh hell yeah, I’ll read that, I’ll read the HELL out of that!But I think that the ultimate problem I had with this book was that it kind of had two stories going on, and though they sort of connected, there were too many questions left behind for both of them. To really review this, I’m going to go into spoilers for this book, so that’s a warning to you all who may want to read it. And for posterity… SPOILER ALERT. Our first story is the one that is put in the description of the book. You have Stevie, an awkward and lonely ten year old in a fraught home life. His older brother Duncan is a bully, his Mom doesn’t really understand him, and his stepfather Terry is abusive and cruel. His only friend is his cousin Jude, who has problems and behavioral issues of his own, as he’s carried quite a bit of rage in him since his father died. When Jude disappears, Stevie is obsessed with finding him, even if he’s heard stories and rumors about the woods and those who have disappeared before. Specifically a young boy named Max, who disappeared and whose body was found weeks later. While those around him want to believe that Jude just ran away, Stevie thinks that the weird shadow he’s seen in the woods, especially around an old abandoned house, is the real answer to Jude’s disappearance.The second story involves that house. A woman named Rosie lives there. Years before she was married to a doctor, and she desperately wanted children, but couldn’t carry a pregnancy to term. After a traumatic miscarriage, she drove down to Big Sur in a tizzy, and met a strange biker hippie named Ras. He asked her what she would do to have a baby. And she said “Anything.” (world's biggest mistake). After she goes home, shortly thereafter her husband dies in a car accident. Shortly thereafter, she discovers she’s pregnant. For whatever reason that I didn’t think was properly fleshed out or explored beyond “I already am anxious around people and how mortifying to be a pregnant widow!”, she stays isolated in her cabin the woods and basically gives birth to a monster, who likes to eat flesh and blood. She names him Otto, and is perfectly fine with the fact he grows up eating cats, dogs, stray animals, and then….. Max Larsen.So you see where this is all going. Jude disappears because he falls into the thrall of Rosie and Otto. But he isn’t killed by Otto, and when he gets home, he keeps hearing the siren’s call to go back and be with them. So there is a connection between story one and story two. And I loved that I could see the woods and the atmosphere, as well as the creepy shadows out in the trees or on the porch or through the window. That is the kind of creep that I live for. But boy oh boy, do I have so many questions that are never explained or answered. Sometimes this is okay. But in this case, t’s done in a way that comes off as less ambiguous and more forgotten about. My biggest issue is that Ras storyline. Ras plays such an important role in this book for obvious reasons, but he we don’t get any answers about him. What is he? What are his motivations? Is he the Devil? Is he a servant of the Devil? How does he keep track and tabs on Otto and Rosie (because it is implied near the end that he does), is it because he’s magic? I don’t necessarily need all the answers about this guy, but I would like a little more to him as opposed to just being a super convenient plot device! There is also some ambiguity at the end, which I WILL keep under wraps because it’s relevant to the endgame, that didn’t quite sit well with me. I had a hard time figuring out if it was the case of an unreliable narrator, or a magical system that was at play, or people unable to believe or accept the things they see. And also, WHY is it that Jude seems to be able to be possessed by Otto all of a sudden? So now Otto can astral project? It was a lot of mythos that didn’t have much rhyme or reason, and only worked because it needed to work for the story to progress.Also, I had a hard time with the characters and their personalities. I understand that our protagonist and his family are flawed and have all had hard lives, but for a horror story to be very effective you need to care about the characters to some extent. If you don’t, you won’t be afraid for them. I was afraid for Stevie, because he was pretty sympathetic, but everyone else was pretty cardboard cut out antagonistic (always fun to see the evil stepdad knocking kids around, or the mean older brother hurling anti-Semitic comments here and there) or simpering (Stevie’s Mom and Aunt Mandy are understandably passive, but it was hard to deal with when their passivity leads to their kids being hurt). I basically was just waiting for them all to have horrible things happen to them so I could move onto the next moment, and then onto the next story. Which isn’t how I want to feel when getting to the end of a horror novel.“The Devil Crept In” had promise, but it didn’t live up to my expectations. I’m not looking at the woods I can see through my kitchen window and feeling afraid, so you know it didn’t bring the scares. I’ll stick to “Disappearance at Devil’s Rock” if I want lost child and scary nature fiction.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Jude Brighton is a tough and fearless twelve-year-old boy who goes missing from his small town of Deer Valley, Oregon. Seen as a trouble-maker, the residents believe Jude simply ran away. Stevie Clark is Jude's best friend, younger cousin and neighbour and he is determined to find out what happened to him. He begins investigating things himself. But no one really listens to Stevie or takes him seriously. Even when he unravels the mystery of Deer Valley's missing pets and even the other young boy who disappeared years ago but was later found dead; even when he uncovers a terrible secret that has been kept hidden for years.

    This is told in three parts. I did not like the second part or that storyline. The only reason this book got three stars from me was because of the epilogue. I really, really liked that epilogue! I also liked the setting - a quiet town with a big, spooky house way in the woods. And poor Stevie, how could someone not like Stevie?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Jude Brighton is missing, and only his ten-year-old cousin, Stevie, seems concerned. Most of the town regards Jude as merely trouble, and write him off as a likely runaway. But Jude isn’t the first disappearance from the small town of Deer Valley, Oregon. Pets have long gone missing from backyards, and years ago another young boy went missing, found weeks later torn to pieces . . . The adults in town seem determined to avoid thinking about these mysteries, and it seems that Stevie may have to take matters into his own hands.It has been a while since I’ve read a true horror novel, and I came away from The Devil Crept In with a renewed love of the genre. Ahlborn has an excellent sense of suspense, and fills the narrative with enough background menace to keep the reader on edge throughout the book.In addition, Stevie, our narrator, seems to be suffering from some schizophreniform disorder, adding a delicious uncertainty to everything about the book. Stevie is the ultimate unreliable narrator, and we can never be sure if the things that happen are real, or a product of his mental illness.Ahlborn is a rare female voice in a genre nearly completely dominated by men. Fans of Stephen King, Nick Cutter, Joe Hill and other giants of the genre would do well to read her work. Ahlborn is clearly able to set her own bloody stake near the top of the hill of horror writers.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.Stevie is a kid no one takes seriously. Even his own family thinks he is imagining things. But when his cousin Jude goes missing, Stevie knows Jude is in serious trouble, and that his disappearance has ties to the body of another young boy found years agoThis is a creepy book! It's got some seriously scary small town secrets from the past horror going on.Ahiborn does a great job of executing twists and turns. I never felt like I knew where the story was going or what was going to happen.This kept me hooked, and kept me reading.It was hard to find a character to like in this novel, which I do definitely think was something Ahiborn did on purpose. Everyone is sad, and troubled, and beaten down by life and circumstances, and no one acts the way you want them to. (I did sympathize with Stevie, but found it hard to connect with him.) This is not necessarily a negative, but the book was so dark on top of this, it was hard to find any sign of light.This is one of those books that leaves me not entirely sure how I feel about it. I sometimes struggled with it because it was so dark, but there was also something about it that kept me hooked, and made me keep reading. I finished this book in about two days, which definitely says something. I had to know what was going to happen.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed this book overall. It was a rather slow starting book for me and I had a hard time really getting into the story at first. The whole first part of the book just didn't do a lot for me. The second section of the book picked up a bit and I found myself really getting interested. By the time, I got to the third part of the book, I was hooked and I couldn't wait to see how everything would come together. Stevie is a 10 year old boy living with his mom, step-dad, and brother, Dunk. He lives next door to his best friend, Jude, who is also his cousin. Jude is missing at the opening of the book and Stevie wants everyone to look for him a bit harder than they are. He decides to do his own detective work and does a little investigating of his own.Everyone is searching the wood of Deer Creek for Jude. Jude and Stevie have always spent a lot of time in the woods, building forts and looking at that spooky house by the logging road. There always seems to be a lot of stray animals in and around the woods as well. In fact, all of the animals in Deer Creek seem to be in the woods instead of neighborhood homes and backyards. A large portion of this book is told from Stevie's point of view. Stevie is young, scared, and confused by the things that are happening. He has echolalia which means that his speech patterns tend to have a lot of repetition. I think that the author did a fantastic job of showing how hard it was for Stevie to be taken seriously and get his thoughts out. Stevie is not a character that I ever really liked. I felt bad for him with his speech difficulties but I became tired of reading his repetitive speech. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a creepy story. This is the second book by Ania Ahlborn that I have read and while I didn't like it nearly as much as I enjoyed Brother, I found it to be a solid story. I can't wait to read more of this author's work soon.I received an advance reader edition of this book from Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books via NetGalley.