Reading this book made me uncomfortable. It made me squirm. At times the images were nails on a chalkboard and it just made my teeth ache. It wasn't the gore or even the death, it was the way the characters thought and behaved. It was the physical and mental festering. However, I couldn't put it down. I was sucked into the characters and the story. The words flowed and the chapters flew by.

It is a mesmerizing read and the author conveys characters with such ease I feel as if I know them intimately, their dreams, how their mind works and their inner demons. It is dark, gritty, and dismal. What I think is brilliant is that every description is grim so as a reader, I never felt like I could escape this world. Even sunshine is not bright and cheery, but muted and oppressive. The entire world is sad.

It is a book filled with killers, corruption, people making poor choices and how their stories intersect. Everyone is interesting to me even as I peer into their hopeless lives. I think one thing that draws me to these people is their tenacity. They just keep going, muddling through their days looking for satisfaction.

The characters I like are Arvin, his uncle Earskell and his grandmother Emma. Emma and Earskell are good people who don't ask for much and have taken Arvin and another orphan into their home. Arvin has gone through a tough time in his life, traumatic actually, but throughout I feel he still keeps a quality of innocence and is endearing. I was drawn to him and cared about him even when he didn't always make the best choices.

While I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone, I do recommend it as an undeniable powerful story with gripping characters.

This is a review of the audio version of the book narrated by Mark Bramhall.

Donald Ray Pollock has written a grim, almost depressing story portraying the darkness of the human soul in its most extreme form. The story follows several characters, each of them crooked in some way. I found this novel very dark but fascinating at the same time. I enjoyed all the individual storylines and particularly liked when the characters crossed each other paths at the end. This book is action packed, a more 'show rather than tell' kind of story and so it works really well as an audiobook in my opinion.

Many thanks to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

First off, the narration by Mark Bramhall was excellent. Kudos to him, he kept me listening (except when I had to take my headphones off during some inner monologues, some were definitely harder to listen to than the descriptions of actions).

Did I like this?! DO I KNOW IF I DID?! It's hard to tell. I also feel like I missed something because of the HYPE this has gotten.
Misogynist fiction dressed up as horror, told through the eyes of a cast of vile unlikeable characters.

I think listening to this book added to my hatred of the characters and disgust of their actions. The majority are *completely* vile and unrelatable. There was a couple of characters who I hated so much I honestly thought about giving up during some of their chapters. It was hard to keep up with which character was which in parts, and whose story we were following. The pacing was slow and meandering up until you were already in a climatic scene, which wasn't necessarily bad...I was just on guard a lot of the time waiting for the next thing to be happening rather than waiting for something to happen.

I know this was set in Southern USA during the 40s-60s (~times were different~) but at times if felt as if the author was using racism, misogyny and/or homophobia for an easy show of "this character is bad" sometimes - it was overused in parts.

Honestly, I'm so confused about my thoughts on this book. I have thought about giving it 2/3/4 stars.
My brain is at 4 stars just now. There's just something about it, but I hate it.

Like nothing I’ve ever read before. This dark story horrified me from start to finish yet I cannot deny that I was hooked. No likeable characters, no happy ever afters- just pain, misery, murder and abuse yet I could not stop listening. The writing is fantastic, the people and places so easy to picture.
The narration is spot on! the tone of the book was portrayed perfectly in every word spoken.
I am interested to see how the Netflix adaptation turns out- I’m sure the general public will have some very strong views on this one!

Reader, is there anything I love more than a dark and disturbing southern Gothic novel? I don't think so.

I never realised this book existed until the Netflix trailer popped up on my twitter feed, and as soon as I saw the word 'gothic', that was it! I knew I had to read it and I'm so glad I did. I loved every blood-soaked second of it. It was a delightful (and I say delightful lightly) mix of sexual perversion, murder, hopelessness, and more misery than you can throw a hat on.

This was not what I could call an enjoyable read, but clever and engaging nonetheless. Although not a particularly like-able bunch, the characters are believable and very well-drawn. I did feel the urge to have a shower when I had finished it though! Looking forward to the Netflix film later this month.

I read this book when it first came out in hardback and I loved it so much. Its dark and grim and sometimes gross - but beautifully written and unforgettable. The narrator is perfect for this book and I loved listening to it, even though I have read it. Highly recommend.

This is dark. Very dark. Like, unremittingly dark. Like, the author has to literally compare it to the constant presence of Satan in your life in the actual title dark. But it's also very enjoyable.

And that's because there's a thick seem of pitch-black satire running right through the story. The endless string of violence, abuse and perversion is presented as the product of small-town inadequacies in the middle of America in the middle of the twentieth century. And in small towns, there is a lot of inadequacy.

At times, the colliding violent stories reminded me of the films of Quentin Tarantino – and that'll be because they both draw on a mixture of American history, myth and hardboiled crime fiction. Fans of True Detective or Stephen King will also enjoy its flirtations with folk horror; violence is closely linked to religion or the sublime throughout, reminding you of just what a gory religion Christianity can be in the Bible Belt. (I read Children of the Corn partway through this and was struck by the parallels.)

I don't think you could believe in Heaven and write a book like this. I don't, and I bloody loved it.

With news of the Netflix adaptation came my piqued interest in this book. I found the audio narration on Netgalley and I am so glad both that I sought this book out and that I went down the audio route to ingest this story.

This is a tale with no shining light, no saving grace, no good deeds, and few good people. Much of what occurs is bleak or tragic and when it is not it turns to the downright stomach-churning. And for all that, I could not stop listening to it!

The dreary occurrences take place upon a shifting timeline that sees its central characters all move at a different pace to reach the conclusion at the very same time. I found this a very clever narrative device and this was just another element of what made this so cleverly-created and endlessly-intriguing. It was far different to the horrifying story I was anticipating but was every bit as thrilling, mysterious, and brutal as the other rave reviews have pitched it as.

An unremittingly bleak and dark tale about the depths human beings can sink to if they have no morals or ethics. Sounds terrible doesn't it? It wasn't. Donald Ray Pollock manages to turn this tale of depraved and dastardly people into a work of art. There isn't a single person in the book who you can warm to. There's a few who you can feel pity for as they're a victim of circumstances - but on the whole there's no one who's likeable. However, this book is so beautifully crafted, each word well honed and placed with thoughtful precision that I couldn't fail to be impressed by the creativity poured into this novel. It certainly makes you grateful for what you have and the pleasure derived is from the beauty of the writing. This is my first book by Mr Pollock, but it won't be my last. Captures an era so exquisitely I could weep with the joy of listening.

This book has made me even more excited to see the movie and to think I’d never had known about it if I hadn’t randomly been advertised the trailer!

Nope, this won’t be to everyone’s tastes but for those who don’t mind nasty, very very nasty characters and quite visceral scenes, oh and politically incorrect attitudes to everyone and everything, this will most certainly be a thrilling listening experience.

I simply love ‘DRP’ and constantly on the look out for another one of his depraved tales. I read ‘TDATT’ four years back, and was knocked out by its authenticity, the grim grit and violence, tinged with at times a pure naivety, of the characters as their personalities came flooding off the pages. This audio version was a perfect accompaniment and reminder of how I felt from my initial reading. The narrator totally nailed it for me and held me captive for two days as I listened to him retelling their stories. At no time did I feel the pace slacken or lose interest. I absolutely loved the book and this audio version.

Now, I just need to see what Netflix does with it ! I’ve booked my seat already and the only way anyone is getting the tv remote will be from my cold dead hand !

Highly recommended for fans of ‘thug lit’, ‘grit lit’ and the like.

A whopping big thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to listen to this phenomenal recording.

You can see my original review of the book here: http://sj2bhouseofbooks.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-devil-all-time-by-donald-ray-pollock.html

I long for the day where I pick up a horror book where the acceptance of casual racism and sexism aren’t the scariest things within the story. I understand that Gothic Horror sometimes features race as a pivotal plot point (haven’t we as a society moved past this?) but the constant reminders of this added nothing to the story. The characters were a cast of unlikeable and downright irritating people with no redeemable features and I couldn’t stand any of them. The plot moved at a snail's pace and I predicted the ending only a few chapters in, it all felt very anti-climatic to me. I don’t think there was a single thing I enjoyed within this novel, I wish I had the time back I spent listening to it.