Book Review: The Devouring by A. M. Shilling
Genre: Cosmic Horror / Thriller
Age: Adult
This review contains some minor spoilers for The Devouring.
The Devouring crosses a lot of genres and ticks a lot of boxes for me. It’s a fast-paced, well-written thriller, which starts with an assassination and climaxes with a full Elder God confrontation, but at no point did I feel the narrative was rushed or forced.
I really enjoyed the dark romance marriage as a central focus, between Jason, an assassin with antisocial personality disorder (APD), and Ayana, a forensic psychologist drawn to Jason for the sense of acceptance she finds with him.
While ‘Villain’ is the obvious marketing label for Jason, in the sense of ‘Villain Protagonist’ as a trope, I think that’s a little too neat. I would argue that Jason is an Anti-Villain, a character whose goals – to make money, be a good husband to his wife – are no different to anyone else’s. He just kills people to make that money. He had an abusive relationship with his brother, whom he also put through rehab, and tortured animals as a child. He outgrew that and started on people as he got older, while in the army then in his current career. Everything about Jason is constructed to make him a villainous character, but that’s not how the narrative positions him. He’s a compelling, three-dimensional man, and his marriage to Ayana isn’t ‘redemptive’, but it provides him with additional layers and nuances.
Ayana is equally interesting. She starts off in a kind of Anti-Heroine position, a woman who is looking for someone she can trust, and finds it in a killer. She’s on the right side of the law in her profession, but she’s under no illusions about Jason’s profession or the world he inhabits, and that twists her character from a potential anti-heroine into anti-villain territory, too. She has the very ordinary goals of living a nice, comfortable life with the man she loves, but she’s willing to lie, cover for his homicidal activities, and get involved herself if she has to, in order to sustain that. Ultimately, they’re a team, and the dynamics work really well.
I found this to be the most satisfying part of the story, as it meant that they weren’t lying to one another to further complicate the narrative.
The action ramps up into carnage in the third act, which was a very satisfying conclusion. I don’t want to spoil that ending, but we get all the answers we require from the story, and I really liked the elevation of the characters and the way their arcs play out. I especially liked the way their relationship dynamic and personalities had a bearing on the roles they played in summoning of the Abyssal King at the climax.
I would say, if you enjoy books like The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper and The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, and you also like thrillers with a dark romance core, give this a try.
The obligatory film chaser: if you’re looking for a film to scratch that killer couple itch, and you want them to stay together at the end, I’d go with Mr. Right (2015) as a romcom (assassin gets a girlfriend), or the classic Natural Born Killers (1994). For your supernatural noir mystery with a couple on the wrong side of the law, I’d go with Villains (2019), but get the tissues out for that one. You may wish to re-read The Devouring after watching to get your together-forever couple fix!
Author Website: A. M. Shilling
Purchase at
Amazon / Kobo (Free with Kobo Plus) / Everand / Barnes & Noble
I received an ARC of this novel from the author for review consideration.
Review by C.M. Rosens
Instagram, Threads, TikTok: @cm.rosens
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