Book Club
By Hana Zittel
Published Issue 130, October 2024
Diavola by Jennifer Thorne
The Pace family has decided on idyllic Tuscany for their family vacation, renting a massive villa in the Italian countryside. Anna, the pariah of the family, is dreading the inevitable drama stirred up by her siblings, their significant others and her parents. Her twin brother, Benny, is bringing along his new boyfriend, Christopher, whose dry, judgemental personality seems to dampen any outing. Her sister, Nicole, has crafted a down-to-the-minute itinerary, leaving little room for relaxation and is still visibly sour after suspecting Anna of lusting after her less than desirable husband. In tow, Nicole has her two young daughters, bursting with excitement to spend all day playing in the villa’s pool, happy to have a plan to spend one of the days at an Italian waterpark with Grandma and Grandpa.
At first, the only true tension of vacation for Anna is trying to stay under the radar and avoid becoming the target of disparaging remarks from her sister or snide comments from her brother’s boyfriend. Doing what she can to reduce tensions, Anna is just hoping to make it through the week unscathed and without a huge family blowup. Soon after her arrival, however, she learns the caretaker of the property had given her family an ominous warning to never enter the large tower of the villa, that it must always remain locked and closed. When tiny things start to go awry, spots of rooms that seem too cold, strange dreams, phantom shadows and illusions spotted throughout the property, Anna tries to resist letting her suspicions get the best of her. Benny’s boyfriend can’t seem to drop that they may be missing out on the best bedroom in the house in the locked tower, and convinces Anna and Benny to unlock the door. Met with a vacant room, the three have unknowingly made a grievous choice unleashing a heightened level of terror on the family. When Anna learns about the former resident, La Dama Bianca, from the frightened caretaker she knows she has to convince her family to get out of there, despite how little they trust her.
Jennifer Thorne’s haunted house story is wound up in a captivating family drama allowing for the reader to often forget you were reading a horror story at all. The completely unlikeable Pace family is so consumed by their own drama and superficial issues that the thought of dying at a haunted villa seems to be the least of their concerns. A compulsively readable horror story, Diavola, is a crafty take on a classic tale that centers the terror of dysfunctional family dynamics mixed with the misery of time spent together with the family you don’t get to choose.
A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll
“A haunting is like everything else in life. Impossible to prepare for. So it’s better not to have expectations.”
Abigail has moved into a secluded Canadian lake house with her new husband, David, and his daughter, Crystal. Navigating being a new stepmother and wife, Abigail cannot help to think about the woman that was in her place before. She has been told that Shelia died of breast cancer, and Crystal’s reclusive behavior and sometimes eerie drawings are a result of her coping with the loss of her mother. Crystal has been telling her classmates she sees her dead mother appearing on the dock down by the water. When Abigail hears this at a parent-teacher conference, she talks to Crystal about ghosts and processing death, but starts to have visions herself. Soon, Abigail is seeing Sheila regularly, learning about her life and the truth behind her time with David and her eventual death.
A Guest in the House negotiates the lies we tell ourselves about the people we love and the reality of our situations. Emily Carroll unravels a captivating mystery full of twists, enhanced by her elegant illustrations which transition between the muted, mundane panels capturing everyday life and the otherworldly, colorful frames exploring illusions and fantasy. Layered and beautifully told, A Guest in the House was the winner of the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the winner of the 2024 Lammy Award for LGBTQ+ Comic.
Hana Zittel is a librarian at the Denver Public Library in addition to being a librarian at the Denver Zine Librarian. She grew up in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and pretty much just likes being outside with her pup when she has some free time, and reading, that might have been assumed though.
Check out Hana’s September Book Club in case you missed it, or head to our Explore section to see more of her past reviews.
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