ARC Review--The Devouring Light by Kat Ellis

 

Clown in a Cornfield meets The Cabin in this twisty, blood-curdling delight from acclaimed author Kat Ellis about a group of rivals stranded in an abandoned house that seems to have its own plans for them.

When Haden Romero and her rival, Deacon Rex—alongside their bands, including Haden’s ex, Cairo—are stranded on their way to a rock festival, she thinks missing the gig is the worst thing that could happen.

She’s wrong.

Marooned in treacherous swamplands with no way out, the group stumbles upon an eerie, decaying house. It seems like a safe haven, a place to wait out the storm.

The house, however, isn’t just abandoned—it’s been waiting for them.

Bodies begin to pile up. The walls start to close in. Twisted secrets come to light. And unless Haden and the others can survive long enough to escape, the house will claim them—forever.

True horror in the most fun sense of the word, The Devouring Light will have readers on the edge of their seats, bracing themselves for jump scares, flinching with every plot twist, and—most importantly—reading with the lights on.

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

 

Kat Ellis brings readers a bone chilling horror story with her latest release, The Devouring Light! I've read a few of Ellis' previous horror stories and was always pleasantly terrified by them and The Devouring Light is no different! This was a strange and eerie story that had me...devouring the pages as fast as I could!

Haden and Kizi are off to go to a rock festival in hopes of making it big in stardom. Unfortunately, for Haden, her rival, Deacon Rex and his band are also going. Deacon has been living her dream of stardom ever since they both appeared on a TV talent show a few years back and to say Haden hates him is putting it mildly.

But when her car breaks down, Haden and Kizi have no choice but to accept Deacon's offer of a ride on his tour bus and then that's when things go terribly wrong. The bus crashes and the teenagers are separated and trapped in a swampy forest with danger at every turn in the form of deadly wildlife, but then Haden (and of course Deacon who she found first among their group) see a light...there's a rather large house out in the middle of all this that seems abandoned. They decide to take refuge to regroup and hopefully find the others before trying to make it back to society.

The house is big, eerie, and strange. There are unnatural smells, dust, spiders and all what you would expect from a haunted house. There are even signs of possible ghosts, if you can believe an unreliable source. A series of bizarre events continue to occur and eventually more of their tour bus group show up before they are stuck in a seriously creepy house together.

This book was wicked strange! I love a good scary novel, but don't ask me to watch a horror movie because I wouldn't be able to take it. If this were made into a horror movie, I can't say I'd see it because I am pretty sure they would amp up the horror that was I was downplaying in my head! Lol. Needless to say there are quite a few gruesome and terrifying moments in this one. If you're adverse to body horror or anything insect related, read with caution.

I was thoroughly creeped out though with this one. I feel like that can be pretty hard to do with books and me! Even when I go looking for a spooky read, I can get creeped out, but rarely thoroughly, creeped out! This one was just that spine-tingling!

This one also included occasional intermissions with dream sequences and video transcript type data. I always find these interesting and how they related to the current story. These were largely events from the past that give you an insight to this horror mansion.

One thing that always tends to happen with me is never quite understanding the horror aspects of the story, as in how/why this occurred. Usually, I feel like we aren't meant to understand the thing. It's just something that simply is. So I try not to focus on it too much. From the few bits of horror media I have consumed, this feels like the norm.

The ending to this one was just as one might expect from this brand of horror story. At least I felt that way! It was the best kind of ending when it comes to books like these at least! If you're not afraid of the truly darker side of YA lit, then I highly recommend checking out The Devouring Light this spooky season, as--get ready for the pun--it's positively to die for! Lol. But seriously, it was very creepy and bone-chilling and made for a spine-tingling read!

Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars

The Devouring Light releases October 7, 2025