★★★☆☆ The snob's horrible family

Diavola

Jennifer Thorne

Jennifer Marie Thorne's Diavola begins with our point-of-view character, Anna Pace, a commercial artist who works for a New York advertising agency, getting on a plane to Florence. This is like a Big Sign warning "Art Snobs ahead". At one point, after a day doing Florence, Anna's brother-in law Justin declares himself "all arted out". I feel ya, Justin, I feel ya. There is also an inordinate amount of wine in Diavola. (Anna is an inverse wine snob, because of course she is.)

Anna begins the book by avoiding her family. A wise move! Anna has the reputation of being the family Drama Queen. Objectively, this is not 100% inaccurate. However, no other Pace family member is in a position to throw stones at other putative Drama Queens. The publisher's blurb ends with this

(Warning: May invoke feelings of irritation, dread, and despair that come with large family gatherings.)

Yeah, that.

For the first 55% of the novel, essentially nothing happens. Rather, we marinate in the juice of Pace family dysfunction. Quoting the publisher once again, "Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic." I'm not sure they read the same book I did. "Wickedly funny" never happened. Now, to be fair, a sense of humor is an individual thing. It is possible that some readers will find some part of this funny. I couldn't even begin to guess which part. "Family dynamics", yeah lots of that. But "all-too-familiar"? No, no, no, not to me. I won't claim that when my family gets together, there is never friction. But nothing in Diavola felt familiar.

At 55% the haunted house story finally took off. Eventually we get a rather good story, especially once Anna ditches her family.

Most of Diavola is "horrible people being horrible". That is, to be sure, an important literary genre that a lot of people seem to like. I am not one of them. If that's your thing, adjust your expectations accordingly.

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