And for that reason I am super glad I read Diavola. While a lot of the plot beats are very classic for a haunting story -- a big old house, a mysterious force, unexplained happenings that people around the protagonist are willing to write off -- and there is an element of the entity following Anna home to haunt and attempt to consume her, there is also a huge thread of Anna being unwilling to just let that happen. Or rather, she does to an extent, enough to do some damage to her life before she gets her ass in gear and goes back to kick some ghost butt.
I think that was what I enjoyed most about the story. Of course the writing is very atmospheric, I loved the descriptive language that was used especially around the property and house in Italy, but the thing I loved the most was Anna's willingness to commit to NOT letting some centuries-old lady with a grudge use her for an agenda. I loved how much agency she had and even though she spends most of the book being treated kind of like crap by her family, she's not beaten down to the point of submission but rather uses that to fuel her desire to fight back.
There were a lot of things I think this book did really well, and also a couple that maybe could have used some fleshing out -- for example, we're introduced to these ghostly neighbor kids who end up not really mattering all that much, and I feel like there could have been a little more buildup in the family's interactions with other villagers not only to establish that the house itself is a creepy and reviled place but also to help us as readers understand the history of what happened there.
That said, overall this was a really enjoyable read for me and I'm glad I picked it up! Thank you for healing in me what Come Closer broke, lol.
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