Of course I’m a big fan of the Jersey Devil. I grew up in New Jersey, and was born and bred to learn all about it. I’ve obsessed over every detail of the legend, to the point that, in my final years living in NJ, joined a group that went out to find it on weekends.
We didn’t ever see it, unfortunately. Or, rather, if it is anything like the creature in Hunter Shea’s The Jersey Devil
, we were fortunate not to have come across it and been torn to shreds.
For those of you not in the know, the Jersey Devil is a legendary creature in NJ folklore. Legend has it that he was the 13th child of Mother Leeds, who cursed it upon his birth, and it transformed into the ghastly beast.
The novel centers around the Willet family, specifically three generations of it. While we don’t know the whole story until later on in the novel, they have a personal stake against the beast, specifically the eldest of the clan, Sam. After years of lying in wait, preparing, the devil returns, and the Willets take off to end it once and for all.
The characters, from the leads all the way to one-offs, where surprisingly well rounded. They were believable, despite how much or how little time spent with them. They were living breathing things, and sometimes, made me feel for them through their loss.
The Willets are all wonderful characters, each with their own personality and quirks. Sometimes, I get confused when so many characters are introduced, but Shea does a wonderful job of keeping them all different enough to keep track of.
The novel is more of an old-school horror vibe that I miss from books these days. It had a pulp-y feeling, and it was very visceral. The action, and death, came fast and furious. It was quite bloody and VERY descriptive. I found myself visualizing many of them quite well as I read, and almost wishing it was a film so I could see it all unfold! There is an almost B-Movie quality here (and I don’t mean that in any bad way at all), and I loved every moment of it.
And as a Jersey guy, I will say that Shea did get a lot of the finer details of my home state right. He nailed the feel of the Pine Barrens, and the isolation that it causes you to feel. Even the bits and pieces of the legend that he threw in were great.
The novel is a fast-paced read, and definitely one worth picking up for fans of monsters and Shea fans in general.
