“A psychological horror story about Travis, an average guy trying to get by, who discovers that he has familial ties to a deadly cult. Told across three decades, Sons of the Devil is an exploration of cults, family, and the dark side of human nature. It‘s True Detective and Orphan Black meets Helter Skelter.“

I bought this novel after reading Magda’s raving review of the first issue here, and to be completely honest, when I opened the book and saw the artwork, I thought we were going to have a bitchfight over this one because it didn’t look appealing to me at ALL.

The artwork is raw and has a lot of ‘lines’ in it; something I can’t stand to watch in certain anime series either.

I mean, what’s going on here? Was he attacked by a grizzly bear in the face? Is he sprouting hair in a weird fashion trying to become the new Chewbacca?
Yeah, not a fan.
Luckily, I got used to it after awhile because the story is fan-fucking-tastic!

The blurb mentions True Detective. I can totally see why. The story goes back and forth into time: from 1989 to the present day and back again. There’s a religious cult thing going on, murder, and some fucked up dysfunctional people who are trying to solve the pieces to the puzzle while struggling with their own demons.

Travis Crowe is one of those people, and also happens to be the protagonist of the story; a tortured soul who was orphaned at a very young age and has gone from foster home to foster ever since. His heart is definitely in the right place. He even carries his dog to work with him when the pooch is too lazy to walk himself. Authority is one thing Travis struggles with, though, anger management another one. When he gets angry due to injustice, he turns into sort of a Punisher and goes full out. With his fists, that is.

After Travis headbutts his boss into the hospital, he needs to go to counselling to work on his anger issues.There just happens to be a special Orphan Counselling group right around the corner (coincidence or not?!), which he joins. And then shit starts hitting the fan. Big time.

Now before this is starting to sound like your everyday kind of thriller setup: it isn’t. The flashbacks to 1989 are what make this story one heck of a creep fest. I really don’t want to give too much away, so I’m just going to stick to a few keywords here: demonic cult, orphans, bloody rituals, conspiracies. I finished the book in one go, while I normally like to spread my graphic novels out over at least two reading sessions. I just couldn’t stop reading this time…the mystery, the crime, the eerie villains. This is the perfect read for the upcoming October month. 

Because this is a graphic novel and the artwork is obviously very important, I’m afraid I’m going to have to deduct a whole brownie here. If it had been smoother and more to my taste, it would’ve gotten the full five brownies easily. The second volume is coming out on the 18th of October and it’s going to be in my pre-order basket for sure. Definitely recommended!

***The graphic violence makes it less suitable for the faint of heart and peeps under the age of sixteen.***

Links to the book:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
The Book Depository
Bol.com (Dutch Retailer)
Goodreads