The Devil's Intern by Donna Hosie

TL;DR death and time travel paradoxes

TBR #853, added May 8th 2014

finished 7/18/16

I picked up The Devil's Intern for about the same reason as I did Devil and the Bluebird. (That about encompasses the amount of YA books my library has about Hell, so at least this streak was short-lived.) I don't think I realized it was already on my TBR when I checked it out.

I came close to returning it to the library without finishing it. The concept was interesting, but the book wasn't very compelling overall. I had to push myself to keep picking the book up until I got past halfway through. I was at least invested in what was going on by that point, but I wish it would've happened sooner.

The characters didn't feel all that deep to me, and I think the worldbuilding in general was a little lacking. The scenes were kind of generic in my head as I was reading and I would've liked to see more of the concept of Hell running as a corporation. (Also, there were very few details of where they were in the human world other than when they were in New York City. They went to DC and I feel like I only know where they were because I live here, and even then it was weak. There was no mention of the Mall or any of the other monuments besides just Capitol Hill.)

Honestly, I think I'm most disappointed in how Medusa didn't feel consistent. Her characterization kept painting her as bitter and I never got the sense that she felt anything nicer than mild irritation with Mitchell, let alone any romance. Also, she was unreasonably jealous over the girl Mitchell kissed for never telling him how she felt. She felt like a caricature of a teenage girl and I didn't connect with her even though I really wanted to. Teenage girls really aren't moody like that.

I also wasn't happy with the end result of all the time traveling. I liked the logic that was initially set up behind the time-turner's mechanics (I can't spell the actual word for the device), but I felt like the ending of the book completely went against all of the setup and unraveled the legitimacy of what they experienced. You can't mix different kinds of time travel easily without creating huge logical holes.

Looking at Goodreads, it looks I'm in the minority on how I feel. I don't regret reading it, but I feel like it could've been done a lot better. I forgot this is part of a series, and I do want to see if the concept is explored any better, so I am planning on continuing with The Devil's Dreamcatcher. I'm not setting my expectations bar that high though.

TL;DR it's a unique concept but I felt like the characters and the world in general were really underdeveloped and missed a lot of their potential to make the story hella. (Ha. I'm funny.)