The aptly named The Devil All the Time is a brutal look at poverty, depravity, and faith. Packed with a cast of horrible characters that do awful things, this story is unrelentingly bleak and grotesque. While the plot is interesting, and the way it is told even more-so, one has to wonder if Pollock’s depiction of rural Southern Ohio and West Virginia is simply wicked for the sake of being wicked.

The characters found in The Devil All the Time are my main issue with the book. There are only a handful of likable people, and they are less developed than the evil characters. Perhaps that is what Pollock was going for, but it was a detriment for me. Arvin and his family, arguably the only decent people in the whole story, are nothing more than vague specters against a black landscape. While reading about the depravity of Carl and Sandy, Roy and Theodore, and various others was intriguing in an awfully morbid sort of way, it severely impacted my enjoyment of the story. Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely interested in grim tales of horrendous deeds by unsavory characters. Something about The Devil All the Time struck me as different, though I can’t exactly put my finger on it. It’s almost as though Pollock set out to write about the most despicable people and deeds he could imagine, for no other reason than to do it.

The plot is certainly the best part about The Devil All the Time. I really enjoyed the different perspectives given and how the various storylines and characters converged in the end. The themes in this book are also quite poignant, with Pollock taking several shots at religion in particular. It was interesting to see the different characters’ views on Christianity, and what the afterlife meant to them, and how they viewed God. It was heartbreaking to witness Willard’s faith deteriorate into madness even as his wife withered and died. There are lessons to be taken away from The Devil All the Time, if one can read through the blood and corruption to find them.

I had a serious problem with the way that Pollock treats women in this book, and not just with how they are treated by the male characters. All of the females here exist to be abused, raped, manipulated, and generally mistreated. And all of them accept it willingly. It’s almost implied that they “know their place”, so to speak, and in places the implication is more overt than others. Whether or not this is a viewpoint that Pollock himself ascribes to, or whether he was attempting to make a point in the context of his story, is unclear. Regardless, I found it very off-putting in a way that I’m not entirely certain Pollock intended.

The Devil All the Time is one of those books that you are hesitant to say you liked or enjoyed. Given the content and the way it is delivered, how could a normal person actually enjoy it? Regardless, The Devil All the Time is at least a decent entry into the Southern Gothic genre.