I have already reviewed this book when I read it in German, see here. I only want to use this review to highlight some things I forgot or missed when I read the German version. Here they come:- First of all, the ending feels even more awesome than the first time now that I recognized all the set-up. It had me cheering, it was so well executed that it'll stay with me for a while.- The conversation between Brooke and John that broke my heart the first time 'round is even more heartbreaking in Engl...

John Wayne Cleaver is back in “The Devil’s Only Friend”, the first in somewhat of a sub-trilogy within the already established John Cleaver series by Dan Wells.I’ll start off by saying that the entire John Cleaver series, though popular, is extremely underrated. I also think it’s unfairly compared to Dexter. Granted, Dexter is a wonderful series and he is a great character, but John Cleaver stands on his own as a psychopathic anti-hero. He doesn’t need anyone’s help to establish exactly who and

will post a review soon... I've missed you John.EDIT: When I first started this book I thought I missed something, like, it just dove right into John's new job with the FBI and I had no idea that that's how it was... John was now working for them. It felt weird, it felt foreign to me because I like John as a bit of a loner, not answering to higher-ups but doing his own thing.I liked this book and then I didn't. I liked it for the character development and what was going on with Brooke. I didn't

For all you peeps missing a Serial Killer gone Good, or at least good-ish, or even just mildly tiptoeing the very broad definition of monsterhood, I'd recommend this series.John's 17 years old, has lost almost everything, but he's done the right thing and joined the "good guys" to hunt down demons. John still doesn't give a flying rat's ass about whether anyone lives or dies and he still likes to take home a rack of meat to stab viciously in his off hours, but at least he has the intellectual st...

Oh my gosh. This book was wild! As much as I loved the first three in this series, this marks the first of a new trilogy and as such can be read first instead of the previous trilogy. But holy crap, whatever my thoughts were as to where this story would go and how it would unravel, I was really unprepared for it. Dan Wells proves once more that John Wayne Cleaver is one of the best antiheroes in literature. #sorrynotsorryCheck out this book and you won't be disappointed.

I love Dan Wells' brain. I want to keep it in my freezer.

Even though I Don't Want to Kill You ended on sort of a cliffhanger, with the reader left wondering what John on a demon-hunting team sponsored by the federal government, it also seemed like a fitting ending. Although it ends with John having a traumatic experience, that experience is also defining and cathartic, and joining the demon-hunting team gave enough of a shape to his future to be going on with.In other words, this next book was kind of superfluous, and hinged on whether or not what wo...

Dan Wells has written the perfect fourth volume to this trilogy. He knows his characters, knows his world, knows just how to ratchet things up to level eleven at the right times. I will never understand how he does it, but damn...I have no idea where it goes now.

This ties in to book 3.5 which I wasn't expecting. They are both telling the same story but from different POVs and 3.5 ends without the full ending of book 4. I would suggest reading both books together, alternating so you can get both games on what is going on.I really love this series and am enjoying book 5 now. The narration is really good. Although when the narrator shouts he really does and it is loud and startling. Book 4 is a great story and it didn't end the way I thought it would. (vie...

Review coming after I can meditate over it a bit. I actually finished this book quite a while ago, but I never cleared it out of my Currently Reading list. (Argh. :/) I liked it as much as the first three John Cleaver books, and appreciated the diverse cast of characters. Wells does horror well, and notably knows how to create strong character voices.

I think I'm gonna give up on this series. I really loved books 1-3. I'm not really impressed with the direction this book took. I didn't get that far. Maybe 10%-15%. Either way I am not rating this because I am slumping big time and attribute part of my lack of enjoyment to that.

THERE'S GOING TO BE MORE!!!!

WARNING: Spoilers For First 3 Books ❖❖❖❖ "I'm good now. I promise. ...sometimes at night I go to the butcher shop and I buy the biggest roast they have and I bring it home and I cover the room in plastic and I hack the meat to pieces with a kitchen knife, slashing and ripping and chopping and grunting until there's nothing left but scraps. Then I roll up the plastic, meat and blood and all, and I throw it away and everything is clean and calm now. Because I'm good now. I promise." Wel

I’m right in the middle with this book. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. Now that could be due to the fact that I haven’t read the first three books in the series but I didn’t know it was a series when I bought it and I said fuck it and read it anyways. I probably would have enjoyed it a bit more if I had read the other books but I still think it does relatively well as a stand-alone. I was able to follow the story easily and it was an incredibly interesting concept but it fell flat...

Review copyAdmittedly, I have never read the original trilogy of books in the John Cleaver series. One of these days I will need to rectify that. I'm also happy to say, it's not necessary to have read any of the other books to enjoy The Devil's Only Friend.Reminiscent of Harry Dresden from the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, John Cleaver is a bit of an anti-hero, quick-witted with a sharp tongue, and an urge to kill. An urge that he controls in an unusual way. It's these tendencies that mak...

Classified as YA (or maybe Thriller with a teenager in the spotlight). Either way I found it to be enjoyable even as a 31 yo man. It has elements which Intrigued me - a sociopathic main character/protagonist who hunts and slays supernatural beings known as the "withered"? Who wouldn't be interested in reading this? If you enjoy the TV shows Dexter and Supernatural, you will likely enjoy this book/series. John Wayne Cleaver is one bad mother shut yo mouth!

Thickening plot, new game-changing reveals, and moral dilemmas galore — looks like the second half of this series will be even better than the first three books.First person POV has never been my favorite, and I kind of expected it to get tiring right about now, but nope — John’s head is such a weird place to be; I don’t want to ever leave! The dichotomy of his character is so masterfully shown here… I can’t get enough.Just to be clear: I loved this. The new killer was damn scary, even before he...

Life isn’t a thing, it’s a condition; we switch it on and we switch it off. I abso-freaking-love this little psychopath.John Wayne Cleaver (accidentally named after two serial killers and "blessed" with a weapon as a last name) is desperately trying not to become a murderer. He's always known he has the potential - he fantasizes about killing things, he has a hard time seeing people as humans, etc...BUT he doesn't want to become a serial killer. Only, no matter how good he is at avoiding

I was lucky enough to win an early draft of the manuscript of this book. John Cleaver is back and now, to his annoyance, is working as part of a team. Dan Wells' biggest strength as a writer, in my opinion, has always been the brilliant way in which he captures and relates the mindset of his POV characters. That was one of the main things that really hooked me on to this series in the first place, and he doesn't disappoint with this book. Elijah Sexton, the POV character from Wells' short story,...

This review contains spoilers for the first JOHN WAYNE CLEAVER trilogy. John Wayne Cleaver is a seventeen-year-old boy who wants very, very much to kill people. Lots of them, one right after the other, in terrible, bloody ways. Paradoxically, because he longs to do that, he has been taking extraordinary lengths to avoid becoming a serial killer. His struggles were related in a trilogy consisting of I Am Not A Serial Killer, Mr. Monster, and I Don’t Want to Kill You. That trilogy showed how John’...