I still feel as if Dan Wells is one of the most underrated authors out there. The John Wayne Cleaver series continues to be an amazing story about a young man who knows he’s capable of evil, and in fact desires to be evil, and chooses to be good.
This reason alone makes the book worthy. OYDB is more predictable than some of the other John Cleaver stories, but I wonder if that wasn’t intentional. For me, this book was less bout the identity of the monster and how it operates and more about the effect that information would have on John.
Where The Devil’s Only Friend bridged the first three books to this new direction, OYDB continues to push the potential of the series into new directions. It takes place relatively soon after the events of TDOF. The wit is every bit as charming. The conflict is every bit as compelling. The ending was every bit as tragically beautiful as I’ve come to expect from Wells.
This is part of a series, so if you haven’t started with book one, I recommend you do. You’ll be the lucky one though as you can read the whole series up to this point in a row; where as I had to wait for each book.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
M.L.S. Weech 
I’ve been meaning to start the John Cleaver books. I loved Wells’s other works, but the horror part of it has been keeping me away. Hope I’ll get to them someday.
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I don’t know that I’d call them horror. I thought about it a while, and I tend to lead toward supernatural murder mystery. These books have monsters, but the intensity is in the character.
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Ah. I’ve always seen them categorized as horror. Not necessary super scary monster kind but more of a psychological one?
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I’d imagine they call it horror because there are, in fact, monsters. But I promise, that’s not the crux of the book. If anything, it’s a psychological murder mystery thriller.
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Alright, thanks. I’ll give it a try, hopefully sometime soon 🙂
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You recommended the first book to me a while ago and I really enjoyed it. Wastelander keeps taking me an extra week to finish, but when I do I already have the next two sitting in the shelf. It’s part of my POV study of 1st person during my break from Wastelander while I wait to begin round one of rewrites. Great review and what I’ve come to expect from you!
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Thanks. I still think that original trilogy is the best of the series, but Wells does a great job of finding new areas to investigate.
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I agree with what you’ve said here. The original trilogy was the best, but it’s interesting to see the new supernatural approach Wells is taking with his most recent addition to the series.
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I’m satisfied with where it’s going. The last edition was the best of the new stuff, but in my opinion that’s because it got back to the roots of what makes Cleaver such an interesting character. Thanks for stopping by!
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