The most recommended books about the devil

I almost feel like I need to mention this first and foremost: I’m a huge fan of Stranger Things. Why does that matter? Because if you loved Eddie and Chrisy and wanted more of them, this is THE book for you.

Not only do we see these inspired characters, but we also see them deal with their own prejudice. Trigger warning for deep religious trauma on Rebecca’s end, but let me tell you, as someone with religious trauma, this book was deeply healing for me in some ways.

The trauma is really well written, and I was thoroughly engaged in this forbidden romance.

This is my go-to book when suggesting read-alouds for teachers and parents who want a charming and engaging story about honesty and compassion.

I love Libby (the main character) for many reasons. She embodies so much of what I was taught as a child about “telling the truth” and also experienced much of what I did before I learned the difference between hurtful and helpful words. My inner child can relate to the character’s missteps—as can my adult self—thus the reason I recommend it for all ages. (As a side note, and for all the right reasons, I also recommend Libby for President.) 

I have found this book to be a phenomenal exposé on the topic of temptation, presented as a conversation between a senior demon and its junior.

Having many decades of life experience, I have found this book to do such an outstanding job of portraying, through a fictional series of letters, exactly how we can be tempted to do, or not do, or say, or not say, or have attitudes which are destructive vs. beneficial. I walked through this book, chapter by chapter, with my six children when they were in their teens.

Though the title was somewhat misleading, Elain Pagel’s book contained a wealth of information not only on the demonization of non-Christian cultures through the centuries, but also on how historical events, like the Jewish Roman Wars of the 1st/2nd Century C.E., affected the writing of the Bible.

By way of example, the Pharisees were a relatively minor sect while Jesus was alive, but by the time the Bible was being cobbled together, they had become much more powerful, and this is why they were referenced so often in the New Testament.

I found Pagel’s information about how the Bible was constructed as interesting as how the dominant faction Christian associated first the Jews, then the Pagans, and, finally, other subversive Christian sects with Satan.

In fairness, I read this book hoping for insights into the identity of Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” a mystery it certainly does not resolve. However, many other aspects make the book worthwhile reading, notwithstanding the large historical liberties the author takes.

Smith’s Beethoven has been unable to appreciate the love so many have had for him. Who better to enlighten him than Napoleon, to whom he originally dedicated his third symphony (“Eroica”), only to scratch out the dedication and write instead, “to the memory of a great man”? What better vehicles than powerful, dream-like scenes (since in a sense, the whole book is a deathbed dream)?

Above all, whether the author has used fantasies, ghosts, or spirits, he has provided an interesting technique to present the supernatural events the protagonist experiences.

Okay, in doing this I have noticed a trend in what I like. How enlightening. Anyway. Trigger has the perfect combination of darkness and love conquers all. The raw story between Trigger and Tess—two broken people who found exactly what they needed in one another. Sexy, gritty, and captivating, this book has everything I wanted in a motorcycle club romance. 

If you were a teenager (like I was) at the same time as the book’s main character, John Burton, you will be swept away on a journey of nostalgia back to your youth in the 1970s. Memories will come flooding back about that special time in your life when you were young and finding out about love, sex, loss, and death.  Recommended!

This is a curious blend of survival thriller and sci-fi story about a vast hidden world of caves and tunnels beneath the surface of the earth, and a previously unknown civilization of humanoids who live there. Once discovered, the corporations of the world start what becomes known as “the descent” and start founding work colonies, like offshore oil rigs, but this time underground as they mine for resources and additional space for a booming upworld population. The story becomes something of a clash of civilizations, with the blue collar workers looking for a better life coming up against savage underworlders defending their homes.

This is one of the first stories I ever read with a strong female protagonist at the helm. Dante Valentine is a bounty hunter, necromancer, and a no-nonsense kind of woman. She is stubborn, flawed, and her story is a classic answer to what happens when you make a literal deal with the devil. I appreciate that she is unapologetically human and blatantly admits to her faults as a person. She is honest—perhaps sometimes too much so—and perseveres when things go awry. If anything, I would say she is a stand-out not only as far as female protagonists are concerned, but protagonists in speculative fiction as well.

Who says American literature has to be written in English? Told through a number of voices and in a mixture of folktales, memories, and dreams that James Joyce would have loved, this novel traces the lives of four generations of a Chicano family in Presidio, Texas who, with the coming of the Anglos and their guns, found themselves separated from their family and friends by a river that once gave life, but now is a border between one country and the next. Over all is the grinning, terrifying Green Devil, who is at once the fields of cotton sucking the life-giving waters from the river, and the malevolent spirit mocking brown people trying to live in a ruined world. It’s a little masterpiece.