Review: The Devouring Light by Kat Ellis

The Devouring Light

by Kat Ellis

Release Date: October 7, 2025

2025 HarperCollins

Ebook ARC; 368 Pages

ISBN: 978-0063355248

ASIN: B0DSFY91Z4

Audiobook: B0DSQ78GKF

Genre: Fiction / YA / Horror

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

When Haden Romero and her rival, Deacon Rex—alongside their bands, including Haden’s ex, Cairo—are stranded on their way to a rock festival, she thinks missing the gig is the worst thing that could happen.

She’s wrong.

Marooned in treacherous swamplands with no way out, the group stumbles upon an eerie, decaying house. It seems like a safe haven, a place to wait out the storm.

The house, however, isn’t just abandoned—it’s been waiting for them.

 

 

My Thoughts

The Devouring Light is what I consider to be light horror as in I really liked the message, thought the story was interesting and enjoyed it quite a bit, but it was light on tension and suspense. Considering the amazing atmosphere the author created in this book with the house and the swamp, this could easily have teen so much spookier than it was.  Because the author didn't really capitalize on the spookiness created in the book, I found the tension and the pace of the novel to be inconsistent and I just wasn't as invested in what happened to the characters as I could have been otherwise.

 

First of all, I do have to commend the author for the setting of the story as it certainly put a nice twist on the usual haunted house versions of books I have read.  Body horror is one of those things that does get to me, and this swamp thing was really spooky; I have an active imagination and I could think of all sorts of things that might live in such an environment. The house is also quite spooky and I enjoyed the moments as they were searching through the house looking for things that were useful to them. 

 

I did enjoy the characters in this book and thought the banter was fun, but overall I didn't feel like they were fully developed. Yes, I got their main motivation was to become famous singers, and you could pretty much see where the story line was going from that motivation (and I'm not really giving away anything by mentioning this), but there were other things going on between them as well, and that felt more superficial. The diversity wasn't really explored, and their personal relationships felt superficial at best; considering the intense issues going on between these characters, the one-dimensional character development didn't give me a chance to really connect with any of them as I felt like I was an outsider looking in. It also made it really easy to figure out what was happening with one of the characters as well.

 

I did think the plot for the first half of the book was far more interesting, but thought the build up of suspense didn't continue in the second half in the same way. The resolution of the story was predictable and didn't quite seem to fit with the rest of the story, partly because the character and plot development was a bit shallow. 

 

Verdict

The Devouring Light was still a fun book to read and I definitely enjoyed the spooky atmosphere of the swamp and the house.  The first half of the book had a lot of what I enjoy in horror novels and I didn't really know what was going on, and the author did make use of found footage in order explain some of what happened in the past, something I enjoyed quite a bit.  However, the overall character development was weak, and the plot was a bit predictable, not really capitalizing on the atmosphere that was created to really build up the suspense for a cracker ending.  If you are looking for a lighter horror read however, then this one just might be for you.