I should start that I don’t care anything about the ‘modern’ versus ‘traditional’ Catholic debate the novel explores. Even a simpleton like me (when it comes to religion anyway!) can get a thrill out of this one.
Here’s the plot:Devil’s Island revolves around a likeable layabout, Andrew, inadvertently becoming involved in the bizarre death of one of London’s most notorious gangsters. Consumed by guilt and a sense that he is wasting his life, Andrew makes his way to a small volcanic Caribbean island famous for having a hotel on it that offers the latest in celebrity worship lust. The hotel is so exclusive that you have to be invited there and an invitation is the best possible accolade that the person visiting has arrived.
Craig, a banker on the verge of failure and a total wimp, acquires an invitation to the island by accident. He and his fiancé set off to discover a world of opulence that cannot be real. While Craig is dazzled by his island surroundings, Andrew stumbles across an old priest who shows him how the volcano is a portal into hell itself and the hotel a means of trapping the powerful, rich and famous into sacrificing themselves for pure pleasure and losing their souls in the process. Andrew discovers that the portal into hell exploits the local population in ways so foul and unbelievable that he immediately sides with the priest. Somehow he has the feeling that he is being haunted by the dead gangster.
Craig and his fiancé see through the façade and suffer the consequences as a result. She is possessed when she won’t yield and he – by now tormented by long dead images of those people that made him an anxious mess- flees into the forest, straight into the arms of the priest and Andrew. The scene is set for a final battle between the forces of good and evil on the island when the priest decides that he must perform a difficult exorcism which ultimately kills him. Andrew is forced to descend into hell in order to confront the evil.
The characterization is very good although I would have preferred a bit more detail on the various guests in the hotel… Maybe it would have been more entertaining (although De Sales probably thought about it!) if the guests could have resembled real celebrities a lot closer. The plot is fast moving and entertaining, if a little incredible. I recommend it wholeheartedly!
Max Eldrich
Although worth reading in nearly every way, I have some criticisms of the book that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of it. Why does the language need to be so vulgar in parts? I know that the development of the characters might need them to speak as they would in real life but, honestly! Enough can become enough after a short while, the same for the violence! Do we really need blow-by-blow accounts on what a human body can stand and then some? I’m not really sure we do. In terms of entertainment, anything wrong with the book is quickly forgotten. It’s as if Tarrantino were teaching catechism at the gates of hell and, the bad guys had all of the powers he needed to make the plot even more engrossing. Try and put the book down once you start. Even the clichéd bits, like with the zombies on the island somehow hold together and add to the general storyline.
Jennifer Taurer