Bryan Smith’s KAYLA AND THE DEVIL

Posted on by Jonathan Janz

Guts and honesty. Those are Bryan Smith’s main writing tools. I see reviews from time to time that wail and remonstrate about sex, profanity, and violence in a book, and if those put you off, by all means avoid this one. Because the sex, profanity, and violence are there, and Smith doesn’t apologize for them.

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Nor does Kayla, his protagonist, apologize for who she is. At least in the beginning. She’s an incredibly unique creation, and though she can be abrasive, selfish, and frustrating, she’s also sharply drawn and utterly realistic.

I mentioned guts and honesty earlier, and though I stand by those claims about Smith, I feel I’ve undersold his writing, which is immaculate. As a fellow author, this is the kind of writing that motivates me to do better, to not settle, to push my limits, and to mine the depths of my abilities.

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KAYLA AND THE DEVIL is a five-star read. Smith deserves every compliment he gets and is one of the best writers of dark fiction working today. You can check it out here.

One thought on “Bryan Smith’s KAYLA AND THE DEVIL”

  1. Pingback: Scares That Care, Part Three: Bryan Smith and Tom Monteleone | Jonathan Janz

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Jonathan Janz grew up between a dark forest and a graveyard, and in a way, that explains everything. Brian Keene named his debut novel The Sorrows “the best horror novel of 2012”. The Library Journal deemed his follow-up, House of Skin, “reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Peter Straub’s Ghost Story.” Samhain Horror will also publish his third novel, The Darkest Lullaby, in April. Savage Species will be his fourth full-length work. Look for his fifth novel, a vampire western called Dust Devils, in early 2014. He has also written three novellas (The Clearing of Travis Coble, Old Order, and Witching Hour Theatre) and several short stories. His primary interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children, and though he realizes that every author’s wife and children are wonderful and amazing, in this case the cliché happens to be true. You can learn more about Jonathan at www.jonathanjanz.com. You can also find him on Facebook, via @jonathanjanz on Twitter, or on his Goodreads and Amazon author pages.