The devil all the time cover

The devil all the time

by Donald Ray Pollock

"Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There{u2019}s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can{u2019}t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrifi{u00AD}cial blood he pours on his prayer log. There{u2019}s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial killers, who troll America{u2019}s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There{u2019}s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte{u2019}s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right"--Jacket.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?