Rickey Fayne’s The Devil Three Times is a stirring, genre-defying debut that weaves horror, magical realism, fantasy, and historical fiction into a rich tapestry of Black ancestral legacy, spirituality, and survival. This novel is not just a story—it’s an incantation, echoing the oral traditions and theological tensions that have rippled across generations of the Black diaspora. With uncanny authority, Fayne crafts a narrative that confronts sin, salvation, and systemic violence with blistering honesty and lyrical grace.
Spanning over eight generations in West Tennessee, The Devil Three Times begins in the bowels of a slave ship and extends its roots through Reconstruction, the Great Migration, and beyond, all through the throughline of one infernal presence: the Devil himself. But this isn’t the horned caricature of Sunday school sermons—Fayne’s Devil is complex, wounded, and yearning for redemption, just like the mortals he shadows.
The Plot: A Pact Etched in Blood and Time
The novel opens with Yetunde, a young African woman on a slave ship bound for the Americas. Her prayers are met not by God but by the Devil, who offers her a chilling salvation in exchange for an eternal bargain. This deal becomes the crucible through which her lineage is tested. From conjure women and passing sons to freedom fighters and haunted preachers, each generation of Yetunde’s descendants wrestles with darkness—internal and external—as the Devil returns during pivotal moments, offering assistance or temptation.
But the question lingers: is he saving them, or using them to save himself?
Characters: Vessels of Struggle and Spirit
One of the most breathtaking aspects of this novel is its panoramic yet deeply intimate character studies. Rather than a single protagonist, the book follows a lineage, and each descendant offers a fresh lens through which to examine trauma, legacy, and resilience.
Key Figures Across Generations:
- Yetunde: The origin, the root, the one who made the deal. Her strength and sacrifice echo throughout the novel.
- Lucille: A conjure woman with ancestral memory and power.
- Asa: A son passing as white, torn between identities and inheritances.
- Louis and Virgil: Brothers whose conflict mirrors the biblical Cain and Abel.
- Cassandra: A woman gifted with communion with the dead, embodying both prophecy and burden.
- James and Porter: Modern descendants grappling with memory, grief, and survival in a world still shadowed by history.
Fayne does not simply write characters—he resurrects them. Each feels fully lived, fully scarred, and fully seen. The Devil himself is the most fascinating of all—a being not of pure evil, but of longing, fallibility, and heartbreak.
Themes: Where Myth Meets Memory
This is a novel about inheritance, but not of wealth or land. Instead, it explores the inheritance of trauma, spiritual gifts, and unspeakable strength.
Core Themes Explored:
- Black Ancestry and Diaspora Identity: Fayne roots the story in African cosmology and Christianity, often juxtaposing the two in ways that critique colonized faith and reclaim spiritual agency.
- The Devil as a Moral Mirror: The Devil is not just an antagonist; he’s a reflection of divine neglect, asking the hard questions: Where is God when the world burns?
- Historical Cycles of Violence: From chattel slavery to Jim Crow to modern racial injustice, each generation’s pain feels tragically cyclical, and intentionally so.
- Spiritual Bargains and Redemption: Each character’s interaction with the Devil challenges ideas of free will, divine purpose, and moral ambiguity.
- Love and Sacrifice: Familial love is central—maternal sacrifice, sibling bonds, and generational protection fuel the plot more than any infernal deal.
Narrative Structure: Nonlinear, Polyphonic, Mythic
Divided into four parts—Paradise Lost, Sins of the Father, Troubled Water, and All God’s Children Got Wings—the novel’s structure mimics a sacred text or oral epic. Each chapter offers a snapshot into the life of a different descendant, giving the story a mythic quality. The Devil appears in each, a spectral continuity threading their fates together.
This fragmented, multigenerational storytelling might be challenging for readers seeking linear plots, but Fayne rewards patience with cumulative emotional power.
Writing Style: Prophetic, Poetic, Profound
Fayne’s prose is where this novel becomes truly unforgettable. He writes in a voice that marries the colloquial with the theological, the historical with the lyrical. One hears echoes of Black southern vernacular, gospel cadences, and biblical gravity throughout.
Examples of stylistic mastery:
- The Devil speaks in riddles, his language steeped in folk wisdom and ancient grievance.
- Each generation’s voice is distinct, honoring the oral tradition of storytelling.
- Scenes move fluidly between the earthly and the spiritual without losing grounding.
His sentences are long and looping like scripture, filled with metaphor and rhythm that demand to be read aloud. The writing is intentionally performative—it sings, it moans, it mourns.
Highlights and Literary Excellence
1. The Devil’s Evolution
Unlike traditional portrayals, Fayne’s Devil is tragic, even sympathetic. His desire to return to heaven parallels humanity’s desire for dignity and peace.
2. Historical and Theological Interplay
The novel engages deeply with Black theology, not just criticizing Christianity’s role in oppression but also reclaiming its mystical, liberatory roots.
3. Emotional and Spiritual Resonance
Few novels are brave enough to ask: What if the Devil is the only one listening? Fayne dares, and it pays off.
4. Magical Realism Done Right
The supernatural elements—ghosts, prophetic visions, devilish visitations—are seamlessly integrated into real historical contexts, elevating the stakes rather than distracting from them.
Where It Falters (Just a Bit)
Despite its brilliance, The Devil Three Times isn’t without flaws.
- Structural Density: The non-linear timeline and constant shift in perspective, while thematically intentional, can overwhelm. Some readers may struggle to track lineage or emotional continuity.
- Pacing Issues: Certain segments, particularly in Book II, slow the narrative momentum, dwelling perhaps too long on lesser-impact characters.
- Abstract Ending Threads: While much is resolved spiritually, some character arcs—especially in the final chapters—feel more symbolically concluded than narratively tied up.
These are minor quibbles, outweighed by the book’s thematic richness and literary ambition.
Similar Books and Influences
Fans of the following works will find much to admire:
- Beloved by Toni Morrison – for the blend of historical horror and ancestral haunting.
- The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates – for its mythic take on slavery and memory.
- Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark – for fantasy/horror grounded in Black resistance.
- The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr. – for its poetic prose and spiritual tension.
While this is Rickey Fayne’s debut novel, it bears the gravitas and literary precision of an author at the height of their craft. If this is where Fayne begins, the future of African American speculative fiction is in powerful hands.
Final Verdict: A New American Canonical Voice
The Devil Three Times is a rare, radical, and redemptive debut. It dares to ask not only what is lost through generational trauma but what can be gained through remembrance, resistance, and the reclamation of spiritual narrative. It stands as a challenge to sanitized histories and hollow faith, offering instead a burning bush of truth and myth.
This book is not just read—it is felt. It’s meant to be discussed, dissected, and passed on, like a sermon echoing long after the last hymn has faded.
