gatomochalivre13's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
leighanneslit's review against another edition
5.0
Everyone loves a haunted house story, right?
For this being his debut novel, I was really surprised that I enjoyed this book so much. It could have easily gone into the standard haunted house tropes and called it a day, but I think it was written in a great voice with a certain freshness if that makes any sense at all.
The characters and the character dynamic was one of my favorite parts of the story. Take a group of modern horror novelists, each with a different subgenre and have them interview in a haunted house. Simple right? Well just when you think nothing is going to happen, things go off the rails.
I won't say anything else about the plot because I don't want to spoil anything of course, but the characters were great, the pacing was good, though it did have a few moments were it lulled. The one thing I didn't love was the use of ridiculously obvious foreshadowing at moments in the book. If you've ever read a thriller, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The kind that makes you roll your eyes.
But other than that, this was a great, creepy, read. If you're looking to read a haunted house story, I highly suggest picking this one up.
For this being his debut novel, I was really surprised that I enjoyed this book so much. It could have easily gone into the standard haunted house tropes and called it a day, but I think it was written in a great voice with a certain freshness if that makes any sense at all.
The characters and the character dynamic was one of my favorite parts of the story. Take a group of modern horror novelists, each with a different subgenre and have them interview in a haunted house. Simple right? Well just when you think nothing is going to happen, things go off the rails.
I won't say anything else about the plot because I don't want to spoil anything of course, but the characters were great, the pacing was good, though it did have a few moments were it lulled. The one thing I didn't love was the use of ridiculously obvious foreshadowing at moments in the book. If you've ever read a thriller, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The kind that makes you roll your eyes.
But other than that, this was a great, creepy, read. If you're looking to read a haunted house story, I highly suggest picking this one up.
catcurren's review
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
booktrovert_co's review against another edition
5.0
I'm not a big fan of slow burn books and this was exactly that BUT I loved it! The story had me hooked and wanting to know what came next the entire time.
thephantomtoll's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child death, Fatphobia, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Self harm, Violence, Murder, Hate crime, and Racism
Moderate: Dementia, Cancer, Infertility, and Car accident
egribben's review against another edition
4.0
This book did a number on me. I didn’t know what to expect when reading it so I went on a rollercoaster of feelings with the characters. It reminded me of IT when the characters are all adults and they are band together again to try and defeat this thing once and for all. Only instead of taking place years apart and the characters start off as kids, they are adults the whole time and six months have passed. The ending is beautifully depressing with a hint of one last twist that puts the puzzle perfectly together.
claudiastaggs's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
daveinyourface's review against another edition
5.0
One of the best horror novels I've read in sometime. A real page turner.
ericgaryanderson's review against another edition
5.0
I don't want to jinx Scott Thomas or anything, but as first novels go, Kill Creek is just terrific (in all senses). To call a writer a natural is to do a disservice to all the incredibly hard work that goes into conceiving, drafting, crafting, and believing in your work—but ST has all the horror moves down and works them skillfully. I'm keeping this writeup super vague to avoid spoilers, but I'll just say that this is one of the novels that seems to come to a close about halfway through . . . then gets reanimated in really interesting ways. (I guess I can say that there's something of a Conjuring situation here, where the Bad Things are both housebound and not. Anyhoo, this was great and I'm excited to see what ST comes up with next.