Reviews

The Chill by Scott Carson

spooky347's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

bookoffimreading's review

4.0

When Stephen King describes a book as ‘terrific’ you know it’s going to be good and all I can say is wow – what a story! I don’t normally read horror as I’m a bit of a scaredy cat but I thoroughly enjoyed this super creepy read
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The story is based around the Chilewaukee Reservoir ‘The Chill’ which was created when the village of Galesburg was burned and flooded a century ago to create fresh water for downstream New York City, which understandably left a huge amount of bad feeling among the residents who had to be moved on. In the present day many people have a bad feeling, the level of rainfall is unprecedented and trouble is brewing, but little do they know that supernatural forces are at work, just waiting for the perfect conditions to enable them to exact their long awaited revenge
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I thought this was such an original and intriguing story. The writing is fantastic, so intelligent and thoroughly well researched with a really cleverly weaved and convincing plot, considering it’s a ghost story. There were lots of different characters in the story, all brilliantly drawn, who I felt I got to know really well and cared about, but the most powerful character in this story is definitely the water within The Chill
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‘There was no force on earth so determined and patient as water’
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I loved the watery themes and the oppressive nature of the weather which along with a massive sense of foreboding created an incredibly ominous atmosphere throughout. The story really got into my head and I found myself thinking about it even when I wasn’t reading, which is definitely a sign of a good book
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I would highly recommend this, even if horror is not your usual genre, it was hugely intriguing, creepy and entertaining and I couldn’t finish it fast enough.

rusky_diamond's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

ioneen's review

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

blair_wolff's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

reddogjones's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I liked all the elements of this book - rain, dams, upstate New York setting, water tunnel workers, coast guard rescuers, ghosts.....it had great building blocks to the story. I loved the slow building dread, the hopping from character to character as we steadily came to see what the problem and mystery were, the strangeness of ghosts and hallucination. BUT..... something was missing, something in the writing that made it feel as if the story was not going quite as deep as it could go.  Also, I had a really hard time picturing the dam and tunnel systems and how it was connected, and what even was happening when disaster finally did hit and that led to a lot of confusion at the end which diminished my interest.

Oh how I would have LOVED to see a dam and tunnel diagram, that would have been soooooo cool and would have added a lot to the story.   Sometimes I think about what books would look like if they were written by Stephen King - this book would have been a lot longer and would have had so many more deep dives into history and character; it would have poured so much more detail into the history and mechanics of dams we probably would have seen and felt it all so much more powerfully. 

So, I liked this book but it felt a little surface to me. 

christine_renaud's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

decembermagpie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

fictionaladventures's review

• not interested, can’t retain any of the story

srskellington's review

I really wanted this one to work out for me so I pushed through, but it was too slow for my liking. I skimmed through the last pages so I knew how it ended but I ultimately dnf'ed it.