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A review by spookshow
The Chill by Scott Carson
2.0
You can find this review and all my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com
In the ancient forests of far upstate New York, there lies a damn - The Chilewaukee. Early in the 20th Century, when this damn was formed, and town was forfeited. Wiped out for the greater good, to bring water to the millions of people living downstate. In the still waters of the damn, doesn't just lie a forgotten village, but something more. An old vengeance that has been patiently waiting for just the right conditions to strike. Now, with a deluge of rain lashing the town that lies in the shadow of The Chilewaukee, an inspector appears. Bringing with him knowledge of the dam's neglect and the dangers that brings with it. When he witnesses something inexplicable, things are set in motion that may not be able to be stopped. A dark prophecy is getting ready to be fulfilled, and if it is, the death toll will be huge...
I was in a bit of a reading slump when I picked this one up. I had it sitting on my kindle for a bit, and I was just really in the mood for something horror that would take my mind off the crap happening in the real world for a while. I was really looking forward to it as well. When I first started it, I'll admit, I wasn't sure if I'd like it. The story began in a way that just wasn't what I was expecting, and it didn't make a whole lot of sense. I realise now that that was probably the point, and everything does come full circle and make sense once you get further into the book. I just don't feel that this was the best point to start the story as, for me, it really threw me, and I wasn't sure if I even wanted to read past the start, I stuck with it though, because I like to give books a chance to get going, this one did pick up but then it fell back down into a hole again.
I was holding out high hopes for this one due to the endorsements from some prolific authors. My hopes weren't unreachably high, but I feel like this did end up making me feel more let down than I may have otherwise been had these endorsements not been there. I'll start with the characters. There are a few different ones that the story follows, most notably those of: The Sheriff's Son who has a checkered past and substance abuse issues; A tunnel worker from Downstate New York somewhere; and the tunnel diggers daughter who lives in the town near the dam - she's also some kind of 'police' type person for the water ways/dam setup. I did like these characters, and I did enjoy their stories, but I feel like we didn't really get an in-depth look at them. While they were decently written and fleshed out, I just feel like I would have enjoyed them more if they had a bit more dimension to them and we got to explore the different things about them a bit deeper. Don't get me wrong, we did get to learn about them and dive into their pasts a bit and that was great, I just feel like we were still only skimming the top of the water so to speak. The character of the dam inspector was an interesting and unsettling one and I did enjoy his involvement.
The story itself started out a bit odd, as mentioned above, but soon picked up a bit for me once we got into the present day and started to learn a bit more about the history of the dam and how it came to be. I loved the inclusion of the village people, and their prophecies and beliefs, it had a touch of a cult feeling and I loved that. I loved how deep Carson dove into the history of the story I feel like it really added so many layers to it. After a little while though, the pacing fell right through the floor and the story became incredibly repetitive. It felt like when a cd has a scratch and just keeps jumping over the same word. It felt slow, stagnant and like we weren't getting anywhere. For a huge portion of the middle chunk of the book, it just felt like we weren't getting anywhere, and it became boring for me. The pacing did pick up a little bit towards the last 20% of the book, but it honestly felt so anticlimactic once I reached the end. I continued reading, after considering DNFing this book several times, because I was really hoping that the slow movement was building up to something amazing...but it just...didn't. It just ended and I was like "Oh...okay". I was left feeling pretty unsatisfied.
There was a fantastic idea here and I feel like if the story had been trimmed down a bit and had the plot streamlined through the middle portion of the book more, it would have been a much more exhilarating read. I wanted more action and scares. I'll admit, there were a couple of scenes with the ghosts that did send a shiver down my spine, but for the most part the ghosts were bland, dull and just felt so not terrifying in the least. They were just kind of there, I think meant to add a bit of a chill and some atmosphere, but they came across more as wallflowers who had zero power to do anything at all, in turn making them not scary in the slightest.
All in all, while this wasn't the worst book that I've ever read, it did fall incredibly short for me. There was great promise and some really strong characters, but the story fizzled out into a whole lot of meh by the end, and I actually felt a little sad for sticking with it to the last page. I can do a slow burn horror, as long as it builds up to something amazing, and this one just didn't do it for me. I'll give this author another go, but I'll go in with my expectations set a little lower and hope that I will enjoy it so much more because of that.
In the ancient forests of far upstate New York, there lies a damn - The Chilewaukee. Early in the 20th Century, when this damn was formed, and town was forfeited. Wiped out for the greater good, to bring water to the millions of people living downstate. In the still waters of the damn, doesn't just lie a forgotten village, but something more. An old vengeance that has been patiently waiting for just the right conditions to strike. Now, with a deluge of rain lashing the town that lies in the shadow of The Chilewaukee, an inspector appears. Bringing with him knowledge of the dam's neglect and the dangers that brings with it. When he witnesses something inexplicable, things are set in motion that may not be able to be stopped. A dark prophecy is getting ready to be fulfilled, and if it is, the death toll will be huge...
I was in a bit of a reading slump when I picked this one up. I had it sitting on my kindle for a bit, and I was just really in the mood for something horror that would take my mind off the crap happening in the real world for a while. I was really looking forward to it as well. When I first started it, I'll admit, I wasn't sure if I'd like it. The story began in a way that just wasn't what I was expecting, and it didn't make a whole lot of sense. I realise now that that was probably the point, and everything does come full circle and make sense once you get further into the book. I just don't feel that this was the best point to start the story as, for me, it really threw me, and I wasn't sure if I even wanted to read past the start, I stuck with it though, because I like to give books a chance to get going, this one did pick up but then it fell back down into a hole again.
I was holding out high hopes for this one due to the endorsements from some prolific authors. My hopes weren't unreachably high, but I feel like this did end up making me feel more let down than I may have otherwise been had these endorsements not been there. I'll start with the characters. There are a few different ones that the story follows, most notably those of: The Sheriff's Son who has a checkered past and substance abuse issues; A tunnel worker from Downstate New York somewhere; and the tunnel diggers daughter who lives in the town near the dam - she's also some kind of 'police' type person for the water ways/dam setup. I did like these characters, and I did enjoy their stories, but I feel like we didn't really get an in-depth look at them. While they were decently written and fleshed out, I just feel like I would have enjoyed them more if they had a bit more dimension to them and we got to explore the different things about them a bit deeper. Don't get me wrong, we did get to learn about them and dive into their pasts a bit and that was great, I just feel like we were still only skimming the top of the water so to speak. The character of the dam inspector was an interesting and unsettling one and I did enjoy his involvement.
The story itself started out a bit odd, as mentioned above, but soon picked up a bit for me once we got into the present day and started to learn a bit more about the history of the dam and how it came to be. I loved the inclusion of the village people, and their prophecies and beliefs, it had a touch of a cult feeling and I loved that. I loved how deep Carson dove into the history of the story I feel like it really added so many layers to it. After a little while though, the pacing fell right through the floor and the story became incredibly repetitive. It felt like when a cd has a scratch and just keeps jumping over the same word. It felt slow, stagnant and like we weren't getting anywhere. For a huge portion of the middle chunk of the book, it just felt like we weren't getting anywhere, and it became boring for me. The pacing did pick up a little bit towards the last 20% of the book, but it honestly felt so anticlimactic once I reached the end. I continued reading, after considering DNFing this book several times, because I was really hoping that the slow movement was building up to something amazing...but it just...didn't. It just ended and I was like "Oh...okay". I was left feeling pretty unsatisfied.
There was a fantastic idea here and I feel like if the story had been trimmed down a bit and had the plot streamlined through the middle portion of the book more, it would have been a much more exhilarating read. I wanted more action and scares. I'll admit, there were a couple of scenes with the ghosts that did send a shiver down my spine, but for the most part the ghosts were bland, dull and just felt so not terrifying in the least. They were just kind of there, I think meant to add a bit of a chill and some atmosphere, but they came across more as wallflowers who had zero power to do anything at all, in turn making them not scary in the slightest.
All in all, while this wasn't the worst book that I've ever read, it did fall incredibly short for me. There was great promise and some really strong characters, but the story fizzled out into a whole lot of meh by the end, and I actually felt a little sad for sticking with it to the last page. I can do a slow burn horror, as long as it builds up to something amazing, and this one just didn't do it for me. I'll give this author another go, but I'll go in with my expectations set a little lower and hope that I will enjoy it so much more because of that.