UNUSUAL PREMISE, COULDN'T STOP LISTENING

What did you love best about Kill Creek?

Four horror-story best-selling authors are offered a proposal they'd rather refuse: meeting at an obscure 'most haunted house' - for an interview. Dangled as bait: an absurd paycheck for a few day's travel, and the possible propulsion to world fame and money...mega-millions in book sales. But there was a twist: The interview would be 'live' - streamed as it happened to millions of people world-wide, by the billionaire owner of the internet media's prime trend-maker "WriteWire".

Three men and a woman are invited to the interview, then learn this will be a 'group interview' - a vying for 'best author to be promoted'. All four write 'horror' as differently as they appear: Sam, lean and writer-blocked, whose novels twist ordinary days into terror, while his own horrific past keeps flashing back - Daniel, a Christian doughboy who scares teens with philosophic endings - T.C. Moore, a hard Gothic diva whose novel covers of sex, blood and perversity are horrifying in themselves, especially when written by a woman - and the impeccable Sebastian Cole, the most prolific of the authors, whose prolific classic British horror had engaged fans who liked to 'think'.

Thoughtfully written with partial 'reveals' of each character's secrets, nudged along with dark references that slip into your subconscious, the book twists from the expected 'Ten Little Indians" format into that of an UN-haunted house - an infuriating joke made at the four writers' expense. Then it twists once again, and the real darkness creeps back in as the real story of 'the house' is revealed.

My professor in 'creative writing' used to tell me 'how to create a plot': "See that statue out there?", he'd say. "Turn it upside down, and write about what you discover." Always practical, I'd think in terms of bronze, concrete, steel, even the earth and the grass roots beneath it. "Nope", he'd grin, as he sucked on his pipe. "Try again, and use your imagination this time."

Scott Thomas' superb writing flips that statue multiple times, and with each landing , another plausability skews the story down an increasing, frightening scenario. Narration by Bernard Clark is 'right on' as he nails accents from the Midwest to the Eastern Europe. This is one of the VERY, VERY FEW novels that I will probably read again. I urge you to read it also!

190 people found this helpful

Great book that had me wanting more.

I️ am a true horror fan and not easily scared, but this book had me looking in the back seat of my car while driving back and fourth from Utah to Montana. Scott Thomas did a great job telling a well put together story by providing enough detail on that long trail to the end without over doing it.

89 people found this helpful

This book has all kinds of things going for it

This book has all kinds of things going for it but my absolute favourite was the characters - they're all incredibly complex and well written. They're all flawed individuals (as real-life human beings often are) and the ways they interact with each other is so interesting to listen to.

Thomas clearly understands that true horror needs strong characters to really creep you out, which is something this book did over and over again. Not only did he deliver creepy haunted house horror, but he also delivered on personal horrors like dementia and losing a child.

When a group of horror writers is assembled for a media stunt at a haunted house, none of them knows what to expect but they're the perfect people to analyse the strange goings-on as they occur. They know their craft better than anyone, but they're also skeptical and keen to discuss ideas. Listening to a book about authors discussing writer's block and the nature of writing is always fun, you know that the author puts a lot of themselves into this part of the book and it gives you an insight into what makes them tick.
The book was thought-provoking and scary, a perfect read for fans of the horror genre - it's a breath of fresh air in the haunted house niche where everything can get a little samey.

Bernard Setaro Clark absolutely nailed the performance of this emotionally charged novel, from heartwrenching screams to Irish accents, I was impressed. He brought a bunch of very different characters to life and gave the book a whole new dimension to enjoy. Beware though, this is a helluva long audiobook and very intense so I did feel the need to split it up over a few weeks.

Audiobook was purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.

[If this review helped, please press YES. Thanks!]

64 people found this helpful

Not what I expected, in a disappointing way

While I loved the voice of the narrator, that’s about the only good thing I can give this. I bought this because I thought I was going to get an edgy, subversive take on the haunted house story. And maybe that’s how the idea started but it certainly doesn’t finish.

There are four horror writers and one super horror fan, yet not a single one can tell where the story goes. You’d think there’d be some kind of Scream-esque meta storytelling going on. Each one acts like they’ve never even come across a haunting or evil spirit, I know they haven’t in actuality but it makes no sense for them to even try to guess. The choices they make are so formulaic and that’s the problem. I wanted something to shake up the formula. I wanted characters who could predict an outcome and then be subverted, not just go along for the ride.

It’s not a badly written story but it’s still a lackluster one. The scares don’t come from a psychological level, mostly degrading into possessions and blood. I wanted to be scared to pick up a book or scared to turn a corner in my own house, instead I’m wondering if the thing behind my closet door is a button up shirt or the bogeyman🙄

I’m tired of writers believing that horror and ghosts simply come from the grotesque. There are so many ways to make a house scary. A wonderful example is Mark Z Danielewski’s “House of Leaves,” which takes the primitive fear of “what’s waiting around the corner?” and plunged into it. Houses have so many unknown places to explore, unlike the outside it’s a contained area with many rooms and places locked away behind walls, doors and uncertainty. The house in this story just feels like a dragon for our heroes to fight. Not that it’s bad to personify things like that, but he could have gone so much farther with it by dumping the idea of ghosts earlier on.

All-in-all, if you like a haunted house story, I’d put this low on your list.

102 people found this helpful

Starts out pretty good, then goes downhill

What starts out as a psychological thriller, turns into a typical 'slasher' story in the second half of the book. I listened intently to the first part which was interesting and would keep you on the edge of your seat by scaring your mind. The second half however, turns into a bloodbath as ***POTENTIAL SPOILERS*** people start being systematically killed which is described in great detail.
I did more fast forwarding in the second half of the book than I think I've ever done w/ any book. Several rounds of skipping would be required to get past the detailed ways the people were dying.
First half of the book: 3.5 to 4 stars.
Second half of the book: 2 stars max.

66 people found this helpful

Horror fiction about horror fiction

A horror novel about horror fiction is an interesting idea and Kill Creek is a love letter to the genre. Unfortunately, I didn't think the book delivered on it's ambitions. It's entertaining, even genuinely exciting, at times but it falls too often into genre cliches and because it wears it's influences on it's sleeve, it's impossible not compare it to the work of the horror greats it celebrates. At it's core, it's a haunted house novel but I didn't think it had the creepy, literary atmosphere of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House or the visceral scares of Richard Matheson's Hell House. I wanted to like it but it just didn't work for me.

7 people found this helpful

The author swallowed a simile thesaurus!

Struggled to finish. Not worth the price I paid for sure. pass on this one unless it is free.

10 people found this helpful

Not great

I would compare this book to a B-horror movie on Netflix, you’ll put it on, loose interest, yet keep it going because you invested so much time in it already. I have a couple hundred Audible books in my collection, I listen to many a second or third time, this will be discarded and never brought back.

37 people found this helpful

Largely a fun book, but drags...

It almost feels like territory we've all covered before. Ending twist was not surprising at all. Lost a star for the last three or so chapters.

20 people found this helpful

A Bit Different, Not Too Good

The narrator was okay. There were points at which I thought he was overacting a bit, but he did his best with the story, and he certainly didn't take anything away from it.

The story itself was a let-down for me. Horror is extremely subjective--what I find scary is not necessarily what someone else finds scary. I love supernatural horror, but I am really not a fan of excessive gore. I don't find it scary--mostly it's just nauseating. And, to be honest, a little boring; there are only so many ways you can describe bones breaking and blood splattering.

Kill Creek, while it does fall under the category of supernatural horror, relies heavily on gore for its scares, and that just really doesn't work for me. The horror in this book that is not just gore is fairly formulaic and unoriginal. The nature of the haunting is different--this was the author's attempt at creating something unique--but it ultimately fails as the plot eventually descends into a blood bath.

On top of this, the book was just not very well written. This is one of those authors who doesn't write female characters well--just about every important female character in this book (there aren't many in the present action) are busy boobing boobily. Seriously, you could make a decent drinking game out of how many times the author describes a character's breasts. And Thomas's idea of an "edgy" woman is one who has a bad attitude and talks frankly about sex. (You could also make a decent drinking game out of how often something gets compared to sex in this book).

There are metaphors that don't quite work, and lots of unnecessary detail--at one point, the author takes great care to describe the order in which the characters enter a room. Why? It has no bearing on anything. The author seems to be trying at several points to make his writing as flowery as possible, but he fails at providing meaningful descriptive imagery most of the time.

Another reviewer compared this book to Burnt Offerings, and I think that's an accurate comparison. I didn't like that book either. This book may work for some people, but it *really* didn't work for me.

8 people found this helpful