Two timelines - 1982 and 2008, a secret from the past coming back up, New York City and surroundings - this should have been excellent. I think if it had gone full thriller it would have been more successful but the literary fiction lens just made it all a bit too confusing for me. I would say it's me rather than the book though!

There's something really unsettling about this book that stayed with me long after I stopped reading. I could feel it getting under my skin. It feels like seeing something bad about to happen and leaning back or bracing for the impact. I really enjoyed Grist Mill Road.

In 1982 I was a one year old baby. In 1982, three teenagers were bound together by a terrible crime. Matthew and Patrick (Patch) are two boys that hung out a lot. Their usual spot in the mountain where they play around with a BB gun. Only that day, the day that Hannah is with them, the game becomes beyond they could ever imagine. Hannah is tied to a tree. She is being shot with the BB gun by Matthew. When the shots are over, the boys think she might be dead, but it turns out she is not. But she has lost her eye. And there is nothing she could do to recover this situation.

Twenty six years later Patrick and Hannah are married. She is now a crime reporter working for a New York tabloid and is also writing a true crime book, based on her experience in the Grist Mill Road that she used to live on. All this time, the couple was happy together, happy to have found each other and happy to live somewhere away from the horror that their lives went through.

The story starts with the ugly scene of that crime and it unfolds through Patrick’s memories of the past, as he might be sharing them with his therapist, or in a kind of personal journal. His narrative moves between present and past and at some point we get to see also Hannah’s point of view as well as Matthew’s. There are so many differences in those. So many different hidden points that led to that day, that one could not imagine. There is no justification for what Matthew did. There is however a very good view of what lead to each and every one’s action before, during and after that day. One could never thought what might lie beneath the surface.

Full of secrets and misunderstandings, the story that the reader actually gets in the end is very disturbing. After having known all that have happened in the past and all those that are undergoing in the present, the reader find themselves in an awkward position. So many deeds that have gone unpunished. So many unkind acts that destroyed so many lives. What used to be the norm is nowadays criticized and if it was happening today, in a more civilized town or city, most of those actions would have not have happened. Or maybe it would all go like this all over again.

The thing is that people are so occupied with what others think of them. They need to make sure that any ugly thing that may happen to them, doesn’t get out. Because people are mean. Children can be really mean and they can hurt other people’s feelings without even realizing the bad they are doing. And this is only part of the problem. Then there is alcoholism, domestic abuse, poverty, drug addiction, bending the law for certain people, targeting people with specific sexual orientation, fitting in and don’t stand out. All would be better if our society were simpler.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. The views expressed are my personal and honest opinion.

This is a hard book for me to review as there were parts of it I loved, and other parts that kind of lost me. It is a dark, complex story with secrets, lies, false memories, not very nice characters and some disturbing scenes. The opening will grab you by the throat with its dark, disturbing event featuring the three main characters of the story. Hannah, Patrick, aka Patch, and Matthew are 12 and 13 years old when it happens and it will affect the rest of their lives. Hannah is seriously injured by Matthew, while Patch looks on and does nothing. Years later when they meet again, Patch and Hannah get married. What will happen when Matthew finds his way back into their lives.

Grist Mill Road is told in two timelines. The first is the early 80's surrounding the summer of the crime and 2008, when they are now in their late 40's and they meet up again. Patch is the main narrator, but Hannah and Matthew each get an opportunity to tell their story as well. Who is telling the truth? Who is remembering the events correctly? What don't we know? Christopher J. Yates has written a highly descriptive story where you can see and feel the town, the woods and the characters. Unfortunately, this also sometimes bogged down the story for me. With the added perspective of Matthew, the events all come together, which was great, but the ending left me a bit confused. Overall, it was a decent story and I am glad I read it, but it was not as good as I had anticipated from the start of the story.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during that 2nd attempt, I have only managed to make it halfway through so I'd rather stop here and state that this book just wasn't for me.

This book fell flat for me. I would rate it at 3 1/2 stars. The narrative went from past to present time, told from three different perspectives. I thought the book was slow in the beginning, with the best part being in the middle of the book. The ending was very deescalating for me. The ending was told in a rushed, very confusing manner. There was a chapter at the very end that felt completely unnecessary. This was a mediocre thriller at best.

I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this at the moment. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!

I didn't really know what to expect when I got this book for a review I wasn't sold on it to be honest. I put off reading it for awhile, but I started seeing this book everywhere, it seemed. So on I whim I finally picked it up and once I did I couldn't put it down. Grist Mill Road was a very dark twisted book. It is a story where no ones version of the story is actually the whole story. Grist Mill Road has so many different pieces that in the end fit together so perfectly into a great thriller! Grist Mill Road is the definition of a Great Thriller. His character development paints such a vivid picture that you get lost in the story.  Christopher J. Yates is someone I didn't know about before this book and I wish I hadn't taken so long to read it. Yates is definitely on my radar now and I will be looking into more books from him and watching for his name in the future.

This one just hit the middle of the road for me. The plot was interesting enough to keep me engaged, but not enough to inspire the "I can't put this down feeling." While I liked the different view points from the main characters, and trying to put together what really happened, I wasn't a fan of the third person narrative sections. Those sections felt incredibly boring and added nothing to the story.

Overall it was fine, but nothing I would recommend.


Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

II would like to thank the publisher, MacMillan -Picador and Netgalle for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

At first, I did not quite know what to make of this book as it starts with the gruesome shooting of a young girl by her peers.

As i moved further into the book, I got more interested in this dark, twisted thriller, in which the reader is kept guessing what the real truth is.

At times I found the storyline a bit over the top. But all in all a decent read.

very unfortunate.

I didn't really know what to expect when I got this book for a review I wasn't sold on it to be honest. I put off reading it for awhile, but I started seeing this book everywhere, it seemed. So on I whim I finally picked it up and once I did I couldn't put it down. Grist Mill Road was a very dark twisted book. It is a story where no ones version of the story is actually the whole story. Grist Mill Road has so many different pieces that in the end fit together so perfectly into a great thriller! Grist Mill Road is the definition of a Great Thriller. His character development paints such a vivid picture that you get lost in the story.  Christopher J. Yates is someone I didn't know about before this book and I wish I hadn't taken so long to read it. Yates is definitely on my radar now and I will be looking into more books from him and watching for his name in the future.

After having enjoyed Black Chalk immensely, I was looking forward to reading this new book by Christopher Yates. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this one at all. I found the beginning disturbing and pushed on to see what led up to the shooting of a young girl. The rest of the book was painfully slow and not very interesting.

Catching up on the books I read during my long hiatus, I come back to Grist Mill Road, by Christopher J. Yates.


I've been on a long run of thrillers lately--I don't know why, maybe because they're kind of fluffy? You get a lot of tension without using up a lot of brainpower. The fantasy and sci fi that I enjoy in generally pretty intense in world building and when they're dark, it just seems more significant, somehow.


So: thrillers, suspense, murder. I got Grist Mill Road from Netgalley for review, because a blogger with dark tastes liked it a lot. She and I don't always agree, but this one was good. It takes advantage of multiple points of view to tell a twisty story that keeps you guessing without a lot of surprise revelations--just a slow unfolding of perspective.


At the beginning of the book, our narrator is Patrick, looking back on his childhood and telling the story of his friendship with a boy named Matthew--a little older, a lot rougher, getting up to some dangerous games. A girl named Hannah comes into their lives, and eventually a Big Awful happens.


Later in the book, we get more perspectives--we get information from Hannah and even from Matthew, and we learn about their lives now, years along, as well as more aspects to what happened back then. We learn where the cracks are in their lives, and we learn more and more about that horrible day.


My favorite part about this book is the ambiguity that it leaves you with. It starts with a clear story, the kind of story you usually get in a narrative. And then it muddies the water more and more without changing the facts, until you can't see who could have done what to change things.


Less fluffy (really, is that the word I want?) than what I'm usually going for in my suspense, but worth it, because the twists really illuminate a lot about how the world is. What more does anyone want in their books?

The plot and characters just didn't grab me, sorry! I had a lot of high hopes from the description but it didn't measure up.

I really liked the book. The characters were realistic. The novel was well plotted and had a good pace

Though I liked the book, I made the decision at the time I finished not to review it on my site. Maybe in the future I will include it in a book list post or another article.

Not sure how I missed reviewing this book, which was one of my favorite January reads.

While I love psychological thrillers with multiple points of view, not all of those are created equal. This one takes place in New York State not too far from NYC and involves three young teens who are (directly and indirectly) involved in an act of cruelty that has lasting effects and taints all of their lives forever.

The novel is divided into three parts, each giving a voice to one of the main characters - Patch, Hannah, and Matthew in turn. Each section alternates between the past and the present and in this way details of the crime and its aftermath are revealed layer by layer, each adding depth to the story. The characters are well realized, particularly Matthew and as is generally the case with multi focal stories, the truth is not what it initially appears to be. Not entirely, anyway.

I thought Mr Yates was able to masterfully handle both story and characters and was able to deliver a thriller that is original and memorable. Seven months later, I am still able to recall details and remember the plot in its entirety. I have already purchased the book for a gift as well as his debut novel Black Chalk, which I plan to read while I wait in anticipation of his next book. My library and local bookstore have also purchased both books.

Many thanks to Macmillan-Picador and NetGalley for providing a review copy of this book, which has already been reviewed on Goodreads and Amazon and shared to my online reading groups!

I received an advanced copy of this book through Netgalley. This book had me from the very beginning. I love that it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I would highly recommend this book to my fellow readers. Thank you for the chance to review this book!!!!

Over 2 decades ago, Matthew, Patrick and Hannah are bound by a gory secret. Some unexpected event leads to Hannah losing one of her eye. Time seems to bring the three friends face to face once again. Justice seems to finally make it's way this time around. .
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This is a rough brief of what the book is about. Supposed to be a thriller, this book was barely that. Said from three different perspectives, the book takes one back and forth in the lives of the three protagonists and a hideous crime that binds them together.
There are definitely disturbing events, and I read on for the moment when the book will deliver the punch. Only, it failed to. There are elaborate details about different things that the lead characters enjoy- things like cooking, study of rocks, history of the town they are from. It was interesting to read these things, but that's not why I read the book- it still lacked the thriller element.
There were accounts from the childhood of the three characters, some more tragic than the others- heartwarming events. But again, that's not what I expected- still lacked the pace.
Overall, I was really excited to be reading it- as the blurb said that there was something more devastating to be expected. But not quite so. It just kinda fell flat for me. Yes, there was blood and gory details- but somehow it wasn't as impactful for me. It just did not make the cut. I kept on reading hoping that the characters will now come out in their element, there will now be a blast of suspense- but boy, was I disappointed.. Somehow, perhaps the blurb built it up a bit too much and the book did not at all live up to the expectations I had in my mind based on it.
It does show childhood trauma and the effects of name calling on young minds- so if that's something you would enjoy reading about- pick this one. Otherwise, really not a great read this one.

I did like this book although it was very gruesome. It definitely started out with a bang but felt it was a bit slow in the middle and the ending was anticlimactic for me. I would rate this book a 3.