Received an arc of this book and was super excited! The chamber follows 6 divers deep down in the ocean working for a month. They can’t leave, and have to depend on others for survival, then they start dying one by one. This book started off with a bang and I was really enjoying it. At about the 70% point it was dragging on, and I did not care for the ending. Maybe I just didn’t understand it? This book left me with more questions than answers.

Content warning for vilification of mental illness: The POV character has intrusive thoughts and throughout the book it’s framed as something we should be afraid and suspicious of, how at any moment she could *gasp* act on those thoughts and kill all her coworkers. It’s pretty offensive!

I went in hoping for ‘life threatening problems, deep under the sea’, and instead it was people in a decompression chamber *on a boat* for 4 days, telling war/trauma stories to keep their mind off the whole ‘their coworker’s corpse is just Also Here for decompression’ thing. We only get one dive before the death that kicks everything off happens! Extremely little spooky ocean content, and extremely high amounts of “Imagine being in a small room...”

Overall, the slow pacing and repetitiveness kept me from really being immersed in the claustrophobia and paranoia, and the reveal/ending was very underwhelming.

(Also I don’t know if I missed something, but this is set in the early 2000’s, but it’s revealed so slowly and far in the book that it felt like it was supposed to be a twist. ????)

Yet another amazing book by Will Dean that I would recommend. Ellen is a saturation diver who goes to the depths of the oceans to help out. She is along with 5 other men in this tiny locked up chamber that has to be kept closed the entire time. If you're claustrophobic, this would not be ideal for you but highly suspicious acts are going on. What happens? Will Ellen be okay? Read to find out!

Thanks to Net Galley for an arc of this book. Six saturation divers go to the floor of the North Sea to make repairs on an oil drill. They are performing one of the most dangerous and deadly jobs in the world. They are in a very small chamber with barely room to move around. Ellen is the only female diver on board and has lots of experience. She is grateful to suit up and take a walk out on the bottom of the ocean just to escape that tight capsule they are living in for the next four months. After six hours she finally is taken back up to the vessel to find one of her companion divers dying on the floor. A claustrophobic read that will keep you guessing until the end. The Chamber by Will Dean comes out in August 2024. 3.75 stars

Six deep sea divers who do oil-related pipeline repairs on the seabed have settled in for their weeks-long assignment when one of the divers is found dead in his bunk. The divers, locked in the apparatus, cannot leave until the completion of a four day decompression period. When another diver also mysteriously dies, the remaining crew members are faced with the possibility that one of them is a killer. The Chamber is a claustrophobic, tension filled journey as the divers contend with their innermost fears, and the cramped and suddenly toxic chamber only heightens the drama. This is a slow-burn psychological thriller that is literally a locked-room scenario in the truest sense of the word. The author does a great job of placing the reader in the chamber with the divers by methodically describing the procedures the divers must follow, from the mundane to the heroic and everything in between, culminating in an unexpected finish. Well done! I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to preview The Chamber. I really liked this book. Very claustrophobic, suspenseful and great dialogue.
Deep sea diving is a subject I am unfamiliar with and Chambers educates the reader on this very difficult job for those who make a living doing it.
Six divers live is a small chamber to the bottom of the sea to extract oil from the ocean floor. All experienced- 5 means and one woman. Dean lets the female lead.Brooke narrate this tense and deadly story. Six divers go in the Chamber. How. Many will come out. Very good. 4 stars

Claustrophobic, distressing and psychologically unsettling, The Chamber is another gripping and fiercely intense thriller from the twisted mind of Will Dean. It will test your nerves, send your heart racing and increase your anxiety in a way only the most vivid and suspenseful books can do.

Six veteran saturation divers are confined in a hyperbaric chamber, where they manage the dangerous environment by working shifts and breathing helium, fully aware that rapid decompression could be fatal. Then their small fully contained world is rocked when one diver is discovered dead in his bunk. With the job now cancelled, they face four days of decompression before they can safely exit. When another diver dies, the pressure mounts, paranoia sets in, and tensions rise. With no answers as to what is happening to them and no way out, survival becomes their focal point while trying to keep suspicion and exhaustion at bay. And only by making it out alive will they be able to determine what really happened in the chamber.

The Chamber is a literal locked room mystery. Six individuals locked in a cramped chamber they cannot exit. Someone dies. Who did it and how? Is it someone on the inside and the others just missed it? Is it a member of the crew on the outside that is manipulating the food and supplies passed through to them? Is there something wrong with the environment that no one can pinpoint? Or is it a tragic accident?

Will Dean does a wonderful job of keeping readers guessing, throwing suspicion on every character throughout the story while ratcheting up the pressure as the clock slowly and painfully ticks downward to the time the hatch will be opened. You’ll question their sanity, their motives, their history and how that affects their actions. You’ll change your mind multiple times on who or what is responsible. And all the while you’ll be holding your breath, sweating the outcome and feeling the pressure the characters are under. Resulting in an enjoyably stressful reading experience.

I recently read The Last One by Will Dean and so I was really excited at receiving my first ARC for The Chamber. The premise sounded interesting and I love a good locked room mystery.

I hate to be critical or negative but I have to say that this book was not for me. I could tell that the author is either a very experienced diver or did A LOT of research into. The parts of the book that discussed the diving were very technical and I found myself lost at trying to figure out the logistics and terminology. There was a glossary at the beginning which terms and definitions as well as a picture of the chamber but I was still confused and didn’t want to have to constantly flip to the beginning to see what was going on.

The story itself was an interesting concept. Six divers are in this closed chamber and one by one they start dying and no one knows why. It started out pretty slow for me and I had a difficult time pushing through. I almost DNF’d the book a few times but I pushed through. It didn’t pick up for me until almost halfway through the book and then it slowed down again. There were only six divers but they had real names and nicknames and other than the main character I had a hard time keeping track of who was who.

The ending of the book was also frustrating. I reread it twice because I was confused and I still don’t know who the murderer is. I guess it could be one of those books that leaves it open to interpretation but I couldn’t tell if this was a deliberate act by the author or unintentionally vague. In either case it was frustrating.

All in all I personally did not like this book but someone who is into diving or very slow burns may enjoy it. I did really like Will Dean’s previous book so I would still read other works from him but this one is a no for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

🤿THE CHAMBER
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨✨/3.75
Genre: suspense

🤿 I learned ALOT while reading this book and now I am completely obsessed with learning more about #SaturationDiving. This is why I have always loved reading! Going places I’ve never been before, learning things about the world I never knew existed!!!

🤿Things I googled while reading this🤣:
1. Saturation Diving
2. Saturation Diving Documentary
3. How much do sat divers make
4. Burial at Sea


💬if being trapped in a small chamber at the level of the sea bed in the middle of The North Sea while bodies start piling up peeks your interest at all ✨you should grab this one! I do recommend a physical copy so you can go back and forth from the meat of your reading to the front where there is a glossary of terms and a pictorial diagram of the chamber. Also: I stopped at 10% and watched The Last Breath on @netflix to get my bearings on the subject matter. It helped a lot and I was invested after that. And I HIGHLY recommend that documentary even if you don’t read the book. It was really good! Cons to this read was the character development. With having to sort out and understand a new subject, the six or seven characters had real names AND nicknames making it hard to keep them separate in my head. I still think this could be a really great summer read!!

This story is about six divers in a hyperbaric chamber. The must decompress in order to survive getting back to the surface. However, like any great thriller, they are trapped and one of the divers is found dead. With no other place to go, they have to stay alive long enough to decompress from their dive and reach the surface. Intense and a bit claustrophobic, this novel was an absolute banger once again from Will Dean!!! I absolutely loved trying to figure out who was the killer and it was nerve wracking to have them figure it out before they were able to get free.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for this e-arc for review! After LOVING Will Dean's last book I was so pumped to receive The Chamber. The Chamber is a slow burn thriller following a group of saturation divers (you'll learn plenty what this means) as they are picked off one by one while completely cut off from the outside world. This book gets pretty technical, but Dean does a great job of making it accessible.

Ellen Brooke is an experienced saturation diver who arrives to the North Sea ready to complete her assignment of maintaining oil equipment on the sea floor. Five other divers enter the hyperbaric chamber with Ellen but how many will make it out alive? As the divers go “under pressure” and begin their work, one of the saturation divers is found dead in his bunk. Because rapid decompression would be fatal to those left alive (raspberry jam), the divers must wait four days for the chamber to safely decompress. Under these tense circumstances, four days seems like a lifetime. When another diver is discovered to be dead, tensions flare and the divers must decide who among them can be trusted.

This book was insanity and introduced me to a world that I had never even heard of. I am obsessed! On top of that, I learned so much about this very dangerous profession. It definitely takes guts! The story is told from the perspective of Ellen. I really liked Ellen and her air of mystery. She is a tough one to get a read on but as the narrative progresses, we slowly start to peel back the layers of her past. I just adore Will Dean and his writing. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next :)

Thank you to Atria Books, Atria/Emily Bestler Books, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Please, please, please, stop comparing books to And Then There Were None. There will NEVER be another book that lives up to how crazy that book was. Just because people are getting picked off with only one person left doesn't mean that it is the same at all. If anything, you are either misleading readers or ruining the whole plot.

I have also decided that Will Dean is not for me. This is now his third book I have read that I have been told I will love and they just keep falling flat. His books are so different I keep wanting to think the next one will be it for me, but alas no. I'm just going to let this author go....

“Trust is built over many years. And yet it can be destroyed in minutes.”

“Protocols and standards are generally only ever improved after a disaster. Trauma breeds innovation.”

This is definitely one of those books where I started reading it, and it was totally overwhelmed by how technical it was and was worried I wouldn’t be able to get into it. Eventually you’ll pick up on the lingo and be following right along. You’ll be a novice no more…well sort of. I really did learn a lot about sat diving from reading this book. I sure know enough to know there’s no way in hell I’d ever do it.

I had a bit of a hard time keeping the characters straight because they use more than one name for each other, last name/nick name.

This book is one of the most atmospheric books I’ve read in a long time. I’m definitely going to look up videos about sat diving because I want to get even more of a visual of how everything works and see it in action.

𝗕𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲, 𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁. Restrictions on what I can bring? Chest compressions? Autopsy? Trust issues? Isolation? 𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗦...𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗮𝗮𝗮𝗮𝗿 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿.

I thought this one was decent but I wasn’t a fan of the ending. Towards the end, the one thing I thought might be happening seemed like it was the key to the all of the deaths but then things got muddled and I TBH don’t really know what happened. If you understood the ending DM me and help ya girl out lol. 🤔

This was a DNF for me. I felt there is no real character development. Found myself confused with what the plot was and felt there were many redundant parts.

Wow!! Will Dean certainly knows how to make you feel you are right there with the characters. I enjoyed this read so much - so atmospheric, claustrophobic, and suspenseful! I cannot imagine being in one of those chambers even on a good day! Then with your colleagues mysteriously dying?! In those tiny confines?! Such a good, creepy read! And that ending?!?!? I need to talk about this with someone!!

Will Dean never ceases to amaze me with his range! All of his standalone novels vary widely in topic, but are so perfectly executed!

The Chamber has such a unique premise: Deep saturation divers aboard a hyperbaric chamber...and they start mysteriously dying. Wow, right!? With this novel, I learned so much about a topic I knew next to nothing about, so that gets major points in my book. I love when a fiction novel can teach me something. Dean very evidently did his research for this novel, it is so detailed, so meticulous, so descriptive, I truly felt like I was right there in the chamber. No detail was left out, nothing was skimmed over. When so many thrillers don't take the time to develop anything beyond a crazy plot line or encourage a little depth, I am so impressed with The Chamber's ability to give an education on deep saturation diving while still encompassing all the necessary elements of a stellar thriller.

The tension in The Chamber was tangible, it was so tense and impossible to put down. I couldn't read anything else until I finished this one. My only critique with The Chamber is the ending: while it made sense and was plausible, it did feel a little rushed and on the obvious side. There wasn't really much of a twist, which is characteristic of Dean's previous novels, but I can forgive it in light of the intenseness of the story as a whole. Overall I loved this one, and maintain Dean as a favorite, auto-read author for me!

I received a free digital copy of The Chamber from the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I read the last one and thoroughly enjoyed it, it was one of my favourite books of the year so when I heard he had a new book out I jumped at the chance to request it.

Whilst I have no background knowledge of diving ect I felt this gave a good description of what it's like for me to be able to imagine it but it just didn't grip me like his other book did. Maybe it's due to my lack of knowledge or interest in the subject matter. I just felt parts were long and drawn out and just wanted it to end.

It was ok just confusing and long in parts. It's not one I would read again or really recommend

Wow!! This was intense. To be honest, I nearly quit reading about 20% in because I could not get a handle on the technical lingo and dive terms… but once things ramped up in the plot it was easier to understand. This took a locked door thriller to another level. While some parts felt a little long and dragged on, I was in full suspense for most of the book and the end had me holding my breath!

I hate rating books less than three stars but unfortunately this book just didn’t hit for me. 🫣 I went in with high hopes because Dean’s previous release, The Last One, has been one of the best books I’ve read this year and because the synopsis sounded gripping and intense. Turns out I was just let down by this one.

First, I had to look up YouTube videos and Google photos to be able to properly envision the environment, lol. That said, he clearly did his research for this book and still did a great job explaining everything, I just think the space/technicality is so incredibly complicated and elaborate that it’s hard to grasp solely when reading.

This book started out good and once you start to get into it, it just fell flat and was pretty dull. It was very repetitive and I was pretty bored until the end. Then we get to the ending and not only was it disappointing and anticlimactic, it was confusing. I had to reread the last chapter and I still don’t think I grasped the actual answer/who the murderer was. 😂

Again, I hate negatively reviewing books because I know the author worked hard but this is how I honestly felt with this one. I will still for sure continue to pick up books from Dean, though!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!


**** Small Typo Error: Beginning of Chapter 36, there is a missing quotation mark at the beginning of the sentence “Not everyone’s built to go downrange…”