Dan Chaon’s wonderfully readable and heartbreaking “Ill Will” should come with a warning label. If you’ve ever lived through certain experiences, or had nightmares about them, put this book back on the shelf and forget about it.

No one warned me, so I read “Ill Will” and I did think it a marvelous book. It has both heart and humor. The characters are believable, likeable, and very real. The book has multiple narrators who make up the main cast of characters, and Chaon uses this technique to great advantage. You care about Dustin Tillman, his sister, and his cousins, who were orphaned when their parents were brutally murdered. The lot of them are now grown and launched in life with their own careers and families. They appear to have recovered, as much as anyone can recover from such an event.

The question of who was responsible for the murders is never certain. At the time it was blamed on Rusty, a troubled teenager who was adopted by Dustin’s parents. Rusty was sent to prison for the crime, but the Innocence Project has recently proven that Rusty was not the murderer, and he is released from prison.

The fates are not finished with Dustin who, in my view, is the center of the story. He is now a psychologist and seems at the beginning of the book to be fairly well adjusted and professional in his work. He is widowed and is raising his two sons by himself. He has the odd habit of not finishing his sentences—or is it his thoughts that are incomplete? His kids think he’s weird, but don’t all kids think their parents are weird?

As the book moves on, revealing more and more of the family’s problems, Dustin makes a monumental mistake. He buys into the crackpot theories of one of his patients and goes off the rails in terms of professional ethics and his role as a single parent. The last quarter of the book is absolutely bone chilling. That’s as much of a spoiler I’m willing to give. Read “Ill Will” if you dare, but don’t forget I warned you.

I tried, but I couldn't push past 60%. I didn't feel any thrill or suspense. Ill Will encompasses two murders investigations, one in the past and one in the present. I honestly didn't understand why Dustin was interested in the current murders. Why did he care? He feels no real drive to solve the case (doesn't even believe the deaths are related at first). He wasn't close to any of the victims. He's just kind of going along because his patient keeps insisting and the whole thing left me uncaring and bored.

The sections of the book set in the past interested me the most at first. Rusty's introduced, Kate and Wave are introduced, and it seems like a time of change and Dustin's actually invested. But then we learn more about Kate and how much of an awful person she was and I hated reading about her and how manipulative she was. How she took advantage of Dustin while claiming Rusty had.

The farther and farther the book went on the more and more I disliked the characters. I didn't care about them. Didn't want to read about them. I felt sympathy for young Dustin. How naive and easily manipulated he was. The extent of it was shocking and scary. I felt bad for Rusty who I believe was falsely accused. Yet these were fleeting moments, buried beneath my absolute dislike or apathy for these characters.

This is a story that merges crime stories from two time periods, tied together by Dustin, who finds himself on the edges of both the murders from the past and the murders from both time periods.

The issue I have with this book has nothing to do with content, I think that there was a slow build to the plot in both time periods that kept me interested throughout. Separately and the ties that bind the two pieces of the story are compelling and were more than enough to keep me reading. The characters are vivid and allowed me to create the story in my mind, which I always appreciate in a book. It delivered mystery in pacing and tone.

My main issue with the book was the decision that was made to cut off sentences and paragraphs throughout the book. It happened too often to be anything but a literary ploy, but I am not sure all of the instances where a sentence was left hanging were necessary. The sheer amount didn't add to the book. If fact at certain points the break of a page into three separate pieces of the story detracted from the pace of story telling.

I would recommend this book to others who like a mystery, because on that front it does deliver. However, I would warn anyone who I recommend it to about the way the book occasionally gets in the way of itself.

One word I would use to described this book is "meh". Yep, that is it. The book was just "meh" - it didn't excite, thrill, or captivate in any way. A disappointment from start to finish.

A psychologist in suburban Cleveland, Dustin is still haunted by the fact that his adopted brother Randy has been in prison for 30 years for the murders of their parents and aunt. But now he's been exonerated by DNA evidence, and Dustin begins to question his memories of that time. Were they real, or tainted by the satanic possession theories so popular back then. To add to his confusion, Dustin meets an unusual patient and gets involved in the man's personal investigation into a series of killings of college students in the area. Is he trustworthy or could he just be the real killer?

Wow is all I can say right now. I had to keep putting this down to think about what was happening. Set in the CLE which made it extra real for me. I know some reviewers didn't like all the speculation, but for me that added to the creepiness factor big time!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy!

I have always been a fan of Dan Chaon's work. I have all of his books, so when I saw that "Ill Will" was available I couldn't wait to read it. Cheri's review does a fantastic job explaining that the author may have been experimenting with a unique writing style. Cheri also does make a fantastic observation that some readers may get frustrated due to the writing style, but also with Dustin sometimes not finishing his sentences as a reflection of his thinking. It took me an extremely long time to get used to these devices the author uses. I was at first frustrated with the way Dan Chaon shifts from telling the story jumping from different parts of the story, but also different time lines. When I got used to the fact that the timelines and different parts of the story shift in a non linear fashion I became less frustrated. This book is also quite dark throughout the whole story and I felt a lump in my stomach while reading it.

The themes of how honest are we with the things we tell ourselves along with how reliable are our memories is quite strong. This is quite apparent with Dustin's character and also his cousin Kate. I felt very unnerved and felt a sense of dread the more I read. Actually I felt extremely uncomfortable with the story. I do get a sense that is what Dan Chaon is trying to achieve with his writing and it feels relentless. His writing is very powerful and it keeps up its impending escalation of sense of doom. This is probably the darkest book he has written. There is no feel good moments that we look forward to when reading to be found in this work. I do think the author is very talented to be able to get under our skin with a propulsive sense of impending doom that ascends the more we read on.

There is also quite a lot of different strands of the story that we are bombarded with. There is the timeline and story about his psychology practice and the boundaries of therapist and patient relationship increasingly getting crossed. There is the part of the story of a young Dustin, Rusty, Kate, Wave and their parents Colleen, Vicki, Dave and Lucky. There is the drug addiction of Aaron and Rabbit and the dissolution of friendship,there is the time period when Dustin and his wife's Jill's metastasizing cancer spreads to her brain and lungs which I felt the realism was brutally heartbreaking--and as parents keeping that secret from their two son's and their secret about Rusty, there are many, many different threads to the story that all come together in the shocking conclusion. The ending left me with a lot to think about and as I write this I am still thinking about it. I think if the reader accepts the seemingly disjointed sequence that this is a story that will leave you haunted.

Thank you to Net Galley, Dan Chaon and Ballantine Books for providing me with my digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Dan Chaon, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.

This is a novel of the life of Dustin Tillman, beginning with the death of his parents and Aunt and Uncle when he is 13 in June of 1983, seeing him through his relationships with others - his adopted brother, the cousins who shared their parental loss with him, his wife, his children, the patients he tries to help in his practice as as a therapist. It is a strange and solitary and chaotic journey. There are times you want to snatch him up and set him straight, but for the most part you rather pity him his lack of true connection to other lives. But when he decides to break out of his shell, watch out! He and his patient and perhaps friend Aqil Ozorowski begin a journey that can only end in disaster.

The author grabs the readers within the first few pages and doesn't let go. And just when you think you've got the plot all figured out, Dan Chaon leads you down another twisted path. The mind is a mysterious place, and it certain doesn't always follow logic. Even at the end, you can't be sure who did what - and to whom.

Here is a review by Jennifer: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1919946326

https://angryangelbooks.com/2017/02/27/ill-will-angry-angel-abandonment/

A Strange Mix of Satanic Worship, Drownings, and Serial Killings

I read Await Your Reply eight years ago and came to a delayed appreciation of the complexity of Chaon’s characters as well as their impending sense of doom. Chaon again plays with time frame in Ill Will as two stories are woven together with the common denominator being the main character.

Ill Will gives us two murder mysterious to solve, one from the past and one present day involving a string of male drownings that seem to point to an alleged serial killer on the loose.

Dustin Tillman is a psychologist in private practice whose wife has recently died of cancer. His youngest son has a serious drug problem and is losing his grip on reality as his eldest on begins to remove himself from a family he no longer want anything to do with. Dustin spends most of the book checked out from the dismal state of his own life and the unravelling of his family.

Dustin suffers from a kind of dissociative disorder which has plagued him since he was a child. As he is led by an exceedingly obsessive and inappropriate patient to begin a private investigation into the recent drownings, the plot moves Dustin towards becoming a possible suspect in the grisly murder of his own parents when he was just ten years old. His aunt and uncle were also murdered along with his parents and his female twin cousins are estranged, one siding with Dustin and the other carrying an alternate theory of what happened that night along with some of the answers to our questions. His adopted brother was framed for the murders and having recently being released from prison, haunts Dustin as he seeks out contact with Dustin’s son.

This is a dark, disturbing, and visually gruesome story. Editing takes a wild turn as sentences literally fall off into nothingness and the reader is left wondering if they missed something. Formatting also takes a very strange turn. The end is murky and the reader is left with the task of answering their own questions which may lead to anxiety and frustration. The buildup to a satisfying suspense thriller ending was a letdown. Chaon is a gifted writer however this book will not be to everyone’s taste.

BRB Rating: Skip It

A mystery/crime thriller, set in my home region, about the unknowable nature of truth... a novel that I would have asked to be written if I had that power. The manner in which Chaon peels back the layers of his flawed but deeply complicated characters demonstrates exceptional technique. Our perception of them gradually shifts and then erodes. Structure as a vehicle for character. A powerful, mysterious conclusion, like life.

Oh what a jumbled up novel. The whole thing was chaotic and disjointed. Dangling sentences and switching back and forth between a conventional writing style to a two or three column writing style on many pages was very strange and really made it difficult to read. After liking the opening chapter, there was really nothing else I liked in the entire book. In the end it left more questions than answers. One that will only be remembered because it was disliked so much. A hard one to finish!

I thought I was reading a book about an adult whose older adopted sibling has just been released from jail, exonerated in the multiple murders of their parents through DNA. Presumably the case was reopened and the sibs had to reassess their relationship. If only. The central character in the book is deeply unreliable but readers barely notice because the author keeps changing time frames, POV, narrators, and writing styles. The book becomes its own Rubik's Cube as we try and line up various pieces in an attempt to get a cohesive tale in any time period or around any character. This could be dark and creepy but mostly it's confusing. I finished it but I'm not sure everything was wrapped up; or perhaps I just missed most of the final clues. The book is a lot of work without much return. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

When Dan Chaon (pronounced "shawn") wrote about how willing people were to believe a conspiracy theory in the 1980s in which throngs of highly organized and interconnected Satanic cults across America and around the world were suspected of committing ritual abuse, it might have seemed easy to poke fun at gullible, poorly informed people living in a simpler time. Evening news programs took these rumors seriously, running special segments with titles like Exposing Satan's Underground, theorizing about a link to heavy metal music. Police departments formed cult task forces. Events in the short time since Chaon penned those passages make it easier to understand how people can be swayed by conspiracy theories.

The Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) mania was going strong when 13-year-old Dustin Tillman's parents, his aunt and his uncle were murdered the night before the the two families were about to embark on vacation. Dustin and his two 17-year-old twin cousins, Kate and Wave, spent the night in the camper in the driveway. A news photographer won a Pulitzer for photos of the three teens the next day shortly after they discovered the murders that had happened inside the house while they slept.

Absent that night was nineteen-year-old Russell, Dustin's adopted older brother. When Dustin's father received a large settlement after a worksite accident that left him with a hook in place of one hand, he decided to foster a child as a way of keeping one boy from suffering the kinds of indignities he had as a child.

Dustin was a particularly gullible child. Kate and Wave used to have fun implanting false memories to see what they could get him to believe. After the murders, Kate and Dustin become convinced that Russell (Rusty) was the murderer, and they compare notes to come up with a credible story that involves Rusty's bullying behavior, his fascination with Satanism, the fact that he liked to torture and kill animals, and the suspicion that he had been responsible for his birth parents' death in a house fire. One of the book's main questions is whether Dustin's testimony was true or if it relied on more false memories. Either way, Rusty was convicted and sent to prison. Dustin has not spoken with him since.

Nearly thirty years later, Dustin receives word from Kate that Rusty has been exonerated by Project Innocence. No one else is implicated, but this news disturbs Dustin. He is now 41, a therapist, married with two teen sons, the younger of whom is a drug addict, unbeknownst to Dustin. His wife is dying of cancer. He is a vague, diffident man, prone to leaving sentences unfinished or groping for words. He recently quit smoking and is suffering an existential dread that the world is emanating ill will toward him.

The murders are, understandably, a seminal event in his life. His doctoral thesis explored the SRA phenomenon. His wife's illness and subsequent death unpin him, and the news about Rusty sends him into a spin. He is certain Rusty will come after him, seeking vengeance for all those lost years. He doesn't know that Rusty is already in touch with his vulnerable 18-year-old son, Aaron.

Dustin specializes in hypnotherapy, which he uses primarily as a quit-smoking treatment or to alleviate idiopathic pain. His newest client, Aqil Ozorowski, a cop on medical leave for reasons he won't divulge, is convinced that a serial killer has been preying on young men thought to have drowned after binge drinking. He lays out his evidence, identifying numerological details that seem to tie these deaths together. Eventually, he proposes that Satanists are involved, which naturally piques Dustin's interest and helps to penetrate his skepticism. Aqil is intense, and his demands on Dustin push the limits of the patient-client relationship.

The novel leaps around in time, gradually divulging more about what happened between Dustin and Rusty in the late 1970s. It also follows several characters, including Aaron's misadventures in some of Cleveland's seedier neighborhoods with his friend Rabbit, who may be another victim of Aqil's putative serial killer. At times, the narrative is split into multiple parallel threads, streaming beside each other down the page like adjacent stories in a newspaper. This is mildly distracting but occasionally effective, especially when different perspectives on the same event are shown side-by-side.

What is the truth about those long-ago murders? Dustin's cousin Wave, who has gone off the grid and is no longer in touch with the family, might know. Is it within Dustin to dig past a cloud of possibly false memories and get to the bottom of what actually happened nearly thirty years ago? The epigraph Chaon selects to precede one of the book's chapters advises: "In the end it is the mystery that lasts and not the explanation." There are no easy answers to the conundrum of memory.

This book grabbed my attention immediately. Good plot and characters.

Ill Will is a book that will creep you out. Told from the vantage point of several different characters and over two different time periods, the book concerns the recollections of several characters who were involved in a cold case and several others who are involved in what may be a serial killer at the present time.. All of the narrators have an axe to grind and the reader has no idea who, if any, is telling the truth. Very enjoyable book with one huge caveat. The advance copy of the book is impossible to read on Kindle because at several parts the narration breaks down into three columns. The font was way to small to read on my Kindle Whisperbok.

Ill Will by Dan Chaon is about Dustin, whose parents and aunt and uncle were supposedly murdered by his adopted brother Rusty when he was a kid. As the book opens, Rusty has just been released from jail because of DNA evidence proving his innocence. The book jumps back and forth between timelines, exploring Dustin's childhood and his family now, including his troubled teenage son, and Dustin investigating a possible new killer.

I really enjoyed reading this suspenseful book. It gave me that nervous feeling in my gut towards the end, when I'd started to put some of the pieces together, and I could see the characters getting closer to disaster. It got hard to read, not in the I-don't-like-this-book way, but in the I-wish-I-wasn't-home-alone way (though there was a very troubling part at the end). I also liked how we learn about events from multiple perspectives, from Dustin to his cousins Kate and Wave to his son Aaron. I think one of the themes of this book is reality vs. fantasy, and it's presented in multiple ways. And it's not just fantasy like people make up spells and lies and whatnot, but also how what we tell ourselves and how we present and think of ourselves isn't always based in reality. There are characters who have different memories and perspectives on past events. There's the killer in the present day, who may or may not be a serial killer. And for me at least, there's he gradual loss of trust in the main character and who really is.

Most of this book is a five star book. There are two things that bothered me. One is the writing style. There are lots of sentences that just end abruptly, in the middle of the sentence. Which I can get used to, as it's a reflection of how the main character thinks/talks. But some of the sentences just didn't make any sense at all. I also wish I knew more at the end, <spoiler>especially about what Jill thought about Dustin and what exactly happened to him with Aqil.</spoiler>

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This book takes you down many paths and leaves you with many feelings and mysteries unsolved - and the writing style will probably cause some to give up reading. But I definitely think it's worth sticking it out, even though the ending won't be given to you wrapped with a bow.

The book is set in Northeast Ohio and involves two mysteries - one in the 1980s and the other in more present time. The first mystery involves a grisly murder scene - two married couples all shot. Their children, Dustin and his two older twin cousins, Wave and Kate, were outside sleeping in a camper. However, there's even more behind the scene. Dustin was a very gullible, malleable child whom his cousins enjoyed exploiting. Dustin's family had adopted Rusty, a troubled youth from an abusive background. He was accused of committing the crime and Dustin and Kate's testimony was what put him behind bars. But was it true? How can we know what the truth is?

In the present-day, Dustin is now a psychologist raising his own teenage boys with a wife who is ill from cancer. A patient comes to him with the second mystery - which involves a series of college-age students who seem to be heavily intoxicated, leave their friends, and are discovered later drowned in a nearby body of water. The police dismiss these deaths as "death by stupidity" - they were drunk, these things happen. But do they? This patient becomes Dustin's only friend and they join together to find out what happened to these boys.

The writing style is very unique - adding to all the mystery. There are text bubbles, pages written in columns that you have to flip back and forth to read, and sentences that just stop - showing how Dustin had the tendency to speak.

Quite the ride!