DNF - 21%

Slow, rambling and gratuitous. I feel like I'm wasting my time reading any farther.

Ill Will was as infectious as it was creepy. This twisted story gave me the chills but I simply couldn't put it down. Well done, Dan Chaon!

This is a hard review to write. The book grabbed my interest from the beginning but... I had a time loving it. There were good suspense filled parts, really strange parts, and downright irritating parts. Various characters did different chapters which I always enjoy. Sometimes a comment from the main character would just drift off into white space without an ending because he was know to not finish his thoughts. Worst were the pages where there were three columns to read. It was very difficult to read on a kindle since you could not enlarge the print to see it.

It involves two mysteries thirty years apart which was very interesting. A man who spent all of those in prison for a crime didn't commit. I liked that concept of trying to solving both mysteries. The author had me going back and forth trying to figure it all out and my mind was changed numerous times.

I honestly didn't get very attached to any of the characters. And while I don't expect an "happily ever after" in a good thriller, however, I do like an ending that ties up the storyline. This is my first book by this author and maybe this is his style. I just thought the ending was abrupt and left me wondering.

* I received an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It is a deliciously dark and psychological story but the author's writing goes into these rambling moments with weird punctuation and INCOMPLETE SENTENCES, making me something think, Am I missing a page? This thought occurred quite often but I still enjoyed the twisty, weird plot and creepy characters.

Oh but this was a struggle to review. How do I rate a book that on one hand, I can't imagine specifically recommending, and I can't look back on as having enjoyed it, yet at the same time, I simply could not put it down or stop reading. I mean, this was a one sitting read for me because during the process, I was so completely engrossed.

The back and forth between characters and timelines kept me hopping on my toes trying to keep up with who and where we were. Sometimes the formatting blurred between creative and just plain annoying. Often I had to skip back and refresh myself on who was who or when. Yet, again, I couldn't seem to look away.

The deception and false reality was a unique method of delivering a heartbreaking story. So much happening to children, and young adults, so much hate and frustration in the world. A chain reaction of bad timing, poor choices, unfortunate coincidences all culminating in more heartbreak than seems fair. Wondering who was the bad guy, who was actually good, and did they deserve what happened?

At the end of it all, I was left with a sense of - Oh, ok - not a pleased sense, or even a displeased feeling. I read it, I enjoyed the process, and now it's over. I don't know that I'll go out of my way to read more by this author, but I won't avoid them either. It was a solid 3 stars for me, and that is just as it sounds, good enough. ~ George, 3 stars

Published by Ballantine Books on March 7, 2017

Two brothers are married to two sisters, which is weird for their children (the biological and an adopted son of one couple, twin daughters of the other), who are cousins and nieces/nephews at the same time. When the youngest child, Dustin Tillman, is still fairly young, both sets of parents are murdered. Dustin’s adopted brother Rusty is convicted of the murders and sent to prison.

The murders occur in the 1980s, when juries eagerly believed in nonsense about “Satanic ritual abuse” that (like many of the sensationalistic phenomena reported by Geraldo Rivera) turned out to be nonexistent. One of the key witnesses regarding Rusty’s satanic tendencies was Dustin. How that came to happen is revealed slowly as the story unfolds.

Now middle-aged, Dustin is a psychologist. Like many psychologists, he’s a mess. He once worked as a forensic expert, specializing in Satanic ritual abuse and recovered memories, two fields that were widely discredited in the years that followed. He reinvented himself as a conventional psychologist who hypnotizes patients to help them stop smoking and deal with chronic pain.

As the story begins, Rusty has been released from prison, having finally established his innocence. Some of Ill Will recaps Dustin’s childhood and his relationship with Rusty and his twin cousins, Kate and Waverly. Some of the novel follows Rusty’s telephonic relationship with Dustin’s son Aaron, a young junkie who can’t find any motivation to make a life for himself. It is a challenge to decide whether Dustin or Aaron is more damaged. A small part of the story focuses on Aaron’s brother, who sensibly wants nothing to do with his family.

And some of the story centers upon Dustin’s relationship with a patient, Aqil Ozorowski, a police officer on medical leave, who is preoccupied with the deaths by drowning of several intoxicated students in Ohio. Ozorowski believes they are part of a pattern. An urban legend has grown around that theory, giving birth to a hypothesized killer known as Jack Daniels. If Jack Daniels exists, is he responsible for the death of Aaron’s friend Rabbit?

The key theme of Ill Will is that events have the meaning we choose to give them. Truth is ambiguous. Truth is whatever we believe truth to be. If we choose to see a pattern, one exists. If we choose to give the relationship between events no meaning, the events are unrelated. Seeing patterns where none exist explains why conspiracy theorists are so troubled about unrelated facts, but not seeing patterns between connected events (perhaps for fear of being labeled a conspiracy theorist) can lead to false conclusions. Untrue things (like the spread of Satanic cults) become true when enough people believe them to be true — at least until most people finally realize that they never were true.

Other themes include the power of suggestion, the malleability of memory, the ease with which children can be manipulated (and their unreliability as witnesses for that reason), how abuse is like a virus that turns the abused into abusers, how “accidental and random” life can be, and how bullying can have unexpected consequences.

Dan Chaon’s prose style is often unconventional. Some sentences trail off or have extra spaces between words, reflecting the way people pause or stop talking when they don’t know what to say. Some of the story appears in text balloons. One section is written in three adjacent columns representing three different points of view. None of that put me off and some of it is clever, although the columns are hard to read in digital format. This is yet another reason to believe that print editions of a book make for better reading, even if they are less convenient.

The first half of Ill Will builds characters and background, while the second half builds tension. The plot is based on a series of misunderstandings and mistaken conclusions that prompt characters to take unsound actions ... or malicious actions that are true to their nature.

I didn’t care much for Ill Will’s unlikable characters and strange plot until it began to grow on me. By the time the story reached its conclusion, after I realized what Chaon intended and how effectively he accomplished that intent, I became a believer.

RECOMMENDED

In “Ill Will” we are presented with a very disturbing question: What if what you think is true actually isn’t?

The story revolves around Dustin as he learns that this adopted, Rusty, is being released from prison after serving thirty years for the massacre of Dustin’s parents, aunt, and uncle. But DNA analysis has overturned the conviction. While he is dealing with this he also becomes entangled with one of his patients as they hunt down a “serial killer”. As his family falls apart in front of his eyes, will Dustin finally understand one of his favorite quotes: “We are always telling a story to ourselves, about ourselves.”

I received a copy of this book through Net Galley and have given my honest review.

This book starts off very interestingly; a psychologist learns that his adopted brother is being released from jail after serving 30 years for the murders of his parents, aunt and uncle. The book delves into that murder from 1983 and also a series of murders occurring in the "present day" (2012-2014). The psychologist is wrapped into investigating the current day murders because of the theories of one of his clients. At first, he thought the client very odd, but the more he listens to him, the more sense he thinks the client makes. So you've got two very interesting story lines and a promising beginning. I'm all set for a delicious dark read!

But I couldn't get past the author's writing style. He probably considers himself clever, but it was annoying, confusing, frustrating, insert other synonyms here. He rambles, he writes sentences that stop in the middle, he places two or three columnar entries on a page, each dealing with totally different content and/or time frames, running for several pages which forces the reader to try to keep the different subjects straight from page to page, or to read one column all the way through, then go back to read the second, and back again to read the third. Unique? Yes. Enjoyable? No!

The entire book was a mind game for both the characters and the reader. I will not read another book by this author.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine for giving me the opportunity to read this book!

ILL WILL by Dan Chaon was a very unusual read. The plot was suspenseful enough, and the characters with their strong expression and communication took off, otherwise, getting past the foul language was a bit sticky. Looking at the cover page and title, didn't give the reader an in-depth idea that the story was going to show some sad points, devastation, and heartaches that some of the characters had to go through. Through the author's skill, and once the story is read, then the reader will get more of the purpose or intent behind the title. Great concept for a story, though.

I can see this turned into a screenplay for Special Victims Unit, one of my favourite TV shows. However, I doubt they would be able to conjure the depth of character contrived by this skilled author. Well done, Mr Choan.

Ballantine Books and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Ill Will. This is my honest opinion of the book.

Dustin Tillman has risen above the tragedy of his youth to help others, in his capacity as a psychologist. His adoptive brother had been arrested and convicted of killing their parents, as well as their aunt and uncle, when he was just a teenager. Years later, with the help of the Innocence Project, Rusty was released from prison. With almost no one in the family willing to talk with him, Rusty weasels his way into Dustin's son's life. Is Aaron, a teenager drifting through life due to his own tragic circumstances, the perfect target or is Rusty genuine in wanting to get to know his family? When college students start going missing on a regular basis and turn up dead, one of Dustin's patients convinces him to help investigate. Will the tangled web of the past catch Dustin, his cousins, and Rusty in the lies?

I was really excited to read Ill Will because of all of the hype, but I should have realized that I was setting myself up for a disappointment. The author attempted to use a modified writing format to convey Dustin's fragmented thought patterns but, in the end, it just seemed like the editing was lacking. The story really never has that "aha" moment or a clear ending, for that matter. There was not a sympathetic character among the group and the book, at just over 450 pages, took too long to get anywhere. Ill Will was a miss for me, so I would not recommend it to other readers.

Creepy novel that lived in the haze created by time and drug use. I enjoyed the uncertainty if not the resolution.

I gave up on this book for the twists were too obvious.

The mysteries in this book, past and present, held my interest and made me anxious to see what came next whenever I had to put it down. The protagonist, a widower, father and psychiatrist was rather cold, especially in relationships with his two sons, considering that they had recently lost their mother. He was closer, it seemed, to a man who morphed from a patient to a partner in solving an ongoing mystery concerning a number of young college men who had disappeared and turned up murdered. (I kept hoping that the elder of the sons would not be next.) At the same time, an old crime was being introduced, the murder of the man's mother, father, aunt and uncle, which happened when he was 13. His older, adopted brother had been convicted of the crime (without any physical evidence) and had escaped from prison during the time just previous to the opening of the story. The older brother had been sent to prison mostly on the testimony of the three children of the murdered folks, and the psychiatrist had some doubts as to veracity of their testimonies. The escaped prisoner had formed a relationship with the younger son of the psychiatrist, unbeknownst to his father.
There were a number of story lines that were unresolved, some that were not explained and left you wondering where they were headed. Overall I enjoyed it but didn't feel satisfied when it ended.

It was entirely too long for my taste, and I couldn't connect with the many different characters, ultimately. Sorry.

I have like other Dan Chaon books and I was really enjoying this book. However, about halfway through it started to get tiresome and was a chore to continue to read. I should say that I was given an ARC of this book and I'm not sure if the sentences that just ended or some of the formatting was intentional or was just errors in my copy. It made trying to follow the plot hard. I never like giving up on a book, but I wish I did on this one because the ending was blah and you could have seen it coming a mile away. Not a bad book, but not a good one either.

The book opens with the body of a young man bumping along at the bottom of a river bed. This is one of the mysteries in the story. Who is killing college youth and dumping their bodies in water with no signs of anything but an accident or suicide.

Thirteen-year-old Dustin and his two older girl cousins awake one morning in the camping trailer parked outside their house waiting to take their two families on a vacation. One of the girls goes into the house and begins to scream. Both sets of parents have been murdered, their bodies laying grotesquely throughout the first floor. This is the second mystery. Who killed them? Was it the adopted son who was not at home that evening? This young man is convicted and sent to prison for thirty years before declared innocent of the crime. Now he has been released, but the mystery deepens.

With lots of flashbacks, the reader discovers that nothing is as it seems. Told from different points of view, we discovered a seedy side of living that is disturbing, delusional, and drug-infested. Author Dan Chaon is a good writer, and while this story may to fascinating to some readers, it will be viewed as not enjoyable by others.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an impartial review.

While reading Ill Will, I mostly felt icky - there was no joy here but just a mountain of horror and loss. Psychologist Dustin has an incredibly horrific past that justifiably colors every aspect of his life with his wife and children as well as impacts his practice as a psychologist. While still a young boy, Dustin's parents, aunt and uncle were savagely murdered. His adoptive brother, Rusty, is convicted of the crimes. Rusty had been abusive to Dustin so readers have little sympathy for him. Rusty's eventual vindication after decades in prison only adds to Dustin's stress level.

Dustin's loss is shared with his two slightly older cousins, Kate and Wave. The murders of their parents twists their lives in such a way that Dustin is the only one who, superficially at least, has a normal adult life.

As an adult, Dustin is a psychologist with a dying wife and two sons who view him as odd. Older son, Dennis, escapes to college soon after the death of his mother. Younger son, Aaron, drug-addled and lonely, is seemingly unnoticed as he descends into addiction. Ironically, Dustin's practice revolves around recovered memories and hypnosis. Among his patients is Aqil, a former cop, who has a wild theory about drunken, drowned young men. Dustin and Aqil join forces to discover the truth about how these young suddenly disappear. This investigation provides a focus for grieving Dustin but it also encourages the separation of Aaron.

Chaon's use of multiple narrators is not seamless especially with the use of flashbacks. Aaron's narration is the most awkward since he has none of the backstory and his grief is so raw that he is never impartial. Most challenging was when multiple narrators were presenting their views with the type set in columns. I never knew if I should read the entire column over several pages or read the column to the bottom of the page and then go to the second column even though the first one was not ended. Perhaps this setup was more a function of the ARC then a chosen effect by the author. On a Kindle, the column text was incredibly small and I could not enlarge it.

This novel made me uncomfortable like watching an episode of Criminal Minds. Despite this, the author leaves readers guessing right to the end.

Ill Will by Dan Chaon is a chimera. It shimmers just out of reach like a highway heat mirage, hypnotic, addictive, seductive. Ironically, the same can be said for human memory. How much of what we remember is actually true?

The tale is decidedly post-modern. It is intertextual and follows no rules and respects no boundaries dictated by genre. It is mystery, horror, psychology and more.

Mr Chaon’s literary skills are phenomenal. The prose reads like poetry. He wastes no words. Every pause is filled with action. There is not one single info dump. All the information comes naturally as it would in real life. Even though various characters take turns telling the tale, they are all totally believable and somehow engaging even as they fall prey to obsession and begin to lose touch with reality.

Readers experience this dark tale of obsession through the memories of highly flawed characters. Each has a unique, believable voice, and each struggles to understand the present by unraveling wavering memories of the past. These house-of-mirrors discrepancies pull readers into the text and keep them guessing. Even at the end, many readers will continue to stare at that last page, waiting for more mirages to appear.

The protagonist is Dustin Tillman, a psychologist haunted by garbled memories of abuse and a mass murder that involved his parents. Perhaps in an attempt to come to terms with these childhood memories, he becomes involved in investigating a series of current murders. Tillman appears to have a tenuous hold on reality that makes him vulnerable to manipulation and allows one of his patients to slip into his personal life. This mistake creates an avalanche of disaster that threatens to bury all those he cares for.

Ill Will is very highly recommended and will leave readers questioning the veracity of their own memories. After all, obsession is indeed contagious.

If we are defined by our traitorous memories, then who are we, really?

rougeskireads

Ill Will by Dan Chaon- At first I had difficulty getting into this book with it's short, choppy chapters and jumps back to a past with the immediate returns to the present. I found it a bit jarring to change gears back and forth. After a while the story begins to grab you and I mean in a good way. Dustin is a psychologist, whose adopted brother, he has just learned, is about to be released from prison for the crime of killing their parents, on Dustin and his sister's testimony. It's been thirty years and Dustin doesn't know what to expect but he's sure it will be bad. In the meantime, one of his patients has sucked him into an amateur investigation of recent college drowning victims, with the dubious theory that a serial killer is at work. This sets the stage for a lot of chaos and mayhem, and a meaningful look at memory and how distorted it can become. Not a slasher tome.