Kill Creek by Scott Thomas

The Finch House has a strange and tragic past dating back to its creation. It's stayed empty for years, owned by the city and becoming increasing overgrown. Wainwright, creator of a site that specializes in unconventional livesteamed experiences that go viral, convinces four famous horror authors to stay in the house for two days and conduct a multi-part interview for online viewers. Nothing weird happens except for some nightmares and they all return to their respective homes. Months later, all four have withdrawn from their lives, furiously writing novels that greatly resemble each other and awful visions appear if they dare to stop writing. When they hit a wall in inspiration, they band together once again to find out what's happening.

Kill Creek is a book that subverted many of my expectations. The characters represented a wider swath of horror than I thought. The four authors have their own distinct styles and audiences. Sebastian Cole writes more subtle horror for a wide audience. He's the most well known and oldest of the authors. Daniel Slaughter writes horror with a moral and religious bent targeted at teens, but his religious base seems to think his writing is getting too extreme. Sam McGarver teaches as a second career and has writers block after one hugely successful book followed by a few less spectacular releases. I would love to take one of his classes based on the insightful lecture portrayed. T.C. Moore writes gruesome, hardcore horror with sexual depravity. She's my favorite of the authors because she exposes the boys' club sexism she's subject to and doesn't acquiese to anyone. Her bluntness and honesty are refreshing. All four represent different facets of horror and clash at times due to their differences in philosophy.

I expected a haunted house book where the bulk of the story would be scares within the house during the interview and that wasn't it at all. The scares are more insidious and subtle than that. The force within the house haunted them well after they went home, infiltrating their dreams and essentially torturing each of them to write their own version of its story. Scott Thomas writes excerpts of their writing convincingly in their respective styles. This is especially impressive to capture so many other literary voices in addition to one's own. The real mystery begins when they reunite completely changed from months before and return to the house to fight whatever it is. The force is never truly defined, which I prefer, but it's definitely malicious and has a defined plan for how to endure. Its origin is particularly thought provoking and unique. The portrayal is a fresh take on a haunting that isn't as simple as a dead person or a few tragic events.

Kill Creek has everything I wanted: an unknowable evil, four extremely different main characters with secrets to hide, and an eccentric mogul to bring them all together. The history of the house of was just as chilling as present day events and contributed to the eerie mood of the novel. I would love to see more from Scott Thomas. His descriptions and insights into the characters felt so vivid and truly sucked me into the story. Highly recommended if you want a book that gets under your skin.

My rating: 4/5