Ill will
Ratings9
Average rating3.8
"In 1983, Dustin Tillman's family--his parents and his aunt and uncle--were murdered in a shocking massacre. His foster brother, Rusty, was convicted of the crime, in a trial that was steeped in the "Satanic Cult" paranoia of the 1980s. Thirty years later, Rusty's conviction is overturned, and suddenly Dustin, now a psychologist, must question whether his testimony that imprisoned his brother was accurate. When one of his patients, an ex-cop, gets him deeply involved in a series of unsolved murders, Dustin's happy suburban life starts to unravel, as his uncertainties about his past and present life begin to merge"--
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Just okay, which surprised me for being a Dan Chaon book. Sort of a weird mix of True Detective and Dark Places, without any real feeling of resolution.
I just finished this yesterday and have some thoughts!
I can see how this is described as a thriller/crime but I feel like it very easily dips into horror just in how it makes you feel. Throughout this book I could just feel this pit in my stomach grow as I knew things just weren't going to change for any of our characters.
~spoilery things below because I just want to talk about this book while it takes over my brain~
It was a ride to go from trusting Dustin as our thought to be reliable narrator to introducing other perspectives. It was so just well executed with the unravelling of his memories. I thought at one point Kate had planted even more ideas about what Rusty had done - but nope - it was real.Jill momentarily held him together but in a lot of ways Dustin was destined for coming undone. Jill also didn't ask him to confront and work through his experiences. So in turn the life that they were living was so delicately held together.
The longer I sit on it the more I lean towards giving it 5 stars — my only problem with this book, which I found to be engagingly written, structurally interesting in an unaffected, cinematic way, and complex in its treatment of the genre, was the extent of Dustin's delusion which would at times really beggar belief. Then again, I know so many people who are just as easily fooled by ostensible lack of randomness. Psychologists should know better though, right?
Also, the amount of creepy in this book is... wow. The author's been generous with it (saltbae.gif). I wouldn't quite call the book scary, but its horrors are all too relatable. The characters could've been saved from so much trouble if they only talked to each other! But they're human so they can't!! Because communicating is fucking hard. And Chaon is really good at writing familial dysfunction of the common sort, just as good as he is at making you feel the choke of the character who is trying and failing to form a response in a situation where a thoughtful response could immediately turn that character around on his path towards BAD SHIT.
Actually I'm taking a star off because I really wanted to read Jill's therapist's letter in full, I mean COME ON CHAON, YOU CAN'T TEASE US LIKE THAT).
