Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Right from the outset, I was pretty sold on the idea of Kill Creek by Scott Thomas. A shock-news type website gathers four very different, but influential horror writers together to spend Halloween night in a historically haunted house while they live-stream interviews and film the whole thing. Will the house disappoint? Will it become re-energized after years of dormancy and begin a reign of terror on the occupants that night? (All of whom, as horror writers, feel weirdly qualified to be able to survive it.) The plot sounds like The Haunting of Hill House meets Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum and I am entirely here for it. Haunted houses are my horror trope of choice and I settled down to read this book with the optimism that it very well could be my new favorite book.
As you can maybe tell from my rating, Kill Creek didn’t end up being my new favorite (though I am still 100% into the premise of this story. Make it a movie and I would definitely pay money to see it.) I think a big part of that feeling for me is that, clocking in at 416 pages, Kill Creek felt simultaneously both too long and too short. As the story is told in both flashbacks to the authors’ pasts and a current timeline with the visit and aftermath of the haunted house, the pacing began to feel like a rollercoaster. Most of the flashbacks were slow paced, with a specific one occurring multiple times with new information revealed each time, and the main plotline felt rushed. And while both parts were important to the story at hand, I was more invested in the main plot and would have liked to have spent more time exploring it.
In fact, I was downright disappointed at how quickly we breezed through the part where the authors were spending the night in the house. The setup to getting them there was fun, interesting, and informative, as it provided the foundation we needed. But arriving at the house, getting a tour of the grounds (detailing the excellent setting of the story), live-streaming their interview, and spending the night, was over astonishingly quickly. By the midpoint of the book, the authors have already left the house — which is fine and makes sense because there is more to the story — but it felt like we breezed so quickly through something we had built the premise of the story on.
From there the story shifts to the events that occur over a six month time period, and those chapters really feel like six months. The juxtaposition of the two different paces mostly just left me wanting more of the house and less of the slowly paced aftermath. (Before things picked back up for the ending.)
Between the intriguing history of the house, the backstories of the characters, and the present timelines, it was a lot of information. To the point that I actually think I might have preferred this story as two books. (Kill Creek and Return to Kill Creek would be an excellent story duology.) I think two books would have given this story more space to breathe in the places where it felt like it could have used more space. I would have loved to hear more about the history of the house (The Finch sisters seemed really fascinating and could have almost been their own book. And what was the deal with the pictures in the jewelry box?!) and to have seen more of the authors and their dynamics in the house, as well as the aftermath of the events.
Overall, as much as I appear to be complaining about it, I did actually enjoy this book a good bit. It had some really excellent elements that you’d expect in a haunted house story and, as far as the plot goes, I found it engaging and memorable. Mostly, it came down to the pacing issues. In the beginning and end parts, I couldn’t put this book down. In the middle, I struggled to want to pick it up. So, would I recommend it? Yes, with the disclaimer that it’s worth pushing through the some of the more mundane middle parts.
… Don’t get me started on the epilogue though, because I have THOUGHTS. (But they are spoilery, so I’ll keep them to myself unless asked.
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