Kill Creek

An abandoned home lies in wait in Kill Creek, Kansas as four horror authors and an Internet personality agree to a promotional interview. Wainwright, the Internet host of WrightWire, a website for horror media has a special event every year for his site. This year he decides to invite some of his favorite authors to a mysterious abandoned house that he learned about through a forgotten non-fiction book. Authors Daniel Slaughter, T.R. Moore, Sebastian Cole, and Sam McGarver make this journey in hopes it will help them continue to remain relevant. Each author is known in their fields. Slaughter writes Christian based YA horror. Moore writes books that ride the edge between erotica and terror. Cole is an older cosmic horror author who has left quite a legacy. McGarver writes mainstream horror. They all bring their own personalities and fears for the trip. However, can Kill Creek sense these? How far will the house go?

Kill Creek is a debut novel by author Scott Thomas. As haunted house stories go, this one has several interesting quirks that made the story very enjoyable. Our protagonist Sam McGarver begins the novel by telling us how he personally defines a gothic horror novel. First, emanation from a single location. Secondly, the location has a forbidden history. Third, there must be some decay and ruin. Finally, there should be some corruption of the innocent. Thomas fulfills his own rules but does so in an interesting way. Emanation occurs but it toys with our authors. They're allowed a sense of escape but never release. The house craves attention just as our authors need it. It will not allow itself to be forgotten. Decay and ruin comes from both within the house but the land and also our team. Our authors are people with trauma and secrets. They carry scars both on the outside and within.
The pacing of this book is superb. The novel is a little bit on the longer side. My copy checks in at 414 pages. It's broken up into four sections. The story flows well and maintained my interest throughout. I generally enjoyed the characters, although we only received surface details of some of them. The main focus of the book centers around McGarver, Moore, and well, the house itself. The spooky scenes were written quite well. I don't really feel much of a sense of terror from books in general but I was definitely able to imagine some fantastic scenes. I imagine someone will eventually buy the rights to this book for film or television. It could easily be translated to the screen. The book was filled with a sense of dread that eventually explodes to a well composed climax.

I suppose my biggest issue with the novel is the history of the house. I found the story behind the hauntings to be far less interesting than the effect it was having on the people in the home. I wasn't really satisfied with how the house came to be haunted. We have a character who appears around the middle of the story that provides us with a reason but it felt a little strange to me and seemed to only exist so we could compare it with the motivations of the authors who agreed to the initial interview. However, this is probably more of a personal taste issue. It doesn't really harm the narrative.

4/5 - Would recommend to fans of gothic horror fans and those who enjoy a good haunted house.

The Haunting of Hill House

Slight spoilers below but....I mean, the book was written like 60 years ago. I think I get a free pass on accidentally spoiling parts of it.

Written in 1959, The Haunting of Hill House surely must have captivated audiences. The book still holds up today and continues to capture our attention. The story is a brief tale, my copy comes in at 182 pages. These pages contain a beautiful and heartbreaking narrative that will reside in your imagination long after the book is completed. My experience with Shirley Jackson is fairly limited but I hold her stories in high esteem. They do not let you go, just like Hill House.

Our story begins with the paranormal investigator Dr. Montague. He learns of Hill House, a home with a dark past. He gathers three people with the intention of spending the summer at the home. Theodora comes to us as a beautiful woman with a strong spirit. She has just had a falling out with her roommate and decides to spend the summer away to heal the discord. Luke joins the team as he is related to the current owners and will likely inherit the home. Finally, our main character Eleanor joins the party. We learn that Eleanor is a sad woman. She does not feel affection towards her family and has suffered mentally from the years she spends caring for her mother. The four almost immediately feel unsettled by Hill House. As they spend more time in the home, they discover the home may have evil intentions after all.

Although the book is filed as a ghost story, it is far more of a psychological investigation of our protagonist Eleanor. Eleanor is immediately a bit of an odd character. She frequently shows signs of an overactive imagination and some slight paranoia about situations. She is a woman who is unsure of herself and the only way she knows how to express herself is through these bursts of outlandish behavior. She develops a frenemy type of relationship with Theodora. The two are friendly as often as they are foes. Due to Eleanor's unreliability, it is unclear if the relationship is always so back and forth. Eleanor has a problem connecting to others. She is unable to form those bonds with humans that she desperately craves. Her tale is heartbreaking because it is so easy to relate to her. She is so unsure of who she is. Due to her uncertainty, she is often fearful. This allows her to become easy prey to the forces of the home.

Eleanor is so well written that it's easy to overlook the personalities of our friends. However, I feel like they are all so well composed. I'm not sure if it was Jackson's intention, but I felt that Theodora was a very fascinating character. I could be shading the intentions of the author through my 2018 eyes but it seems like it was implied Theo was either a homosexual or was bisexual. Luke was a sad character. He seemed to be going through life with little to strive for. He did not strike me as a bad person but he is introduced in a poor light. He seemed to be someone just bobbing their way through the stream of life. Dr. Montague has a challenging domestic life. His wife and her friend Arthur later come to Hill House and we can see some inner workings of his relationship with his wife.

All in all, I was unexpectedly surprised by this book. I have a little bit of fear of Shirley Jackson so I wasn't sure what to expect. The only thing I really knew about the book came from that silly Catherine Zeta-Jones movie. I'm happy to say the book blew past any expectations I may have had. This was a great choice for #Spookathon.

5/5 - Would recommend to any fans of horror, terror, and psychological thrillers