TW: violence, gore, body horror, domestic abuse, suicide, child abuse, self-harm

Four authors are brought together for an interview in an old, supposedly haunted house dubbed “Kill Creek.” But after a slightly odd night in the house, the authors are sent on their way.

But when each author, the interviewer, and the camerawoman return home, they feel a sense of the house, its spirit, follow them home. They are forced to meet again to find out why they think this way and how they can stop it.

While this took me a bit to get into, I ended up enjoying this read. The real strong point of this story is the character work. That is the aspect of the story that stands out to me. And while this is a horror, I did not feel scared. I don’t fault this book for not being scary; I am not easily frightened. I will say that I think this book will scare a lot of people. I have mixed feelings about the haunted house trope, but this one worked for me.

The character work done by Thomas was masterfully crafter. That being said, two characters who hat stand out to me are Sam and T.C. Moore. I loved how Sam was a haunted man, even before he entered the house. Thomas did a great job of creating this sympathetic character that I don’t feel sorry for. Sam is very understandable, yet there is just something, something out of reach, that feels inherently wrong about him. But he is not a bad guy either; he’s complicated. T.C. Moore is a total badass that men, of course, either love or hate. She’s sexy, sassy, sarcastic, and mean. I love a mean character. She’s a good person; she’s just tired of feeling pushed around by the men in her life. And her stories push boundaries, just like she does. These two characters stick out to me, but overall every character three-dimensional. They were all vastly different. I never felt confused by who was who. I loved how different each of their motivations was as well.

Sadly, I was not scared by this book. It’s not the book’s fault, but it would have been nice. The setting was interesting enough, but the physiological torture the characters were going through outside of the house was more interesting than the house itself. And it took quite some time to get into the actual horror of this book. I wish it had started sooner because it would have kept me more interested way faster. But that was not the case here.

Overall, this is a fun book to read if you like horror. It’s nothing too groundbreaking, but it is a good read. If you enjoy the haunted house trope or are looking to try out the haunted house trope, I recommend this book.