 Hey everybody, E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today we are talking about The Chill by Scott Carson. I went to tap the book and completely missed. If you don't know, I have been informed over and over and over again. I do know now. Thank you so much to everyone who destroyed my mentions trying to tell me that Scott Carson is Michael Corita. Is that how you pronounce the last name? I'm not sure. David, let me know if I'm saying that right. Corita, Corita, I don't know. I have never read any of Michael's work and the only reason I'm calling him Michael is because I don't want to keep on screwing up his last name if I am. I haven't read anything. I've heard of Michael. I just haven't read anything from him. I had one book sitting around here. I have no idea where it went to. I guess he's a thriller author and he wanted to do something different. He wanted to write a horror novel set around a dam in, is it New York? I'm pretty sure it's New York. But you know what? Let me try something out real quick. I've been working out some bugs here. But let's go to my new friend, Ebert. Ebert! In this terrifying thriller, a supernatural force set in motion a century ago threatens to devastate New York City. Far upstate, in New York's ancient forests, a drowned village lays beneath the dark, still waters of the Chilwalki Reservoir. Early in the 20th century, the town was destroyed for the greater good, bringing water to the millions living downstate. Or at least that's what the politicians from Manhattan insisted at the time. The local families settled there since America's founding were forced from their land, but they didn't move far and some didn't move at all. Now a century later, the repercussions of human arrogance are finally making themselves known. An inspector assigned to oversee the dam dangerously neglected for decades witnesses something inexplicable. It turns out that more than the village was left behind in the waters of the Chil when it was abandoned. The townspeople didn't evacuate without a fight. A dark prophecy remained too and the time has come for it to be fulfilled. Those who remember must ask themselves, who will be next? For sacrifices must be made and as the dark waters begin to inexorably rise, the demand for a fresh sacrifice emerges from the deep. Alright so now that we are up to date on the synopsis, let's jump in to the review. First things first, I got this book for free from Atria Publishing for review. There was no monetary I'm not being paid for this review. I have been brutally honest about some of their work. I do love the publisher as a whole but there are books from them that I have not absolutely loved. Some of them I absolutely hated. This one I absolutely loved and there's gonna be a lot of people going but it's got a Stephen King blurb on it. I know it had a Stephen King blurb on it but this copy doesn't. What I'm getting at is, if you don't know what I'm saying that is, I tend to stay away from books that Stephen King, yes I'm a huge fan boy but I think his taste in books is it's not my taste in books. I love the guy's writing but he tends to have suspect tastes in books maybe even ulterior motives as to why he gives some books praise. This is the one time a broken clock is right twice a day. This is one of those times where I agree with Steve this is a fantastic book. The main the main reason I feel that it's a fantastic book is for the character of Aaron Ellsworth that it was so so well written as far as the addiction side and him trying to live up to this this huge shadow or trying to pull himself out of a shadow or whatever you want to put it. The relationship between him and his father was terrific. I was so upset for certain sections where I was just like just give him a chance just pay attention because as the reader we know what is going on we know what's happening. Luckily Carson does not does not focus in on those elements too much as far as the dragging you along making you think that there's going to be this huge misunderstanding that's going to ruin this relationship between his father and son but it's always he does just enough just enough to keep you on the edge whether or not you're you're not sure whether or not this is going to turn out all right for these for these two characters. There are other characters in the book they are fine they're dandy. I don't remember the names of those but it's been it's been a while since I read the book because the the PR team coordinated with me and wanted to do a live unboxing for the book and I wanted to wait until then so I will upload this video around that time that I do that with them. The other characters did not stick with me as well as Aaron Ellsworth. There was a lot of love and attention poured into that character and the other characters felt like I guess if you've read me Bentley Little this feels like a Bentley Little book but maybe a little no it's not even it's not even more on this on the end of like literary side it is a straight up horror novel. You don't see too many books like this from big companies like Atria and I really really wish we would see more especially from this company. If they can find more authors pumping out quality like this in the horror genre we could have another resurgence of literate not not really literary but big pub horror. If we could if we could harness that energy and get back to that place that would be great and I would probably read more horror. Right now everybody says the indie market is where to go to for horror and for the most part they're correct you got your Malermans you got your Tremblay's you got your pin bros you got you got you have these people but I mean there there's only so many of them that was a time when you know every single publishing house had three or four authors now they might be on the literary side of things but at three or four authors that were deep into the horror genre that was pumping out books you even had you know the highly I guess she would call it the highly literate side for the Anne Rice people and then you had people that some might say the bottom of the barrel like you know you're Stephen King's but with this one this is like a a Bentley Little Book it reads like a Bentley Little Book it feels like a Bentley Little Book and that's not to discount the author to discount Carson it's when I said I loved Bentley Little maybe there's a little more character development in this because that's what I was lacking so much why I stopped reading little also we got repetitive there's a little more character development in this than you would get I do remember one book very specifically from Little's catalog the ignored that had great character development but other than that I didn't really catch too much so if you're looking for a Bentley Little experience with deeper characters and you know deeper character interactions I would say definitely check this out but what we all want to know is the story any good I've been rambling on and on about all this the story in my opinion is fantastic it's nothing you haven't seen before there's not a whole lot of originality here but what Carson does in his own voice with his own story is a lot of fun to read now I don't know if there were I don't know if this was on purpose but there are a lot of illusions to Stephen King's the shining in this book a lot of interactions with I don't want to there there are two characters one might not be there it reminded me very much of Jack and Lloyd that there's several several things that really got me there's even a point where I think one of the maintenance men says of the dam something about pressure it creeps or it'll creep up on you or whatever and in the shining there was you know it creeps now I want to talk about just very very briefly about a horror novel I didn't like from atria publishing and that was the mansion the mansion was too on the nose with with all of its illusions to the shining I mean you had twins you had you know house in the in the winter you had isolation all that stuff with this one this one feels like there are elements of the shining in there but it does something completely new with the scenario and about I would say the three-quarter mark I want to say maybe it's the halfway mark something huge happens and I was not expecting the author to go there there's some character deaths that I didn't that I did not anticipate which really it really it's really hard these days to find a mainstream or a traditionally published author that is willing to take risks with with characters that have been built up other than like George R. R. Martin the the characters that have been built up and Stephen King characters that have been built up they they kind of stay away from damaging or harming those characters the authors do and I don't I don't agree with that I like I like I like a high body count and this this definitely has one um it's one of the only town drowned drowned town stories that I've ever really liked there's the movie in dreams with uh not Lewis Gossett Jr. oh my god what did I just say Robert Downey Jr. there's in dreams with I think it was a net bending and and Robert Downey Jr. there's Mailerman's the House of the Bible I mean it's a premise that's been that's been done a lot uh but I do I did enjoy Carson's version I enjoyed Carson's world building his characters all that stuff and I'm gonna give this a full five stars I I've thought about it long enough and the character of Aaron Ellsworth alone has pushed me past I was gonna say a high four four point five that that kind of deal but I think I'm gonna go with the full five because I really can't fault the book in any way shape or form uh so if you are a fan of Bentley Little if you are a horror fan in general I highly suggest you check out the chill by uh Scott Carson or Michael Corita I want to say Corita if I'm screwing up that name I apologize but until next time I have been E you've been you this has been another book review I'll talk to you guys later bye