A review by kaywhiteley
Kill Creek by Scott Thomas

dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

If not for the second half of this book, it would've gotten a big fat 1 star. Frankly, it was so incredibly boring for the first 200 pages that I don't even know why I kept reading it. Every character was simply a one dimensional unlikable caricature that could be described in a single word. I'm not sure if the characters were supposed to be unlikeable but boy howdy were they! None of them had even a little bit of an interesting backstory except maybe Sam and even his story was told so flatly that it wasn't even compelling. 

For the offensive bits, why the fuck did the author mention Daniel being fat every single page. Even when he is
crying over his dead daughter
his "bulk" is mentioned. It's weird! Constant fatphobic jokes and just weird out of place quips just to remind you, in case you somehow forgot, that his whole personality is being fat. The singular main female character was written by a man and you can tell. The author had to show she "wasn't like other girls" and was badass by... being mean to service workers? She was just a bitch. I also didn't see the need of commenting on each female character's boobs, even when one of them is simply a teenager. It was just weird what the author focused on. 

This book was also just so repetitive. There comes a point where, no matter how much gore and scary shit you put in, things get tedious. The author was constantly telling us about the characters and the story without showing us through his writing. 

Overall, I just think this book was lazy. The basic premise (especially when it started branching off from every haunted house story ever) was pretty cool, though it didn't pick up until halfway through the book. I thought some of the tense scenes were written well and I liked the "villain" of the story. But even with the evil house, this book could've been so much more interesting if he went into the story behind it. Why is it evil? When did it start? What was up with the sisters? This book would've been so much better if he cut out all the unnecessary shit about Daniel being soooo fat blah blah blah and just talked about the interesting bits. 

Anyways. Lazy book, lazy writing. Trying too hard to be Haunting of Hill House but edgier with some fatphobia and misogyny sprinkled in. Not worth the parts that were actually interesting. 
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