The Mansion
by Ezekiel Boone
due December 2018
Emily.Bestler. Books/ Atria Books

Billy Stafford and Shawn Eagle were best friends who spent much time together growing up, in a cabin in a remote area, developing computer hardware. They formed a company, Eagle Logic that differed from other artificial intelligence systems, this was a next generation intelligence system that could follow commands, but also could read your mind and anticipate your responses. Like a mind-reading Siri or Alexa. Things were going well....the company was thriving and they both were looking forward to a successful future. Until they both fell in love Emily. Shawn dated her first, but Billy married her and Shawn took Eagle Logic as his own, developing it into a multi-billion dollar computer company, worth more than Google or Amazon. And Billy was struggling, became addicted to alcohol and pills and Emily stood by him.

So it was awkward when Shawn contacted Billy. He would zero out his debt, which was substantial if he would help him develop "Nellie", the name he gave his artificial intelligence device. Nellie has a glitch and Billy can fix it. Billy is suspicious. Why now? What is really going on?

I really enjoyed this well paced book. The Nest and Eagle Logic were well done and fascinating, my favorite part of the book.
Thanks to Emily. Bestler Books/ Atria for this e-ARC.
#netgalley

The Eagle Mansion - a dilapidated, abandoned resort with a questionable, dark history, that the surrounding townspeople swear is haunted. Still, IT-golden boy Shawn Eagle decides to renovate it to above and beyond it's former glory, including a technological advancement that he thinks of as his Magnum Opus - Nellie, the personal assistant to end all personal assistants. She can tell you the weather, order a gift for your aunt, have your grocery list delivered to your door. She's omnipresent and is supposed to be self-teaching so she can assure the happiness of her master. However, there's something not quite right with Nellie, and there's only one person Shawn can ask for help. His former partner, Billy Stafford, with whom Shawn has a very contentious relationship, but who coded some of the most significant parts of Nellie. Billy agrees to move into Eagle Mansion, with his wife Emily, to see if he can work out the bugs in Nellie's system. Nellie, however, has different ideas about what Shawn, Billy, and Emily should be doing.

The Mansion had a lot of stuff going on. There was the mansion itself - creepy and maybe haunted, with a history that would turn your gut. There was also the very rocky relationships, not only between Shawn, Billy, and Emily - but also between Billy and Emily, and Billy, Emily, and Emily's sister. There was Billy's history of addiction, Emily's creepy nieces, Shawn's history with his parents and their tragic deaths, the disappearance of Shawn and Billy's college roommate, Takata. And at the very center of the story, Nellie. There were many tiny plot lines that seemed so interesting and promising at the beginning of the story, but ended up not really coming to fruition or being that important to the main story line. I feel like this could have been a way more solid story if there had been two or three of those ideas that had come together at the end to create a very strong ending. Instead, it was just whispers of too many ideas.

I also felt like The Mansion had some pacing issues. I felt geared up for something spooky to happen over and over, but nothing ever really did.

All in all, maybe this shouldn't be thought of as a horror novel. Maybe if I had gone in thinking it was more of a science fiction thriller, I wouldn't have been so disappointed at the lack of things scariness. It was a very interesting idea, but I didn't like how it developed. I was disappointed with how everything came together in the end.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel.
I was super excited to read “The Mansion” by Ezekiel Boone, not only because of the time of year, but because I absolutely loved Boone’s previous works (The Hatching and Skitter). That being said, I headed into this one with high expectations.
Shawn Eagle and Billy Stafford spent two years living in nearly complete seclusion, working on a new technology that would innovate the world as they know it. Although the two come close to developing their technology, it is not yet at the level they expected and when Emily, Shawn’s girlfriend, leaves him for Billy, the relationship is severed completely. Soon, Shawn is a tech billionaire, living on the fortune that the new software brought him, and Billy, now married to Emily, is an alcoholic, struggling to make ends meet. When Shawn invites Emily and Billy to his old family mansion to work out the kinks of the technology they started on so long ago, things quickly go terribly wrong. The new technology, “Nellie”, has a mind of its own and soon, the very house they live in is under her spell. Billy needs to work out the glitches in the system before it’s too late for all of them.
This novel started off slow, and it took quite a bit of time for me to become invested in the plot. A lot of tech speak, spliced with snippets of the history of Shawn and Billy’s friendship, made up the majority of the first portion of this novel. It did not start off scary right away, and seemed to play out more as a science fiction novel than a horror, which is not what I expected from Boone.
Shawn was not a likable character (mostly due to the arrogance he possessed, that I assume is the result of being a multi-billionaire), but Billy and Emily were somewhat more relatable, and those two characters alone allowed me to form a bond with the novel.
“The Mansion” is reminiscent of “The Shining” (from the haunted house aspect right down to the psychic twins) but the possessed house also made me think of the Simpsons’ Treehouse of Terror episode (the one where Pierce Brosnan acts as the voice for the super-tech possessed house?) and the plot does not have the creativity of Boone’s former novels.
The novel does have its creepy moments, especially in the modern times we live in with technologies like “Alexa” almost the norm in homes everywhere, and the premise will definitely creep you out. There is the occasional gore and act of violence, which is expected from Boone, and periods of downright fright. Overall, though, “The Mansion” is probably more science fiction than horror, but it definitely deserves a read all the same.
I recommend going into this one without expectations, and not to draw comparisons with Boone’s other novels. With that mindset, “The Mansion” will be a technological creeper that will haunt you and leave you pondering- how much power can our technology have, before we lose control of our own lives completely?

The premise is about a futuristic smart house or well “mansion” controlled by an AI named Nellie with lots and lots of flashbacks. It was just an “okay” read for me. The beginning of it was a little slow and repetitive which almost made me put the book down as it dragged on. A part in the beginning explains Billy, wanting to punch Shawn, over and over that I was almost considering not finishing because I was so annoyed at the repetition, like we get it, he wants to hit him. However, it did pick up about half way through with some good action and a love triangle. I did feel this was a bit long at 400+ pages and could have been cut down as most of the book was filler and only a bit was actually about the AI itself. I feel like the author really didn’t know what he wanted out of the book and just included everything instead. It wasn’t scary, there was no real “horror” moments and was just too slow of a read for me. I was a little disappointed and didn’t connect to any of the characters really. Although, this is my first novel by the Author, I will be open to reading another from him as I heard his other series are really good.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC and allowing me to give my honest opinion.

If the Overlook Hotel had an Alexa, you’d have The Mansion.

The upcoming novel, The Mansion by Ezekiel Boone is the story of Billy Stafford and Shawn Eagle, two computer programmers who created a game changing operating system called Eagle Logic. While they were developing the program they lived in a tiny abandoned shack on the property of the crumbling Eagle Mansion, a property belonging to Shawn’s family that was popular with bootleggers and revelers during prohibition. After a few years of living and working together, Billy gets the girl (Shawn’s girlfriend Alice), but Shawn gets the program and years later is the most famous man in the world while Billy is a recovering alcoholic barely making ends meet.

Shawn decides that the next product his company is going to release is one he and Billy had worked on together, a program called Nellie, a super Siri/Alexis that can control an entire house, not just give you directions or turn on your TV. Nellie is deployed during the massive restoration of Eagle Mansion, the dilapidated old hotel that they lived on the grounds of but the project to turn the mansion into a hotel and tech conference center, with a residence for Shawn, is plagued with accidents and deaths. It soon becomes clear that something isn’t right with Nellie so Shawn is forced to put aside their rivalry (and admit that he’s not as good a programmer as Billy) and bring Billy in to find the ghost in the machine.

When I read the summary of the book I was very excited to read it but a very promising premise dissolves into The Shining lite: old hotel isolated in a snowy setting? Check. Recovering substance abuser caretaker? Check. Creepy twins, kids with some sort of psychic ability? Check and check. This book comes in at over 400 pages and while I enjoyed Boone’s writing style, the story itself takes a very long time to get going. The first 50-60% is full of character development (unfortunately you won’t care about these characters) and doesn’t focus on the haunted house aspect of the story which is what I was looking forward to as a fan of thrillers and horror. When the story does shift to Nellie and what is the cause of all the incidents at Eagle Mansion the plots disintegrates into a love triangle, waving goodbye to any element of horror or suspense that the author was building at the beginning of the book. Skip this book and ask Siri or Alexa to recommend another.

Young programmers Shawn Eagle and Billy Stafford have created something that could make them rich: a revolutionary computer they name Eagle Logic.

Once tension sets in between the guys, Shawn’s girlfriend, Emily, has left him for Billy, and a third partner has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. While Billy walks away with Emily, Shawn takes Eagle Logic, which he uses to build a multi-billion-dollar company.
Years later, Billy is a failure, beset by poverty and addiction, and Shawn is the most famous man in the world. Unable to let the past be forgotten, Shawn decides to resurrect his and Billy’s biggest failure: a next-generation computer program named Nellie that can control a house’s every function. He decides to set it up in the abandoned mansion they worked near all those years ago. But something about Nellie isn’t right—and the reconstruction of the mansion is plagued by accidental deaths. Shawn is forced to bring Billy back, despite their longstanding mutual hatred, to discover and destroy the evil that lurks in the source code.

This is definitely a unique story, unlike anything I've ever read. I liked the spooky feel that you get when you read about this mansion and what it's capable of doing. To me this felt like a modern day horror story similar to Stephen King's The Shinning.

#NetGalley
Pub Date 04 Dec 2018

Oh boy.... I was pretty disappointed to say the least, it’s rare when I hate read a book and if it wasn’t because I requested it for review, I would simply not have finished it.

The novel was so slow, the love triangle felt forced and by the end of it all I just didn’t care about any of the characters.

The only cool one there was Nellie and if this was a book just about her maybe it wouldn’t have been that bad.

To put it simply: The novel felt as flat as this review and that’s saying something.

**Arc kindly provided by Netgalley**

Congratulations Mr. Boone on your non-arachnoid breakout story!!!!!

I don't trust tech now but after the "big scary house that could" I will never trust it!!!

A good flow, good characters and some UNIQUENESS!!!!!!!!

Ezekiel Boone's "The Mansion" is creepy and suspenseful and bound to make you think (at least for a minute) about whether that new Alexa- or Siri-enabled device you bought was a good idea. The book, set mostly in upstate New York with some scenes in Baltimore and Seattle, has a little bit of the vibe of "The Shining" meets Arthur C. Clarke's HAL 9000. Years ago, two tech bros fought over a girl and a fledgling company. One got the girl, and one got the billions. Who really was the winner? When they reconnect later in life, it's initially hard to say. A new project brings the men back together, unearthing old secrets and setting the scene for a showdown.

Ezekiel Boone is a pen name used by Alexi Zentner, a faculty author at Binghamton University.

This book is a cross between The Stand and 2001. I liked it but didn't feel a strong connection to any of the characters. It's well written and worth the effort of reading but not great. I'll definitely give this author another chance.

I read The Hatching series by this author, which I enjoyed, and after seeing the cover of this one - needed it immediately.  And AI books fascinate me.

After reading this, you may think twice about having a smart home.  The thought of a computer program becoming sentient and deciding independently to control the lives of its creators is freaky scary.  It made me think about how my Alexa speaks at random times - even when no one is in the room with her.  Nellie is dark and dangerous - and she really shines the last 20% of the book during some intense situations - but I wish she would have gotten more page time.  It's mentioned in the blurb that Shawn, Billy, and Emily had a love triangle back in college, but the drama surrounding that, and flashbacks from their respective pasts make up a larger portion of this story.

Not that the plot of The Mansion is anything like The Shining, but being a King fan, I noticed some parallels - a secluded mansion/resort in the middle of winter, an alcoholic sleeping very little and consumed with his work, a character named Wendy, and young creepy sisters - but these are twins with an unusual connection, not ghosts.  

I wouldn't classify this book as horror scary, but more disturbing and unnerving.  It's a long read at over 400 pages, and contains a good bit of repetition, but I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to both sci-fi and horror fans.  With this being an ARC, the word count may change before publication.  

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

So premise of this story as absolutely addicting! I was super excited to dive into this one... but unfortunately my diving was not worth my overall experience :(.

Ezekiel Boone delivers a story about a haunted house influenced heavily on to the technological side. Can I just say.. I'm never buying one of those google/Alexa devices after this though haha.

The story focuses on Billy who is tech giant combining Apple and Google.. always wanting to strive more. Billy and his ex partner Shawn ran a company together... and Shawn ended up walking away will billions of dollars. Billy on the other hand left with his girl and dived into alcohol. When Billy gets a call from Shawn offering him something he can't pass up about a new system called Nellie he dives in head first.

Let's just say.. Nellie isn't all what she seems to be. Boone took the elements of a haunted house and takes his readers for quite a ride. Let's just say... be careful with getting caught up with your inner demons.. this may effect your mind more than you think ;).

What I was disappointed in? I felt like the author focused so much on the characters in the beginning that the story of the haunted house and Nellie was left in the dust. "Nellie" didn't start picking up until the last 40 percent of the book. I was wanting more of the haunted house element and it was lacking big time for me. I felt it was a tad bit overkill with the storyline of the characters and we kept repeating the records of their mistakes and the past catching up to them.

The length was a tad bit too long for me and in my opinion could of taken at least a 100 pages of the characters out and added more of the house atmosphere/Nellie.

Overall, 3 stars for me on The Mansion.

Huge thank you to Netgalley and Atria for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review.

Publication date: 12/4/18
Published to GR: 10/13/18

The Mansion by Ezekiel Boone subverted my expectations in mostly all good ways. I was expecting a straightforward "computerized-house-goes-wrong" story. While it was that, it also went much deeper by really giving us three-dimensional characters and an believable backstory.
First off, I really enjoyed Boone's writing style. It sucked me right in and kept me wrapped up like a comfy blanket. I enjoyed the time he spent developing the characters and the dynamics in this tragic love triangle. I believed them as real people with authentic dynamics between each other. I loved the world he created in the house: very much a high-tech Overlook Hotel vibe. The biggest thumbs-up I can give to this book is that I made time to read this book, i just didn't read it passively when i had a few minutes here and there as i often do. That doesn't always happen.
My only problem was with the structuring of the story. I felt we spent about 60% of the book in the set-up/exposition phase, 30% in the "at the house" phase, and 10% in the climax. That's not a good division. When the climax came, as exciting as it was, it felt unearned. I wanted more time in the house with things going wrong to build up the tension before the final craziness.
But, that being said, I will read more from this author as I enjoy his style, and overall enjoyed The Mansion. I just would like a little more time and energy spent on the "Act II" section so the great climax gets set up appropriately.

This book was unique. I really wanted to like it, but it was just ok. I really didn’t find it horror at all. There was a lot of focus on a love triangle.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Unfortunately, this was a book I wanted to love, but I just couldn't get into it. I tried multiple times to come back to it, but it was difficult. There was so much description at the beginning, building the story, but it lost my interest, and as much as I tried, I couldn't get through it.

The call is coming from inside the house. Wait… the call is the house itself?

Ezekiel Boone’s The Mansion is a haunted house thriller influenced heavily by the tech industry. It follows the story of Billy Stafford, the former co-founder of Eagle Technology, a global giant that combines Apple and Google and always searches for more. While is ex-partner, Shawn Eagle, walked away with billions, Billy left with the girl and a bad case of alcoholism that has plunged him deeply into debt. When a call from Shawn comes, offering a substantial financial reward if Billy can just iron out the kinks in their new proprietary system, Nellie, he’s eager to jump at the chance.



Needless to say, Nellie is not what she seemed. Boone takes elements of the classic haunted house and twists them. Shawn Eagle has a dark background filled with deaths, possibly murders, but there are no traditional ghosts within the book. At the same time, Nellie isn’t a true AI- or is she? It was something I was left slightly confused with by the end of the book. The characters insist that Nellie isn’t an AI, but to my uneducated perspective she clearly was. If it walks like an AI and it talks like an AI, does it follow that it has to be one?



Still, I liked The Mansion. I’m not normally big on techno-thrillers, but because this followed such a traditional haunted house/horror narrative, it was easy for me to fall into the story, despite the lack of traditional spirits and chills. I didn’t necessarily find it thrilling, per se, though I did enjoy the hints of supernatural that pepper the story, the clear nods to legends like Stephen King.



My largest complaint is that for a story that focuses so specifically on a house, the story of the house was left curiously unresolved. There’s an element of Chekhov’s gun here; we hear many characters making allusions to creepy, terrible things that have happened in the mansion’s history, but we never really learn. Or rather, we do, but it’s quickly explained away within a few sentences in a revelation that lacks satisfaction for how much and how long the hints persisted. Given that the ending relies heavily on understanding the house’s history, I wasn’t thrilled by the end.



All in all, I did enjoy The Mansion, but I felt it had potential it still needed to live up to. The characterizations are strong, which can be rarely in a horror novel, and I’d honestly recommend it based on those alone. They’re pretty decent portraits of nuanced, deeply flawed individuals who are struggling to make ends meet the only way they know how, constantly running from a past they have to confront.



Happy October everyone!

Not Your Average Haunted House

The Mansion is a complex story that has melded the old-fashioned haunting with 21st century smart-house technology. It's got supernatural elements, but there's also some very creepy artificial intelligence. I've never read a book that combines things in this way and the result was excellent. I was plenty scared.

The author’s handling of both the computer tech and parapsychological scenarios is accurate and believable. The story simmers with dread from the start. It progresses from a college-aged friendship broken by a love triangle, building into a sustained crescendo of all kinds of horror, terror, and murder, with twists the reader won't expect. It's a great read!

I had this book on my tbr list but bumped it up when a fellow reader raved about this book. Thus, I could not want to read this book. The story started out fine. The author did a good job of describing the dynamic relationship that Billy, Shawn, and Emily shared together. It was a bit of a tangled web.

In the beginning I got an idea of just what type of AI, Nellie was when the construction workers were sharing stories of incidents that had taken place while building the mansion. However, there was not enough Nellie for me. She appeared when Billie arrived in the house. The way she interacted with him versus with Shawn; did tell me that she had a "crush" on Billie. Yet, other mysterious events did not transpire until later in the book. I do agree that the idea of an AI controlled house is not ideal. Example: I read an article where an Alexa device turned on by itself and started playing music. The problem is that it was about 2 am and the owners were not home. The police were called where they broke the door down because no one was home.

This book for me did not hit the "sweet" spot like my friend. However, there was something there within the pages of this book that did have me intrigued. I would read another book from this author.

After reading Ezekiel Boone's The Mansion, I don't think I will ever, ever, EVER purchase an Alexa for my house! When I read about this book on a friend's Instagram feed, I immediately knew I needed a copy of it. Who wouldn't love a book that involves a love triangle, a haunted mansion, and artificial intelligence? If that sounds like a lot of themes to tackle in one book, yes, you are probably right. However, somehow Boone makes it work for the most part. 

The book's central three characters are Billy, Shawn, and Erica. Shawn and Bill meet in college and become quick friends over their love of technology and coding. They set out to build an expansive artificial intelligence (AI) named "Nellie," devoting two whole years to making their dream a reality. To make it happen, they move out to a remote, dilapidated cabin on Shawn's family's property. The cabin is barely inhabitable, but they sacrifice comfort for the promise of wealth and Silicon Valley fame.

Emily is the girl in between the two men. She fell in love with Shawn while in college, eventually dropping out to help support Shawn in his pursuit of developing a revolutionary AI. She ends up living with Shawn and Billy in the cabin, cooking, cleaning, and tending to their needs as they throw themselves headfirst into coding Nellie. Unfortunately, things fall apart, and Emily ends up leaving Shawn for Billy. The project falls into despair, and the three don't see each other until nearly a decade later.

Flash forward to the present. Shawn is now a tech billionaire who, despite all his riches and fame, has yet to finish Nellie. Billy and Emily, who are now married, are broke and barely making ends meet. Shawn, who still is bitter that Emily left him for Billy, knows that the only way he can make Nellie come to life is to hire Billy. Shawn takes a risk and hires Billy to return to Nellie, which Shawn began to install at his family's historic mansion. Billy reluctantly accepts the challenge because he and Emily are nearly bankrupt and need the money. Shawn promises them the world if Billy can make Nellie work, so Emily and Billy move into the creepy mansion in hopes of a second chance at life.

My main critique of this book is that the characters' backstories took up most of the book (60%). The readers really didn't get to the gory, scary AI mansion stuff until the last 40% of the book. In fact, I would have probably read another 100 or so pages if the book included more about the mansion. Nonetheless, I kept reading because I was really into the characters and their motivations for returning to Nellie. The characters share really dark, depressing histories, which cloud their judgments and cause them to make poor decisions while trying to build Nellie. And if you're trying to build an AI in a human's image, do you really want these troubled young people creating Nellie?

Thank you to Ezekiel Boone, Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for an advanced e-galley of The Mansion. This was the perfect spooky read for fall!

`I received a digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"The Mansion" by Ezekiel Boone, is a perfect example of a wasted concept. When I received this book I was very excited. I was raised on SciFi horror, but have found it very rare to find this genre in books. Based on the cover, I was expecting just a general horror story. But upon reading the description, I was surprised to find that it was, in theory, not this. It was actually about an experimental house AI going wrong. Sign me up! A modern ghost story, without an actual ghost. HAL 9000 meets "House on Haunted Hill". This is exactly the style of book that needs to be written.

But that book isn't this book, that type story was not written. The story of "The Mansion" felt as though the author had an idea, but not enough substance for that idea, so it's filled with secondary and tertiary plots that are pointless, and the actual plot, the actual book's description is so poorly handled and barely touched on that it was frustrating.
The plot opens in Michael Crichton style, we follow Billy, a washed up, recovering alcoholic who is actually a brilliant programmer. He's estranged from his ex-best friend Shawn, who he parted ways with over a girl (and now Billy's wife) costing Billy everything. Shawn has taken Billy and his developments from college and became a billionaire, while Billy is a janitor. However Shawn wants to revisit an old project, one that was very much Billy's, and this is something he can't figure out, so despite their past, he brings Billy into the fold with the mission to make "Nellie" ,a house AI, their house AI, functional and ready for the public.
In true Crichton style, Nellie is currently implemented in Shawn's old family mansion, now fully renovated, in the middle of nowhere. Billy and his wife will be moving into this secluded mansion for Billy to work on Nellie, and get paid lots and lots of money.
Everything about this sounds great, foreboding and the opportunity for an unsettling modern "ghost" story. Paranormal isn't for everyone, but most people have the tingle of fear with the exponential level of advancement we've had with technology. Especially with how ingrained it is in our everyday life and the quicker we move toward an automated lifestyle. This makes this style of book perfect for the modern audience.
However, the author didn't commit, and this destroyed this book. A combination of not committing to his concept, amateurish writing, pointless subplots, vapid characters, and ham-handed delivery, this book falls completely flat.
The opening of this book drags on and introduces many of the author's amateurish fallbacks. Including dreadfully dull and long exposition (30% of this book, is just Billy learning that Nellie is still "alive" and discussion about him going to work on her). He uses a repetition that makes it feel even longer, the first 6% of this book was all about him hitting Shawn, and the author said this, over, and over, and over, again. We get it, he reaaaally wanted to punch Shawn. The author also does something, that many modern books are guilty of, and is a huge pet peeve of mine but probably won't bother most. He makes too many references to name brand things. This IMMEDIATELY ruins the longevity of a book, it dates it. I read A LOT of vintage writing, SciFi specifically and almost NEVER do they reference brands, you never see IBM or long gone brands. Sure Ommegang beer is a thing now, but in 15 years it could be long gone, and in 30 years, are people going to have to stop and look up this reference. This happens a lot, he references clothing brands, Google, Amazon, Apple (a current tech trifecta but will be laughable if one goes under someday). He's writing this book for right now, without any thought about the longevity, a good book will last a long time, and the style or language might date it a little bit, but brands date it instantly. This bugs me, especially when it could easily be replaced with "he was worth more than the top tech companies combined". The other thing that bugged me, was the chapter titles, they are horribly inconsistent and at times very childish, for example, Chapter 2's title was straight out of a Dianna Wynne Jone's book and was titled " In which Emily Wiggin's takes a nap". Terrible, terrible title, and the first of many boring and pointless chapters. To top that terrible chapter title, he ends that chapter with " She fell asleep right as Billy said-" and then finished the sentence at the beginning of the next chapter. This was such a children's book tactic, a picture book tactic. It was awful.
Emily...Billy's wife and her family were such a pointless part of this book. Emily is vapid, for someone who is established as an overachiever and intelligent, she spends the book being a stereotypical female. She reads romance novels, wants to write one but can't. But she's sexy and sexual and both men are obsessed with her, and dropped out of college to hang out with two boys in the woods, fell in love with both, but picked one. She's full of herself, easily bought out, and her feelings for Shawn after 10 years, while she states don't resurge, obviously do, because alllll she thinks about is if he's still into her. She plays a horribly weak, unfortunately, key role in this book.
Her family. feels like they belong in a different book, and are where you first see Boone's lack of commitment to his concept. Her twin nieces were conceived at the creepy mansion 7 years ago, and that made them have supernatural abilities. Their role is pointless, drawn out, and adds absolutely nothing to the plot. Yet way too much of this book is focused on them and Emily.
The other majority of this book is filled with a repetitive never-ending backstory to the mansion and Shawn. Continuing to take the plot away from the SciFi and into the realm of paranormal. It couldn't be a rogue AI, we have to have a creepy backstory to give it a reason to be rogue.
After all this, we have intermittent parts of the ACTUAL plot. Of Nellie, and Nellie is beyond underwhelming. Her parts read like a petulant teenager. Her "ghost in the machine" surfaces primarily as her ending her sentences with off-handed comments, showing she's not all she seems, promptly causing a character to say "what" and her to cover up by saying nothing, or a normal thing that sounds like the "unsettling thing". None of the things she says are actually unsettling by the way, It seriously read like " You're going to love it here. YOU"LL NEVER LEAVE." "What was that Nellie?" " I said, look at the leaves.". It was dreadful. Nothing ooky spooky happens, there is no slow build, nothing eerie, just a bunch of the AI muttering things, the twins not liking "Her" and then it escalates quickly. It seriously goes from harmless mutterings to a full-scale panic and assumption of "She'll never let us leave!". Literally with no other incidents happening. It's so rushed that the book is over before you know it. With an equally underwhelming climax, that made absolutely no sense. The actual AI part made up at maximum 15-20% of the book. The rest was filler. Filler that I think was supposed to make the finale impactful, but it didn't.
His dedication to making this a paranormal thing bogged down the whole book and stripped it of any meaningful story. It didn't succeed as a thriller, a horror, a scifi, a character drama... a story. it caused the plot to be incredibly disjointed. It left me underwhelmed and wishing for the story described in the summary. If Crichton was alive he would have rocked this plot, that man wasn't an amazing writer, but he knew how to handle exposition, science and tech, and thrills. You can be a fine writer (I haven't read Boone's other books, so this is up in the air for me) but that doesn't matter if you don't have a solid foundation and plan for your book. Which Boone absolutely didn't have.

If you're looking for a SciFi thriller, this is not it. If you're looking for a mediocre character drama, then maybe I'd suggest giving it a try, but there are plenty of other options out there. I wish he had given himself more time to suss out just what he wanted this book to be.