The story starts out with a brutal murder, and then cuts to a stereotypical millennial couple moving to the suburb. The Chrysalis is engaging enough that I found myself thinking about it when I was doing other things. While reading the first half of the novel I didn’t have a problem putting it down when my reading time was over and I had to do other things, like make dinner or go to work. The second half of the novel I could not put down. I read it in one go, at bedtime, and then couldn’t sleep because I was afraid that I was going to have nightmares. At first I felt bad for the characters, especially Tom. He gives up a lot to provide for his little family and it had to be hard. In his mind he is basically selling out by taking the sales job that allows him to be a provider. And Jenny, getting fired from her job just when she finds out that she is pregnant, is dealt what had to be a devastating blow emotionally. Things go from bad to worse when Tom discovers the chrysalis in the basement. I’m going to admit that it took me a long time to realize that the chrysalis in the basement symbolizes addiction, and that the whole novel is about how addiction can ruin your life.
The Chrysalis is scary enough that it kept me awake at night, and it made me feel kind of queasy. Which, for a horror novel, means that it did its job. If you aren’t jumping at shadows and uncomfortable after reading a horror novel, did you really read a horror novel?

I really had no business reading this book. I don't read a lot of straight-up horror and so it's difficult for me to compare this to other horror as my experience with it is very limited. However, my husband is a horror buff and as I read this and told him about it he was intrigued. I stopped giving him plot points later on as I'm hoping he will read it. What I can say for certainty is The Chrysalis kept my attention and hooked me right from the opening pages.

The Plot
While there is nothing special about the concept of Brendan Deneen's latest book; there is a creepiness to the writing and portrayal that permeates throughout and got to me. A weird 'thing' exists in the basement of a creepy house bought by a couple who are trying to find their place in life as they are forced to leave their New York apartment and buy (in a low price bracket) in New Jersey. The main plot is about the house itself, about our couple and the deterioration of their marriage, and (of course) the 'thing' in the basement called the chrysalis. Where did this thing come from? What does it do to people? How does it live? And what are our lead characters going to do about it? All questions that Deneen gives us answers to throughout the story.

Lead Man
I enjoyed the perspective of the leading man in this horror story. He's an unambitious bartender who seems (more or less) content with his plot in life. He doesn't make a lot of money and doesn't mind until his wife gets pregnant and they need to pay for a new baby and their mortgage. I think the depression and emotions of our lead guy are very genuine. At points I wondered if author Deneen hasn't lived some elements of the story and experienced some of the same thoughts. Looking at my own life, (I have a mortgage and a husband) I couldn't help but wonder if my own spouse has had some of the same thoughts of our leading man. He feels so genuine and authentic. Perhaps that is what makes this story so compelling and creepy; not that the chrysalis exists, but that the man who is affected by it is so realistic that you can't help but understand why he does what he does in the end.

Overall
Again, I can't speak to the scariness for the regular horror reader; but I can say that for me it was creepy enough and that there were points at which I was concerned I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I did not read this before bed for that very reason. As I read more than one book at a time that works for me. While I would have liked to learn more about the chrysalis itself and it's origin there is not a lot else to really criticise in terms of content and plot. However, there were points during the wife's pregnancy that seemed a bit unrealistic or de-emphasized. While I've never been pregnant myself, I have known many women who have been and it seemed that some of the difficulties of the wife during her pregnancy were downplayed.
As an aside, I loved the authors note and acknowledgements at the end. He gives a lot of credit to others and I must agree with his assessment that the brilliance of doing the story over 9 months of a pregnancy is one of the best elements in the story (even if he didn't come up with that idea himself). I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good supernatural, alien, x-files, horror-like story; with the caveat that while it disturbed me in places I'm not sure it's 'scary enough' for most horror fans.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

I am usually not a fan or horror or scary books but this one was a quick read that jumped off the page. I kept thinking this would make a good scary movie and seems to be written for the screen.

This book got a creepy vibe on it but it didn’t quite achieve the chilling factor I was expecting. The title spoiled us of what’s lying in the basement although what it can do remains a mystery. After the prologue, you can immediately get an idea of what’s about to happen to our characters and yet hoping that maybe it will still surprise you along the way.

The characters are okay, but they are not someone you can easily relate to. I had trouble connecting to any of them especially Tom. He appears self-absorbed most of the time, even before the chrysalis, and I couldn’t care less whatever happens to him. Jenny isn’t any better. For a pregnant woman, she sure likes her alcohol a little too much. As it is, I can’t find any sympathy towards the couple.

As for the chrysalis, it sure is creepy but after the initial encounter, not so much. There’s just not enough of it and I would have preferred to know a lot more about it because I was left with a few unanswered questions. There’s just so many interesting elements that were left undeveloped. It certainly got a huge potential but didn’t quite deliver.

In spite of all those issues I have with this, I’d still say the book turned out to be an okay read. Not too bad, but not great, either. Some may enjoy it but for me, something is missing. Maybe because it didn’t quite meet my expectations. It looks like it could be a good movie, though.

Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of The Chrysalis in exchange for a honest review.

The Chrysalis is the first book I've read by the author so I was open minded when I requested it.

** Spoilers ahead **

Tom and Jenny Decker are already living hand to mouth when they are forced out of their tiny apartment by a huge rent hike. They are pleasantly surprised when they find an affordable house in Jersey, despite their strict budget.

The house needs work but its roomy, spacious, and most importantly, cheap.

Then, Tom finds the chrysalis in the basement. And that's when the weirdness happens.

I was all ready for the creepiness to start but there were a few obstacles I had to get through first.

1. I disliked Tom, and I barely liked Jenny. They were closet alcoholics, all they did was drink, drink and drink some more. Not all millennials are like this. Or maybe they are and I'm just biased because I don't imbibe.

2. Tom, Jenny, and Ray, the contractor, all had traumatic childhoods. Tom grew up in an abusive household, Jenny's father is unkind and Ray, some poor schlub no one cares about, for some inexplicable reason tells the reader about his own abusive childhood that sounds nothing more than filler. And I don't care about Ray. But the chrysalis does.

Even Kevin, Tom's BFF, mentions his absent parents who died and how he had to live with his grandmother and siblings, struggling to make ends meet.

What's the author trying to tell us?

That most of us have f**ked up childhoods? Newsflash: that's not news.

To make the characters more sympathetic? Ehh...try again.

3. The premise isn't original but worse, it wasn't scary.

It wasn't dark enough. It's billed as horror and there's your typical body horror, body changes, hallucinations, nightmares, voices, violence, mood changes, but it's not SCARY.

I wanted more interaction between the chrysalis and Tom. Does it speak? How does it forge a connection with Tom, its host?

Basically, The chrysalis didn't intrude into Tom and Jenny's life enough. Months go by but we don't get an understanding of the profession of how the chrysalis invades Tom's life, and bit by bit, Jenny's.

4. No exposition on the chrysalis itself except minor details from the previous homeowner who had excavated it.

5. The writing is simplistic and the author LOVES the world BEETLING.

He describes eyebrows doing that no less than three times. I think someone needs a thesaurus.

I was open to a haunted house story or an alien story, whatever it is, I'll give it a shot, but poor characters and lackluster writing made this a fast read, but not a fun one.

I was very much looking forward to reading this, as I kept seeing and hearing about it everywhere! Thank you for the chance.

I enjoyed the book, but it was a bit more science fiction than I was expecting, rather than horror. The sex scenes seemed a bit sudden and out of context, I wasn't quite expecting them as I was cruising along. I did like the writing style, for the most part, and I felt like the characters were very well-developed. I was definitely scared a few times, so the horror part was still evident.

The Chrysalis by Brendan Deneen follows a young couple (Tom & Jenny) who decide to move to the suburbs when their NYC apartment rent skyrockets. There is not much available in their price range – except a beautiful, ‘too good to be true’ century home. Naturally, it has a dark history, but Tom and Jenny don’t really consider why it was such a bargain until later. That was just their first mistake! Then Tom ventures into the house’s creepy basement and discovers a living, breathing chrysalis. The chrysalis has a strange pull over him and soon things start going terribly wrong (think Jack in The Shining). The Chrysalis had the feel of an old, throwback horror movie. It has a great, potentially-creepy premise, but in the end it feels a bit campy. This is not necessarily a bad thing -- I like a bit of camp once in a while!

The nitty-gritty: Disturbing and atmospheric, The Chrysalis combines traditional horror elements with solid character development and delivers a cautionary tale about addiction.

The Chrysalis is being described by a lot of readers on Goodreads as “science fiction,” but I just don't get that. To me, this was pretty clearly a horror story, and while it might not work for some horror aficionados, I personally enjoyed the slowly building terror and the creepy atmosphere. This isn’t a haunted house story, but there is something awful living in the basement of the Decker’s new suburban home, and it wreaks havoc on Tom and Jenny’s relationship, not to mention their relationships with their friends and family. Take a bit of Rosemary’s Baby, add in a dash of Little Shop of Horrors and The Shining and mix well with Deneen’s horrifying glimpse into an imploding marriage and you’ll have an idea of what to expect.

Tom and Jenny Decker are a young couple living in New York. Tom’s an artist but works as a bartender, and Jenny is a personal trainer, dodging lewd passes from her businessman clients. They live in an apartment that they love, until one day the landlord triples their rent and they are forced to move out of the city. Luckily, they find a huge old house in the suburbs that they can easily afford (with the help of Jenny’s rich sister Victoria), and despite the fact that the house is literally falling apart and is stuffed full of the previous tenant’s junk, they decide to move in, thinking it might be a fresh start. And just days after they arrive, Jenny discovers she is pregnant, a surprise to both of them since they hadn’t even been thinking about starting a family.

Jenny refuses to go down into the basement, which is stacked high with old furniture and boxes, but Tom is drawn to it, for some reason. One day he decides to start clearing out some of the junk and discovers something sinister: hiding behind an old refrigerator is a large, slime-covered, pulsing chrysalis clinging to the wall. Tom feels compelled to touch it, and when he does, he feels an intense, drug-like high that also gives him blood-soaked visions of killing people. When Tom snaps out of the influence of the chrysalis, he barely remembers anything, but just like any addict, he can’t stay away from the chrysalis for long. Soon he’s sneaking into the basement at least once a day for a fix, but Jenny knows something is up.

As Tom begins to change from the loving husband she once knew, Jenny knows she must do something to bring him back. But the chrysalis has other plans for them…

We spend a lot of time with the characters in this story, and not so much time in the basement with the chrysalis (more about that later.) But I’m not complaining. I loved getting to know Jenny’s sister Victoria and her wife Lakshmi. The dynamic among the four of them is fraught with tension, since Tom can’t stand Victoria. We also meet Tom’s best friend Kevin, who is constantly trying to get Tom to come and work for his company. As the story progresses, and Tom’s personality and behavior goes downhill, we get to see how that behavior affects each relationship in a different way. I thought it was an interesting choice to make Tom and Jenny heavy drinkers, just bordering on alcoholism in my opinion, which also affects all their relationships.

I loved the atmospheric quality of the story. I’m a sucker for creepy house stories and Deneen does a great job of describing the house with all its dark corners and terrible smells, rotting wood steps and peeling wallpaper. The suburban setting adds to the feeling that the Deckers are no longer in the heart of the city, but stuck out in the boonies by themselves. The story is divided into nine sections which follow the progression of Jenny’s pregnancy, which I thought was a clever way to frame the story. It also added a lot of tension, as Jenny gets closer and closer to that nine month mark. Jenny’s due date is in December, and I loved how the weather turns cold and snowy as things move towards their inevitable climax.

One of the odd things for me in this story is that the chrysalis itself is mostly “off screen.” Most of Tom’s interactions with it are described after the fact, so as far as monsters go, it was pretty passive. If you’re looking for an in-your-face, action-filled horror story, you won’t find that here, although there are some violent moments. Instead, this story is character focused, and the real horror is Tom’s descent into homicidal madness. Deneen touches on lots of human fears--impending parenthood, job security, money worries and changing relationships--and uses the chrysalis to magnify those fears.

There were several story elements that I felt could have been better developed. Let’s just say I had a lot of unanswered questions when I finished reading the book, and while the author may have deliberately left things vague, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions, I would have liked to see the story expanded in parts. For example, Tom makes friends with Malcolm and Hannah, a father and daughter who own a local bar, and when they first meet, both are taken aback at how much Tom looks like Malcolm’s deceased son Nick. Later, Jenny visits the bar, and Malcolm and Hannah tell her that she looks exactly like Malcolm’s dead wife. This weirdness is never explained, and in fact has nothing to do with the rest of the story. Since the author never did anything with the idea, I just felt, what was the point of putting it in?

There’s also a hint that Jenny’s unborn child has something to do with the chrysalis, but again I felt like it was a terrific idea that just wasn’t fully developed. The action picks up near the end, in fact it turns bat-shit crazy, although the ending left me scratching my head a bit and also felt a little abrupt. Ultimately, this story isn’t about the chrysalis, it’s about Tom and his addiction to the chrysalis. Deneen almost could have left out the scary bits and this would have been an effective and emotional drama about a troubled marriage, but luckily he didn’t. If you’re in the mood for an atmospheric, psychological tale with a focus on the characters, then you’ll love this book.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

This book wasn't what I expected but I am definitely glad that I read it. It is a quick read and besides who doesn't hate basements? They have always creeped me out so I can definitely relate. Thank you for allowing me to review this book.

The Chrysalis is billed as 'horror' when it is, in fact, more science fiction. It also reminds me of a movie called Devil's Gate that was released last year.

This is a book about an ordinary couple in an ordinary town with some extraordinary events happening in a basement. I felt there was something missing. I wanted the 'thing' in the basement to take over Tom and Jenny's life. I wanted the 'thing' to be...IT, I guess.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book

I LOVE horror. I love horror movies and creepy books, so I was excited to read this book when I requested it on Netgalley. I do have to be honest, I'm not sure if it's really horror, or more Sci-Fi, but the book does have some very creepy parts. If you like horror and Sci-Fi as well, you could easily read this book, I finished it in two days!

Pros
First chapter: When a book has a strong beginning, I'm tempted to keep reading and it just feels different from a book with a slow start. The first chapter was SO CREEPY. I remember reading it in the dark and having that creepy feeling that you just want to turn on the lights. Very good beginning for this book
Slow build up: I love how the book builds up slowly. You as a reader can see the doom coming, but the main characters do not and I just love the be a part of the rollercoaster ride.
Helpless: I felt so helpless while reading this book. I kept looking for ways out or ways to help and I was wondering if things would be okay, all the time. Sometimes in books I can easily figure out a good solution, but I wasn't able to do that with this book. The author really did a good job on that part.
Ending: YES. The ending is good, in my opinion. I loved the fact that you don't get all the answers. You see that in horror or Sci-Fi books more than in other books and that's why I love to read one of those books once in a while.


Cons
Drinking: The drinking and the alcohol abuse in this book is not something that appeals to me. The main characters are, in my opinion, alcoholics and it made me dislike them. It cost the book a whole star for my review, because the book would've been even better if I LOVED the main characters. Now I didn't really care for them...


Overall
I see a lot of very critical reviews for this book. People are disappointed, because it's not your classical horror. People say that the book isn't scary, but I don't agree. If you like horror and Sci-Fi you'd be able to rush through this story. The beginning and ending in this book are strong and if you want to know how it ends... Pick it up!

I am 99% sure this title was categorized as "horror" when I requested it. It is currently listed as "general fiction," which is a much more accurate genre for this book. Unfortunately, I DNF'd this title around 40%. I was hoping for a horror/sci-fi novel, but the sci-fi element is a very small part of the story that is mentioned in passing here and there. I do think the novel is well written, but the story was not working for me this time!

When a couple's rent goes sky high they move to the suburbs to a house that seems perfect for them. They have no regrets as great things begin happening to them once they are settled. However, their lives take a twist when they learn of the tragedy that befell the previous owners and things start falling apart for them. For those that like gore and psychological terror this is the book for you.

I wasn't really into this one, but I'm sure it will find it's audience. The characters were a little bland for my liking, and the plot felt jumpy.

A superb chiller with enough creeps to have you keep the lights on while reading to the final page! Deneen has constructed a solid read.

This book was like a weird old horror movie in all the best ways. Family buys an old house, and the old house has… something in the basement that is causing a lot of issues. It slowly drives a man mad, and the book chronicles the decline of his family and himself as the thing in the basement gains power. There’s not much more to it than that – it is a b-movie of a book in every conceivable way, and while it’s not going to win any awards, it was an absolutely fun ride that I could really get behind.

I enjoyed this book. It wasn't scary or anything, more of a kind of creepy, sci-fi type book. You sort of knew where it was headed before it was revealed. Good for a weekend read.

Reminiscent of a 60s sci fi movie, The Chrysalis is entertaining and well-written, with likeable characters. Not scary, and nothing new plot-wise, but could see this becoming a popular film adaptation.

The Chrysalis is an interesting read, one I probably wouldn't have read had I known it was sci-fi rather than horror. Perhaps the book should be marketed more towards sci-fi because there are many who love the genre. I myself went into thinking it was a scary book and was quite disappointed that it wasn't- especially considering the premise.

The Chrysalis was an entertaining read. I didn't find it scary per se (perhaps because I don't have a basement), but it was gripping, and with each page turn, I wanted to find out what would happen next. There was a filmic quality to the piece, which makes sense as I know discussions about a film were underway at the time of writing, and I can certainly see this working well as a horror movie. For a horror book, I felt it was a little lacking in the scares, being more creepy than outright horrific, but the characters were well drawn and the pacing generally good. I think the story might excel more on the screen, but it was still a decent read and worth a couple of hours of your time. 3.5 stars from me.