4.5 ⭐️ rounded up. First of all, Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for the early copy of this book to review.
Going into this book I was sure how I would enjoy it. The terminology, and lack of knowledge had me a little skeptical.
But wow!! This book was soo good.

Six experience divers are locked inside a hyperbaric chamber and will spend the next month together. Ellen, the female diver has left behind her husband and 2 kids to be there, and now has no idea if she will get to return to them as one of her colleagues dies in front of her. Unfortunately for the crew, they have to start the decompression phase which takes 4 days anything earlier can kill them.

The divers are now concerned someone is doing this to them on purpose as they witness another colleague go down.

This book had me feeling like I was reading this inside the chamber. I felt like I was hyperventilating while reading it. Trying to figure out what was going on. How this was happening. It def left me gripping my kindle and not wanting to stop reading. When you are finished you are going to question what the heck you just read!! Soo good! Highly recommend!

This book gave me chills! Locked room thriller, underwater, great depths, raspberry jam?! I will never look at raspberry jam again! Flew thought the first half of this book, found the second half repetitive. Read this for lovers of locked room thrillers.

Thank you NetGalley, atria books, for the arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

And then there were none...
So so SOOOOO GOOD

In the Chamber, Will Dean introduces us to the niche career of Sat (Saturation) Diving. Divers spend up to a month or so living in close quarters underwater as they work a high paying yet dangerous job. Brookes, is a female diver, unusual and our narrator. As she explains the ins and outs you slowly get used to the military talk and the militant lifestyle for safety concerns, sort of like slowly moving down deeper and deeper into the depths of the ocean.

This dive is different. Before much time has passes one of the six is discovered dead in their bunk. Brookes and the rest have to work to stay alive as the ship slowly moves them back up off the ocean floor. Which one of them is the killer and who will they kill next?

Completely original and absolutely beguiling. Perfect Movie IMO! Grab this thriller now! #Atria #WillDean #TheChamber

This book definitely had me reading late into the night giving me all the claustrophobic feels! I also was so captivated by the setting that I went down the rabbit hole that is saturation diving and learned a lot. Such a unique setting for an and then there were non trope that truly had you guessing until the end. 4.5 stars! Love this author!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced evolution in exchange for my honest review.

Title: The Chamber by Will Dean
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pub Date: August 6, 2024

Sat Divers
Psychological Thriller
Claustrophobic Conditions
Mysterious Deaths
Unreliable Narrator

⭐️ 3/5

My Review:
First I want to say, I hate rating books less than 4 stars. I was so excited because I've heard amazing things about this author so I jumped as soon as I saw The Chamber available.. Unfortunately, this particular one is a miss in my opinion.

I didn't mind the technical description of how to dive in the beginning (it is actually kind of neat) but I did notice that several things were mentioned often (ie. things being wiped, mentions of sweat, the necessary processes, etc.) making it feel repetitive.
The premise has a lot of potential (six divers being stuck in essentially a tin can full of helium, dying for no apparent reason) but I was underwhelmed. I'm not one for claustrophobia or anything having to do with being under water, but even those factors didn't make me feel suspense. Even the twist, which isn't dropped until 80% in, fell flat for me. I finished the book feeling like we needed more.
The writing is good and I still plan on reading more of Dean's work as even my favorite authors have books that just aren't for me. I'm thankful for the opportunity to have read it early!

Thank you so much NetGalley and Atria Books for the digital review copy.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital arc!

I love a locked room mystery and this is as locked as it gets. The pacing was slow, I think due to an over abundance of technical jargon that didn’t lend itself to the story, but overall I was satisfied with the ending which is usually a 50/50 occurrence with me and thrillers.

This book was SPOOKY.. I have never read a book inside a submarine setting before and let me tell you it was eerie. It reminded me of the 2002 move Below (which I was obsessed with). I really enjoyed this book and now want to read this authors back log.

Six saturation divers embark on a long job, everyone is prepared and no one is worried... until one of them dies suddenly. Despite the tragedy, the team continues. When the next diver dies, things change. Saturation divers are prepared for all kind of frightening situations, but with two out of six divers now dead and no obvious cause to speak of, things quickly become tense. The dive job is canceled, but the remaining divers must stay inside the chamber for the rest of the multi-day decompression or risk the bends. Suspicions build and history emerges, and you're left wondering who, if anyone, will make it out alive.

I really enjoyed this one! I love that Will Dean's books are so drastically different from each other and this one was no exception. The setting in this book is so cool and so unique I was absolutely fascinated. I will say that the first two chapters took me a bit to get through, not because the writing was bad but because the setting was so interesting that I ended up going down a YouTube/TikTok rabbit hole about saturation divers, and I'm not sorry, it was awesome just like this book. Once I had a basic working knowledge of what Saturation diving is, I could not put the book down. I absolutely loved it. I can't imagine being literally locked in a room while your colleagues. drop dead in front of you. Absolutely terrifying. I also love how the backstory of each of the divers slowly emerges while they're swapping dive stories. It was definitely reminiscent of the Quint/Hooper/Brody singing scene in Jaws, which is briefly referenced, and I loved that.

I did find that there was some repetitive phrasing (bubble brain, raspberry jam, ect, especially at the end) and while I loved the shocking introduction of one of the diver's backstories, I didn't love the end. It seemed almost seemed like the author wrote two endings and couldn't decide between the two. I don't fully understand how the end would have worked mechanically, but it somehow managed to not derail the book. The whole thing is very entertaining! Highly recommend this book to people who love a good locked-room mystery, but I also recommend this author to everyone!

This was such a thrilling book! Six deep sea divers are locked in a tiny diving chamber while they complete their job at "saturation". And then someone dies. The pacing is great. The suspense is spot on. The divulging of new information well plotted. For anyone who loves a fast paced thriller.

Ellen Brooke is a sat diver, one of a very few and a female at that who is diving in the North Sea. When her and the team of 5 others start the job it is business as usual. Most are veterans of the trade and one, Tea=bag who is new and has only been on like 2 other dives previously. When Brooke comes back up from the first dive of the mission it is to find that the other four are trying to save one of their felllow divers who is having a medical emergency. Was it foul play or did he have an underlying medical condition?

I really enjoyed how this book opened. I am an active duty Navy Sailor and the beginning paragraph just called to me. And it is so true. I have been so into locked door mystery/thrillers and even horrors lately. I have read a few that took place in space and while they were considered more “horror” this is more what I wished those were. I felt more in suspense about what was happening and not knowing why and what was actually happening to the divers throughout the book kept me enthralled and pushing through the book at such a fast pace that I read it in roughly 4 hours. I also liked that the characters were not young 20 something but characters who have expereienced life and the hardships that have come with life. The stories that were told for background and to get the characters through the time for decompression I found interesting and added more to the story and the background of each individual and made me more sympathetic to each one.

This is my first Will Dean book. I do have his previous book The Last One on my tbr and sitting right next to me and I will be starting it right away as I believe he will be a new favorite author and will looking into the rest of his backlog!

Last summer, Will Dean blew my mind with “The Last One”, so I was very excited to also get this ARC. Instead of being trapped on a cruise ship, in this book we have people locked in a hyperbaric chamber. These six people have been working deep in the North Sea, and now will need a few days to slowly ascend to the surface. They will eat, shower, sleep and work in very close quarters, but the money is worth the risk of claustrophobia and the potential for injury.

Then, one of them ends up dead. The group doesn’t know how a healthy man can just die, seemingly for no reason, but they must continue on. They get his body into a lifeboat…and then there were five. As the days go on, they are dropping like flies until there are only two of them left. They ran out of body bags, so the remaining two are stuck in this tiny vessel with their friends decomposing in the hot, helium-filled atmosphere of the chamber. Tensions rise as the two each believe that the other is a murderer.

I liked “The Last One” better, but this was still a great book that teaches the reader about this career and the risks that go with it. The characters were written well, the murder mystery was done well, and the whole thing was very suspenseful. Four stars!

(Thank you to Atria, Emily Bestler Books, Will Dean and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on August 6, 2024.)

"Chamber" takes your breath away! It sends shivers down your spine, makes every hair on your body stand up! It makes you feel trapped, paranoid, delirious, sweaty, dizzy, helpless! You feel like one of the six people caged in the chamber, forming conspiracy theories about who wants to kill you, who the main villain is: somebody inside or anyone working in the corporation sending your food, your drinks, equipment you use. Who? Even writing these sentences made me hyperventilate.

One thing I’m sure of is you’re going to feel exactly the same as soon as you flip the pages of this book. You're going to feel like you’re suffocating. You will barely restrain your screams and feel an urge to throw the book and run aimlessly without direction, but the book is too addictive to leave. You're going to want to know what’s going to happen. And with each chapter, the pressure builds more and more. You feel like the walls are closing in on you and you will be squeezed like an insect. Especially in the last chapters, as the countdown continues, you will feel the sweat appear on your forehead, dripping down from your hair, and curse loudly, even scream, because you are about to explode with suspicion, pressure, praying the hatch door opens without more incidents like more dead people! And that ending! Oh boy! What the heck did I just read? Yes, you’re going to steal this line because as your jaw hits the floor, the only thing you can say is these words or something similar to them!

Well! This book is a roller coaster and the best locked room/chamber mystery that gives readers every kind of worst claustrophobic feeling and one of the most realistic, effective thrillers that I've read! It’s not only a well-written whodunit mystery that takes place in a hyperbaric chamber (for the readers it seems like a barbaric chamber), it is also a well-executed psychological thriller that questions the sanity of people who suffer from PTSD, tragic events that ruin their entire perspective and ability to think clearly. Especially the war stories the divers share from their pasts, the things they’ve seen, left behind, and regretted in remorse are so heart-wrenching that they leave a mark on your soul.

Let’s give a quick recap of the plot that revolves around six experienced saturation divers who find themselves locked inside a hyperbaric chamber, and as the clock ticks, each of them starts dying. Ellen Brooke, 38, leaving behind her husband and two kids for this mission, has no idea what’s going on and if she’s going to leave the chamber alive as her colleagues start dying in front of her eyes. Could someone inside be the perpetrator or are they guinea pigs of the company sent to die in this chamber? What’s really going on? Why do the detectives who force them to take fluids from the corpses and send them talk vaguely about the reasons for death? Why can't they have any WiFi? What are they trying to prevent them from knowing?

The best thing is, until the last page, you keep questioning what really happened in the chamber, and you will realize nothing is as it seems.

I loved this thriller, and if I had a chance to give more than five stars, I would do it without hesitation! It’s so good!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books for sharing this amazing thriller’s digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

What a suffocating and claustrophobic read! The ending was a bit bland for me, but the journey of being inside the chamber and Wet Room--I was hooked. This is what I imagine being on a submarine is like, except way more humid and with tight quarters. I'm sure Dean had to conduct some research before writing this, and the diagrams and definitions at the start were helpful as someone who does not dive or have much interest in doing so.

A team of saturation divers is gearing up for a month-long job on the sea floor, residing in a hyperbaric chamber. External management of pressure is crucial to prevent serious harm or fatalities. When one diver dies inside the chamber, suspicions arise among the others. However, the process of returning to the open air is gradual. Confined in close quarters, they question their trust in each other and those outside. Is everyone in jeopardy? Was the death natural or the result of foul play? Paranoia and fear escalate as the chamber's opening approaches. Will anyone survive?

Will Dean expertly manipulates paranoia, delving into the characters' past traumas amplified by their current predicament. The locked chamber intensifies suspicion, but reliance on external support adds another layer of uncertainty. The story starts as a slow burn but quickly gains momentum. Reader discretion is advised due to mentions of loss. Grateful to Netgalley for providing an advance copy of the book.

This was a hard one to rate. The concept was wild: a team of six deep-sea saturation divers are in their hyperbaric chamber, and then they start dying off. No one can figure out wtf is happening, and no one can leave the chamber until decompression is complete (or they will basically explode and look like raspberry jam, which is mentioned 1,000 times). Is it someone from the support team killing them off or is it someone locked inside with them or ????

There was a diagram at the beginning of the book, but I still had a hard time understanding how the chamber/ship/diving bell situation worked which was very distracting to me while I was reading, so I had to do a bunch of googling to figure it out (while avoiding seeing any actual pictures of this situation because I am scared to death of the stupid ocean and the creepy s*** that lives in it, so thank you random scuba diving message board for providing the answers).

Here's how it works (I think - if I'm wrong, I don't really care because I want to forget any of this even exists as soon as I'm done writing this review): the divers go into the hyperbaric chamber, which is attached to a big boat, and the chamber is pressurized to match the pressure at the bottom of the ocean. The divers stay in the chamber for the entire duration of the job, other than when it's their turn to work, at which point they get in a diving bell which takes them up and down from the surface to the deep ocean to do their oil pipe welding or whatever without having to do a lengthy decompression every time. They get their supplies and whatnot passed to them through an airlock or something from the big ship.

Could there be a worse job than this? I think not. Being locked in a tiny, hot, metal box for weeks at a time, with your only outlet being WALKING ON THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN WHILE TERRIFYING THINGS SWIM AROUND YOU? No f-ing thank you. Also, I have had an irrational fear of The Bends ever since I died from them in a Choose Your Own Adventure book at age 8. Also quicksand.

Anyway. Amazing setup, horrifying situation, interesting characters (which also took me a bit to figure out because everyone has a name and a nickname)... and then there's mostly a lot of wiping surfaces and sweating, and it's all very repetitious? But then also terrifying? It definitely kept me reading, and there was a very upsetting reveal that I enjoyed, but I really, really hated the ending - like throw the kindle on the floor hated it.

I think fans of Dean's other books will like this one -- I can't say I didn't enjoy reading it, but I was super furious by the end, which kind of ruined it for me.

This book gave me goosebumps multiple times throughout, it left me with an eerie feeling I couldn't shake, the writing was incredibly detailed and I found it so interesting!! The amount of detail and explanations regarding all the little details that was included was just amazing, it never felt like too much information or clunky, it flowed perfectly with the storyline and it really shows the amount of effort that Will Dean put into this book.

You could truly feel the desperation and fear that the characters were feeling in the moment. The entire book takes place in a claustrophobic inducing hyperbaric dive chamber, with 6 saturation divers beginning a month long job, until one of them is found dead and more are soon to follow. With the decompression process taking 4 total days before the divers can be let out, they are stuck together while desperately trying to figure out what is happening to them.

This book was hauntingly immersive, I was sucked in from the very first chapter and absolutely loved how fast paced the plot unfolded. You will be left a paranoid, uneasy feeling, this locked room thriller is a must read!!

I really love the concept of the story. It was unique and I've never read anything about divers before. Also, it appears a lot of research was done to make the story accurate and believable to the readers. However, it did fall a bit flat for me. I didn't really care much about any of the characters, although my heart did break late in the story with the reveal that her family had been killed. It also was very confusing in its accuracy. I had to keep referencing the diagram and/or googling. The ending fell flat for me a little as well. In my mind, it was Ellen who was guilty (not sure if that was the author's intent). But if that was the case, I would have loved a big boom at the end where that was more clearly revealed. Overall, it grabbed me enough to keep reading, but was underwhelming and confusing. 3.75 stars, rounding up to 4.

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Chamber releases August 6, 2024

Haunting and claustrophobic. This suspenseful, locked room thriller was my nightmare come to life and I will never view raspberry jam the same way ever again.

Six saturation divers are confined to very close living quarters in a hyperbaric chamber for a month, but when a diver unexplainably dies on their first day, everything changes. The remaining divers must wait out the necessary four days of decompression time before they can be released, though who’s to say if everyone will make it out alive?

Dean created a setting that was wholly immersive, with stakes that were incredibly high from the moment the characters stepped foot into the chamber.
The meticulous hygiene routines paired with the constant need to keep calm and maintain a levelled headspace were aspects of this novel that really fascinated me.

I loved every minute of this, even if it made me feel uncomfortable and tingly in my own skin!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher.

One of the most tense locked-room thrillers of recent memory. Another brilliant work by Will Dean!

A team of saturation divers prepare to work on the sea floor. During a month long job they will live inside a hyperbaric chamber. The pressure must be managed cautiously from outside to safeguard against serious injuries or death. When one of them dies within the chamber, the others begin to worry. Unfortunately the process of returning to open air is not quick. These things must be done slowly. Confined in tight quarters how well do they know each other? Their reliance on others on the outside concerns even more. Are they all at risk? Was this natural causes or foul play? Paranoia, fear, and intense emotions grow as the countdown to opening the chamber gets closer. Will anyone make it out alive?

Will Dean is a mastermind at playing with paranoia. All of these characters have been through trauma in their lives, their current situation only makes that grow. The locked chamber makes you question who could be most suspicious, but don't forget the six divers depend on everything from the outside. This book was a slow burn at first that kicked into high gear quickly. There are several mentions of loss within the story, so be warned. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book.