Really interesting, dark book. Reminded me a bit of Gillian Flynn's stuff.

The story kind of floats along much like the lead character Dustin. You're never quite sure what is real or true. The shifting character perspectives add to the mystery. The whole thing is well done and well written. A few cons: I'm not sure I loved the 3 column layout for a few sections. I get what the author was going for, it just was a little annoying to read. Same goes for the sentences that. The sentences that end out of nowhere, like that last one just did.

And that ending. This is not a great book to read if you're looking for a neat and tidy resolution. Now I don't need all loose ends to be wrapped up in the books I read, but I did have an AWFUL LOT of remaining questions on the last page (which is a testament to the writing) and that left me feeling frustrated.

While the basis of Ill Will dealt with stringing together narrations and memories from two different events/time periods in Dustin Tillman's life, the format of the story felt disjointed and unfinished in a way that left me feeling disconnected from both the characters and the plot. There was not only shifting between the past and the present, but also between characters - Dustin's son, his cousin Kate, etc. all become the focal point of certain chapters. From these narrative shifts to the chapters that end with unfinished sentences and thoughts, Ill Will just became to feel sloppy to me in its execution.

Thank you Netgalley and Ballantine Books for allowing me the chance to read this book in return for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Publishing for providing me with an ARC of Ill Will by Dan Chaon. Below is my unbiased review.

If you're looking for a warm, fuzzy feelgood read, look elsewhere! This book is dark, disturbing, disjointed and all kinds of terrifying. I finished this book in one day because I was completely caught up in the story.
Dustin, a middle age husband and father, survived a horrific crime in his childhood which was said to be committed by his foster brother, Russell. Now, thanks to DNA testing Russell has been exonerated and Dustin fears Russell may seek revenge. Meanwhile, Dustin is dealing with a crisis in his marriage and balancing his work as a psychologist. When a patient of Dustin, a former cop starts presenting Dustin with startling evidence of a possible serial killer, Dustin's fragile existence begins to implode.
Told through multiple perspectives and shifting narrators this thriller is gripping and riveting.
Dan Chaon has written a smart crime and psychological thriller , that did not disappoint this reader.

What you think you know...What you think you remember....what if it was wrong?

The book opens as Dustin, a Psychologist in Cleveland, receives the news from his cousin, Kate that his adoptive brother, Rusty had recently been exonerated through DNA evidence after serving 30 years for a crime he did not commit. The Crime - killing he and Dustin's parents, aunt and uncle. The trial that sent him to prison symbolized the 1980's obsession with satanic worship. Rusty was sentenced to 30 years primarily based on the testimony of Dustin and his cousin Kate.

Dustin believes that Rusty will come looking for him. As he braces for that, Dustin spends his time with a patient who is obsessed with a sting of drowning deaths of college men. At first he believes his client is just paranoid when he suggest there is a serial killer on the loose. But then as Dustin talks with his client more, lines get crossed and the Doctor - Patient relationship goes out the window and the two become like amateur detectives on the search for a killer. Not only does Dustin risk his professional career, he puts his family at risk at well.

Bad judgement seems to be a theme for Dustin. The book goes back and forth between the past and the present. From the past we learn more about Dustin and Rusty. Their "relationship" and behaviors leading up to the killing. We also learn more about all the teens in the book and their "relationships" with each other. There is a lot of Dustin being lead astray and a lot of twisted relationships.

There is also Dustin's present day family. His wife has passed away and he has two sons. The oldest is away at College while his youngest is on a downward spiral due to drug abuse. Rusty enters the young man's life causing all the characters to be on a collision course with each other. The two investigations come together in the end.

What is Memory? How easily can memory be changed? How susceptible is someone to having false memories implanted? HUGE questions for this book.

I liked the book. I didn't love it. There were parts that I really enjoyed and there were parts I thought were repetitive. I think I would have liked the book more with a little more editing. I also wanted more of Rusty's trail, more information on how he was exonerated - what led up to that the part his cousin played in finding him innocent. What I did like, was the revelation that Rusty had about himself. I wont give it away but it was insightful. At least I can say, that his character knew himself. In the end, I felt let down by the conclusion. I was sitting there thinking "What..it just ends like that?" I wanted more from the ending. I was slightly disappointed.

I received a copy of this book from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was trying so hard to be a clever psychological thriller and it missed its mark. I think it was weighed down by an excessive amount of verbiage. It could have been helped by some healthy editing to unearth the plot.

This is one of those compelling stories that has a downward spiral and an ending you can predict, but that you must read anyway--and quickly. The central character is Dustin, a practicing psychologist who has made his reputation based on work about repressed memory therapy and hypnosis. His dysfunctional family background has included the murder of his parents and aunt and uncle when he was a child, followed by his testimony leading to the conviction of his adoptive brother for the murders. Although told in the first person, the point of view is predominantly Dustin's, but along the way the reader begins to question his reliability. Still grieving for his wife, who died a year and a half before the book's present, Dustin is losing touch with his two sons, now in their late teens, with whom he used to be close. One of his patients is a police officer on leave for undisclosed reasons, who is obsessed with a rash of drownings of college-aged young men who have all drowned while drunk. Dustin is drawn into this obsession and so are readers, and there is a sense of urgency to find a killer before there are more victims. The family's extensive back-story does not detract from the suspense. The shift of focus to one of the son's narrative for the end of the book is slightly disconcerting, as the various plot lines are wrapped up.

"Ill Will" was not an enjoyable or captivating read. The plot sounded as though it was going to be intriguing and thought-provoking, but all I really got was a scrambled mess that was all over the place. I tend to enjoy books written with several viewpoints, but the number of characters and the time jumps between book parts was not laid out in a way that readers will want to follow.

Makes you think! I enjoy a read that can keep me engrossed and is written well, no matter the genre. Creepy sometimes but I couldn't put it down! I recommend for sure and this is my first book I've read by this author. I'm now a fan!

The author is experienced at creative writing, and the prose is very good. That upgrades the rating from one star to two stars.

However the artistry completely detracted from the story. The plot is improbable, the ending is ludicrous, there are too many extraneous characters, and the sequence of events has no relation to reality.

Read the book if you enjoy watching an author weave their words into pictures, but if you want a thriller then read something else.

This story did not hold my attention; I did not finish it.

I think the book has a lot of possibilities. Do think it needs another editorial run through (which I expect it will get).
Thank you for the opportunity to read it. See my posted reviews below.

Dan Chaon's new literary thriller, <i>Ill Will</i> starts with the story of a horrific murder scene in Dustin Tillman's childhood. The novel spirals downward from there. Dustin is the most unreliable narrator telling a story that is obviously rigged and I kept reading, hoping to get to the truth. I felt that I was plodding along in the foggy world Dustin and his son, Aaron, were living in...no sparks of life here. I agree with others that even the resolution is a mystery.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Ballantine Books (March 7th 2017).

The ill wind was something that swept everyone away. With some use of flash backs we see a pretty happy mostly normal family. One family comes into a bit of money by way of accident on the job to the father. He wants to adopt a child and does take in a foster child with a troubled past. Add an overly imaginative child and female twin cousins and life becomes more fantasy at times than real.
After a horrific fire the fantasy plays a part in the foster child taking the blame for the adult parents demise.
Looking at Dustin, the surviving son, who is still quite gullible and is now a psychologist we find someone still living some fantasy life. He meets up with another individual who brings ideas of how young college males are being systematically attacked and drowned. Before long everyone is caught up in this hypothetical drama with unforeseen and deadly consequences.

Thank You to Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine Books for providing me with an advanced copy of Dan Chaon's Novel, Ill Will, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT- In the 1980's, Dustin's parents, aunt, and uncle were brutally murdered, and his older adopted brother, a troubled teen named Rusty, was convicted of the crime. Twelve year old Dustin and his teenage cousin, Kate, were key witnesses at Rusty's trial. They fed into the satan worship hysteria that was popular in the 80's, explaining how Rusty murdered rabbits during satanic rituals, and how he had involved Kate and Dustin.

Thirty years later, new evidence has exonerated Rusty and he is finally freed from jail. Aiding the fight for Rusty's innocence, is Kate's twin sister, Wave, who is estranged from her family, due to her disagreements over how their had parents died and Rusty's trial.

Dustin works as a therapist and his wife has just died from cancer. He is unsettled to learn that Rusty is out of prison and refuses contact with his brother. Dustin is struggling to cope with his grief, and can't connect with his two college aged sons, Dennis, who lives on campus, and Aaron, living at home with a barely concealed heroin addiction. Dustin works with a client who is obsessed with a string of murders, college boys who are dumped in rivers, and soon, he joins his client in the obsession. Dustin's paranoia increases, when Aaron's best friend, nicknamed Rabbit, is murdered. Is this a coincidence or is Rabbit a victim of a serial killer? Signs point to a satanic ritual, could that be a factor? Is Rusty somehow involved? If Rusty didn't kill his family, who did?

LIKE- This is my first novel by Chaon and I don't often choose suspense-crime novels, but I thoroughly enjoyed Ill Will. The story is engaging and fast paced, a true page-turner. I never quite knew where the story was headed and I was genuinely surprised by the ending. Ill Will is creepy and disturbing, with rich imagery.

Speaking of imagery, the grimy settings are filled with sensory elements, rooting me in the story. For example, there is a former mortuary that has been turned into a drug house, with many of the elements of the former business still somewhat intact, like the elegant chairs that once held the grieving, are now draped with strung out teenagers. The series of small rooms in a mortuary, lend themselves to this unsettling experience of a horror house: as Aaron walks through to score, he mentions not knowing if a meth-head would jump out to stab him. The scene setting is rich throughout the story, with settings like the "stuck-in-another-era", dusty farm house that the kids are sent to living with their grandmother after their parents die, or Rabbit's house, unkept since he is a heroin addict and his single-mom is dying of cancer. Not a single location in Ill Will is pretty, which fits with this grim story. I felt unsettled throughout.

As with the settings, the characters are strong and unforgettable. Ill Will is told from different point-of-views, which works well, as it would have been difficult to spend an entire novel in Dustin's paranoid mind or Aaron's drug-fueled haze. I was most interested in the dynamic between Kate and Wave, inseparable twins in childhood, who are driven completely apart by their parent's death and the trial. They have a similar reaction to the murders, an intense paranoia that has followed them into adulthood. However, rather than living off the grid like Wave, Kate's sense of safety comes from living in an apartment in the middle of Hollywood Blvd, among people rather than the isolation of her sister. Neither can let this fear go, but the way they manage it, is opposite.

Chaon makes interesting narrative choices. Sometimes he jumps into first person, which upped the intensity in the moments he used it. He also plays with style, for example, dividing a page into two or three columns, and writing a different scenes to be read in parallel. I've never seen this done, but it was creative and served the story.

DISLIKE- The only negative and this is minor, is that I found myself unevenly interested in places, in these spots, I thought the pacing, which was generally rapid, slowed. Usually this happened during the Dustin narrative. Too much Dustin.

RECOMMEND- Yes, Ill Will is exciting and surprising. I'm definitely going to read Chaon's other novels. I love finding these new-to-me-authors, that have already written several novels that I can immediately devour!

What a twisted tale we weave. Normally, I don't like stories that have only evil characters, but this book is the exception.
Basically, it is the story of a psychologist, his upbringing, personal life and patients. Dustin's parents were murdered allegedly by his sinister step brother when he was growing up, but the details are murky. One of his patients thinks he has proof of foul play in the drownings of several college boys. Now Dustin's step brother is being released from prison and Dustin does not know where the truth lies anymore. Very suspenseful.

Chaong's thriller is definitely that. This book leaves you with questions, but has you in suspense the entire time. Ill Will, told from multiple points of view, follows the serial killings of "drowned" college boys and brings back talk of Satanic Ritual fears of the 80's. A little long, as it started to read a little slow, but definitely a worthy addition to the thriller genre. I agree with other reviewers who describe this is something similar to early Gillian Flynn.

So, so, SOOOOOOOOOOOO good! I loved this book. I've been obsessed with the world that Chaon created for three days and I'm so sad it has ended. I found Dustin to be a very interesting character and someone I deeply cared about his story. I felt the different timelines in the story added such drama and mystery to the book, it really worked. Five stars!!

This book is very unsettling but in a good way. From the beginning on the novel, the reader is drawn into the tense, creepy story. It's very descriptive and I was immediately drawn into the story. Although at times the story is told in different time periods and from different points of view, it wasn't distracting or hard to follow. If anything, it makes the story and each character more vivid in your mind. A very good, albeit twisted story that leaves you guessing until the end. It also makes you realize that your own family isn't so bad...;-)

Who to trust? Instinctively, readers accept the first narrative voice in the novel, that of psychologist Dustin. In his present life, he seems reasonable and aware. He's grief-stricken over the recent death of his wife. So maybe it's okay if he neglects his son or if he seems sucked into a weird serial killer conspiracy.

But Dustin isn't the only narrator in this dark and twisting tale. Some of the story is told from his son Aaron's point of view, a college-age boy who is only pretending to be in college, and not very convincingly. Aaron is heavy into drugs, and may not be very tuned into reality either.

Then there is the story from Dustin's past, seeping into his present life like a blood stain. Dustin's parents and his aunt and uncle were shot to death while Dustin and his two cousins slept in a camper in the driveway. The deaths were pinned on Dustin's older foster brother, Rusty, a likely candidate because of his preoccupation with Satanism. Rusty is released from prison as the story begins. He has secretly reached out to Aaron, and who knows if the things Rusty tells him are really real?

This is a story that doesn't let go. After turning the last page, I let out a howl of disappointment. I could go back and re-read the whole thing, if it weren't for the stack of books waiting to be read.

I understand that this is an ARC but the formatting in this e-book made it incredibly difficult to read. The writing was choppy and the character development was terrible.