My first reading of this well known author. While the title was heavily marketed, it is not a book for everyone. I found it confusing and somewhat misdirected from the theme. But that may have been the author's intent. Recommended for special readers

ILL WILL is a a dark, insidious story that you cannot stop thinking about long after you have read it. There are a number of different story lines that leave the reader at a bit of a loss for what the true tale is...

At first there is Dustin, the seemingly believable witness. He is a psychologist in his early forties. We learn that his parents died with his Aunt and Uncle when he was 13. Wait, they didn't just die, they were murdered.

There is Rusty, Dustin's adopted brother. He had been in prison since the murder, but was recently released due to DNA proof that he is not the murderer through a program called the Innocence Project.

Kate is Dustin's cousin. She testified with Dustin against Rusty with ribald stories of sacrifice and satanic rituals. This was the 1980's at the height of the satanic ritual phenomenon.

Wave is Kate's twin's sister. She never believed Kate and Dustin's testimony.

All of these stories make for a lot of conflict and paranoia. Rusty's release causes a maelstrom of discontent and a reckoning, but no clear answers.

I want to thank the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased revie

2.5 stars. I loved this being set in Cleveland and all the local references. What I didn't like was the writing style and how confusing it was jumping from time to time with no understanding. The ending also was disappointing. There were too many unanswered questions and confusion. I have this 3 stars on goodreads.

I wanted this book to suck me in. It just never did.

The beginning of this book was very promising. The premise was interesting and the writing flowed well. I liked having more than one narrator and getting to see situations from multiple POVs. However, the middle section of the book was really slow, and I felt that the writing was lackluster. The main protagonist became less and less sympathetic and since his voice was narrating, that didn't encourage me to keep reading. The fact that his son, another significant narrator, was also not sympathetic, didn't help. I also felt that Chaon wandered a lot in this section; going off on tangents that may have been interesting to him as character development but they didn't really move the story along. The last third of the book moved faster, and there were actually things happening so I had hope that the ending would redeem the book. However, I did not care for the it; it felt too melodramatic and the identity of the killer was a bit of a letdown. I suspected that was where Chaon was going with the story, but I would have liked a twist at the end instead. Overall, I really did not care for this book. Great premise with a less than stellar delivery.

I had a difficult time getting into the book and keeping my attention while reading it.

It's hard to put this into a genre- it's a mystery, it's a thriller, it's a horror show of psychological issues. At times I was entranced = and certainly the pages turned- and at others I wished that someone had edited it a bit more. Talk about a group of dysfunctional people! None of them, including Dustin, are appealing or people you'd like to have over for dinner. The problems at the core are not pretty but rather crude and horrid. The central concept of how our memory can trick us and how Chaon explores that make this worth reading. That said, it's sometimes a rough go because of the subject matter and the characters. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm not sure who I'd recommend this to but try it.

4 stars--I really liked it. Reader warning: this is a dark novel full of disturbing things--drug use, serial murder, child abuse, some minor animal violence, etc.

I'm going to overuse the word dark in this review, because it fits the book so well: Dark characters, dark plot, dark world. I was utterly fascinated by the characters--unlikeable and self-destructive as they were. And as someone who lived through the ridiculous "satanic ritual abuse" scare in the '80s, I found the subject matter also intriguing.

I seem to be alone in this (I've read many reviews complaining about the book's writing style), but I especially loved the way Dustin's mind was portrayed. He's a character who is completely out of touch with reality, someone who disassociates constantly. So his chapters were written with sentences that just

(See what I did there?)

Characterization was definitely the strength of this book. Even though everyone kept secrets and made horrible choices, each character was presented with sympathy; I couldn't help but be interested in them. I loved the narrative parallels between the past and present characters/plot as well.

Dark but utterly readable, I greatly enjoyed this novel. I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

I don’t think I’ve ever been simultaneously so repulsed and so compelled to keep reading.

Ill Will starts out in what seems a very familiar way if you read a lot of thrillers, but the deeper you dive into psychologist Dustin Tillman’s mind, the more you realize you’re not in recognizable territory after all. Neat and tidy answers, characters who are easily classifiable as strictly good or bad--you won’t find any of that here.

When Dustin was a kid, his parents and aunt and uncle were murdered. His older brother Rusty was convicted of the crimes, in part due to Dustin’s testimony. Now, years later, Dustin is a psychologist with a wife and two nearly grown sons, and Rusty has been exonerated and released from jail. Which begs the obvious question: if Rusty didn’t kill their parents, who did?

You’d think that question would be at the forefront of Dustin’s mind, but that’s assuming Dustin’s mind is normal, and it becomes increasingly clear that that’s not the case. Dustin avoids thinking about his childhood at all costs, instead obsessing with his patient-turned-friend Aqil about a spate of recent drownings in the area and trying to prove they’re the work of a serial killer. Being privy to Dustin’s carefully curated thoughts is one of the most uncomfortably claustrophobic experiences I’ve had in a while. Just what is he capable of? Does he even know himself?

If I had to describe this book in two words, they would be “deeply unsettling.” But what can I say--despite that, I couldn’t seem to stop reading.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I believe I need a shower.

With regards to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the review copy. On sale now!

I was intrigued by the premise - a crime in the past and multiple in the present centered around a psychologist specialized in cults and repressed memories, with some satanism thrown in for spice! It's really hard to review a book like this without giving anything away.

Mr. Chaon wove a tale of utter devastation. The characters are damaged. Emotionally, sometimes physically, and that built some major unease right from the start. Pain doesn't usually manifest in healthy communication and there were many times that I just wished the characters would simply tell each other how they were feeling and what was happening. This is a nod to Chaon for humanizing his characters in a realistic way.

About halfway through I became confused by the layout of the book. I had received an ARC (thanks NetGalley and Random House!) and thought it was a weird glitch that would be fixed with further editing. Then I realized it was a very clever way of showing the reader what is happening and moving the story along.

This was not a light read, and it was slow moving in the middle, but picked up nicely 2/3 of the way through. It left me feeling uneasy, horrified, and ultimately disturbed. I finished three days ago and I'm still mulling over the ending.

I wanted to like this book, and there were aspects that I found engaging. I think it was just marketed incorrectly. It was presented as a mystery, which it is, however, it definitely has a post-modernesque writing style. I get why it was written the way it does, and it does add meaning and relates to the plot, but it made it painful to read. Unless you're in college and this is required reading, why put yourself through that? I literally had a headache trying to put it all together.

3.5 A frustrating, but intriguing read. Chaon is a one of a kind thriller writer, and although this holds one interest all the way through, the format and need to organize/compartmentalize what is going on takes quite a bit of effort. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

This book has depth to spare--suspenseful, scary, thought-provoking, meticulously crafted

While the book is well written; I'd have a hard time recommending it to others. It is like a string of pearls, but the pearls are all the strange and bad things that can happen in one odd little family.

I really wanted to like this book but it just didn't work for me. Unreliable narrator, psychoses, and heavy drug use made for an unpleasant reading experience. Some of the twist at the end I had already figured out and some came as a surprise. It just wasn't worth it.

This is a terrific book on a lot of different levels. It's got a plot that gets edgier the more you get into it. It's wonderfully rendered characters, unique, distinct and fully realized. And Dan Chaon is also a writer's writer -- that is his sentences themselves are exciting and original. Really makes the leap from genre to literary fiction. My only quibble -- well, about that ending... hmmm....

I had trouble getting into this book. I usually enjoy reading the subjects it contains, including cults, mysteries, "true crime" styles, serial killers. But I felt that it went in too many directions at once and maybe bit off more than it could chew. I found my interest fading after the first 1/4 of the book, it was hard to really relate to the characters. I can see how it is similar to Gillian Flynn's Dark Places but the pacing of the mystery wasn't anywhere near as strong.

Every character in this novel is flawed, and perhaps that is why I found myself caring deeply about each one. Dan Chaon has woven an intricate story around a murder committed in the past that continues to haunt Dustin Tillman, whose parents were among the victims, and whose adopted older brother Rusty was (possibly wrongly) convicted of the crime. Dustin is now a self-deluded psychologist who allows one of his own patients to draw him into chasing down a conspiracy theory around the contemporary deaths of a series of young college students. Besides breaking the rules of therapist/patient relationship, Dustin becomes obsessed with trying to prove the deaths are not accidental, but a string of serial murders. The pursuit of the possible murderer takes its toll on Dustin and his practice, and eventually endangers Dustin’s own son. I couldn’t put it down. Yes, I guessed the ending, but it was fun getting there.

This is the first book I've read by Dan Chaon so was not familiar with his writing style. I didn't like all the going back and forth in time. It was quite confusing at times for me. But I was curious enough to keep on reading. I wanted to know what the truth was from what happened in the past. It also lead to what was happening in the now. Lots of dysfunctional relationships between sisters, cousins, and a foster brother. I would have rated this 3 and 1/2 stars.