If you enjoy strange stories about weird and unlikeable people, told in a jerky and changing format style, this book is for you. You will finish it with a sense of achievement.

I had a hard time getting into this book, though I think it was for personal reasons more than it was a legitimate problem with the book. Ultimately, I had a hard time with the extremely short chapters and the switching POV/time. So, I didn't finish this book and I don't really intend to. Though, I should add, that I think Chaon had a strong voice and a firm grasp on the character/his backstory. This book just wasn't for me.

I would like to thank Dan Chaon, Random House and Netgalley for giving me this amazing book for my honest review.
Review By Stephanie
5 Stars
WOW what an extraordinarily novel! Be warned you will NOT be able to put this book down until the very end! This emotional tale will consume your life!
Dustin Tillman is 41 years old psychologist who has grown distant from his ill wife and children. The storyline of Dustin would be enough of an amazing story but Dan Chaon added so much more. He crafted an amazing story about an “accidental” drowning of several young men that had a lot in common. Dustin starts investigating the drowning which brings him back 13 years to when his own parents and aunt/uncle were killed…….
Ill Will is an amazing thriller! Dan Chaon crafts a novel that has so many levels. The only thing that was hard about this book is me writing this review because I do not want to give anything away! Just know this book is PHENOMNAL and #1 on my best of 2017 list!

Compelling story but would have been stronger and held reader interest better had it remained in the present with just hints to the past

Interesting premise and well written but the pace of the story was just too too slow for me.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an ARC of "Ill Will" by Dan Chaon for my honest opinion. The Genres of this book are Literary Suspense, Thriller and Mystery. The plot is supposed to revolve around two different crimes, and timelines. Psychologist Dustin Tillman has survived a bloody family massacre. His stepbrother Rusty originally accused of this crime has been released from prison ,with new evidence of DNA proving his innocence .The author describes satanic rituals and the timeline responsible for Rusty being accused of this crime, in the first place.
Dustin, the psychologist becomes involved with a patient that is obsessed with the news stories and the timeline of the disappearance and drowning of college age boys. There is a mention of this possibly being done by a serial killer.
The author describes in different characters, the failures of memory. Dustin, at times feel that he is in a trance.
All of the characters are flawed and complex. Some characters are evil. Many of the characters seem like they are or could be criminals. There is a prevalence of drugs discussed and creepy shady characters.
There are twist and turns in this novel. At times, the storyline seems disjointed and choppy, and at other times the story is very slow and confusing.
I think the real question the author asks is "What is real or not real?". Who is responsible for the crimes and why? I was left feeling confused and would have liked more of a conclusion.

Ill Will is not an easy story to read. Hopping between the early 80’s and between 2012-2014, the story follows Dustin Tillman as he slowly gets involved in a serial killer investigation and learns that Rusty, his adopted brother is getting out of prison after his prison sentence was overturned because a DNA analysis proved that he didn’t do it. Rusty was convicted of killing Dustin’s parents and his aunt and uncle. The story also follows Dustin’s son, Aaron, a strung out junkie trying to cope with the loss of his mother and trying to figure out who killed his best friend, Rabbit.

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If you have triggers, I don’t recommend you read this review. There will be talk about child molestation and drug use.

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Like I said in the above paragraph, this is not an easy book to read. It deals with a wide spectrum of issues…..from child sexual abuse to mental illness to drug abuse, it’s there and it is not glossed over and made pretty. Which was one thing I liked about this book, it wasn’t pretty. It dealt with all these issues in a real world sense. No one was mysteriously cured of their mental illness or drug use.

The Satanism cult angle was fascinating to read. I am old enough to remember the insanity over Satanic cults and the aftermath when it turned out that almost all of those memories were false. I really can’t comment anymore on that part of the book but I will say this. Read with a very open mind because not everything is what it seems.

I didn’t know what to feel for Rusty. I felt awful for him because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother and her “boyfriends”. No child should go through that and the author did keep true to the abused child abusing other children. But, however, Rusty was a real screwed up dude as an adult. When the author wrote from his perspective, I got the chills and did wonder to myself “How long until he kills someone”. Even the fact that he had a mental kill list was scary.

Dustin was someone who truly scared me. He started off as a scatterbrained therapist and just morphed into someone else. I believe that his wife’s death along with Rusty being released from jail pushed him over the edge. To be honest, he had been on a slow slide into insanity since he was 11 and I think those two things pushed him over the edge. His obsession with the serial killer case that Aqil was working on him with even furthered the slide. It was sad to see it.

Aqil. Let’s talk about him and how he totally fooled me. Yeah, not happy about that and I think I groaned when it was revealed who and what he was. I was like “Why didn’t I see that coming!!!” Totally frustrating for me but very good on the author’s part.

Aaron was pretty dead on for a heroin junkie. Everything about him rang true. I did find it very sad that he slid into addiction after his mother died. I truly believe that it was a way to cope because his father was starting to flake out and his older brother was in college in a different state. But, even with his addiction, he still cared enough about what happened to his friend to go looking for the last person to see him alive. And oh boy, was he in for a surprise when he realized who it was.

There are a couple of twists in the story and I didn’t see two of them coming. The one with Aqil (which I already mentioned) and the one with what really happened that night and how Rusty went on trial. I will say this, I was disgusted and very surprised.

The ending was sad. NO HEA’s. Definitely no HEA’s. I do have a couple of questions about Aaron that I wish was answered. But with the way that the book was written, I don’t think that will happen….unless a book 2 happens.

How many stars will I give Ill Will: 3

Why: This was a really hard book for me to rate. I liked the storylines, they were pretty easy to follow. But my main complaint is with how the book was written. It would go from normal chapters to almost a split screen format with what looked like Dustin or Aaron’s running thoughts in them. There were a few chapters like it and it made it very confusing to read because I couldn’t follow the trains of thought. Maybe it would be better to read it in paperback instead of on my Kindle.

Will I reread: Maybe

Will I recommend to family and friends: Maybe

Age Range: Adult

Why: Sexual themes, language, violence. Pretty descriptive scenes of child molestation, of murder sites and of murdered bodies. Also very detailed scenes of drug use.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

I loved the premise and the novelty of this book. However, I felt the writing was a bit choppy - sentences not finished and left hanging. The back and forth (which was easy enough to follow) became a bit tedious and I felt the book wasn't getting anywhere. I realize that some authors leave you wondering and sometimes this works for me. Unfortunately for me, this time it didn't quite hit the mark. I do realize that those who like this type of writing will love this book and I think had I been in a different mood or was willing to wade through the choppy waters with a keener eye, I may have felt differently.

I really enjoyed this book! Ill Will by Dan Chaon is about two unsolved cases that are decades apart. I've always liked a story that jumps from timelines and character perspectives. This is another one. The only thing that isn't always clear is who is telling the story in the different chapters - you need to read a little to catch onto the perspective you're in.

After 30 years in prison, Russell is being released after new DNA evidence comes to light. This causes psychologist Dustin Tillman's world to turn upside down. His adoptive brother was arrested for the murder of his parents, aunt, and uncle - which became one of the most iconic murders in the 1980s - and Dustin's testimony put him behind bars. Meanwhile, a patient of Dustin's becomes obsessive with all of these college frat boys turning up dead. He seems to believe that their drownings are actually the work of Satanic rituals.

I will say that I enjoyed the first timeline more. The one that had to deal with Dustin as a child. Meeting Russell (Rusty) as a child and now he had a huge impact on Dustin's life. His cousins, Kate and Wave, the night of the murder, and then the days leading up to the trial. All of the Satanic ritual elements were very intriguing, and not typically something you read too much about lately.

Overall, it was well written and kept an ominous and dark feeling the entirety of the book. It'll definitely keep you wondering! I will say that it felt like it dragged on a little bit, but it would only be in spurts. (example: a couple chapters on the investigation, and then a flashback sequence to the original murder would pick up the intrigue again) I would recommend this to fans of the slow burn mystery. If you get bored easily with the procedural and investigation focus, then this might not be the one for you!

Thank you to Ballantine Books and Dan Chaon for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ill Will by Dan Choan, a new thriller that is about to be released this month. The story is another of those double mystery things – a current mystery that is taking place and dredging up memories of a past mystery. At the heart of both stories is Dustin, a psychologist in Cleveland with grown-ish children who has not quite pulled it together after the recent death of his wife from cancer.



The current mystery is somewhat bizarre… a series of seemingly accidental drowning deaths of random college boys that could be the work of a serial killer. The evidence of this is presented to Dustin by a patient (not exactly the best way to get solid information) and together they turn into amateur sleuths and start jumping into some very dark places.



The past mystery is thirty years old, when Dustin was a child his parents, aunt and uncle were gruesomely murdered while on a camping trip. His adopted brother, Rusty, has been in prison ever since, but at the outset of the story he has been exonerated by DNA evidence. The old mystery is compelling, and made more complex by a Satanic cult rumor.



The thing about both of these stories is that Dustin is so unreliable. He is a mess in his current life, it feels like he never really healed from his traumatic childhood, and he is all over the place – actually everyone in this book is an unreliable narrator to some extent. This book left me incredibly uneasy, and I never quite knew where anything was going or what was happening. There is a bit of a drug storyline, which is my absolute least favorite thing to read about for some reason, but it doesn’t go too far. Dan Choan is one of the best writers when it comes to creating suspense and uneasiness, and he really goes for it here. The book is ultimately about memory and grief and how violence and trauma imprint themselves on us. The story is ambitious and dark and not for the overly anxious.



Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.



Ill Will by Dan Choan – Grade B+

Dan Chaon’s wonderfully readable and heartbreaking “Ill Will” should come with a warning label. If you’ve ever lived through certain experiences, or had nightmares about them, put this book back on the shelf and forget about it.

No one warned me, so I read “Ill Will” and I did think it a marvelous book. It has both heart and humor. The characters are believable, likeable, and very real. The book has multiple narrators who make up the main cast of characters, and Chaon uses this technique to great advantage. You care about Dustin Tillman, his sister, and his cousins, who were orphaned when their parents were brutally murdered. The lot of them are now grown and launched in life with their own careers and families. They appear to have recovered, as much as anyone can recover from such an event.

The question of who was responsible for the murders is never certain. At the time it was blamed on Rusty, a troubled teenager who was adopted by Dustin’s parents. Rusty was sent to prison for the crime, but the Innocence Project has recently proven that Rusty was not the murderer, and he is released from prison.

The fates are not finished with Dustin who, in my view, is the center of the story. He is now a psychologist and seems at the beginning of the book to be fairly well adjusted and professional in his work. He is widowed and is raising his two sons by himself. He has the odd habit of not finishing his sentences—or is it his thoughts that are incomplete? His kids think he’s weird, but don’t all kids think their parents are weird?

As the book moves on, revealing more and more of the family’s problems, Dustin makes a monumental mistake. He buys into the crackpot theories of one of his patients and goes off the rails in terms of professional ethics and his role as a single parent. The last quarter of the book is absolutely bone chilling. That’s as much of a spoiler I’m willing to give. Read “Ill Will” if you dare, but don’t forget I warned you.

This is a story that merges crime stories from two time periods, tied together by Dustin, who finds himself on the edges of both the murders from the past and the murders from both time periods.

The issue I have with this book has nothing to do with content, I think that there was a slow build to the plot in both time periods that kept me interested throughout. Separately and the ties that bind the two pieces of the story are compelling and were more than enough to keep me reading. The characters are vivid and allowed me to create the story in my mind, which I always appreciate in a book. It delivered mystery in pacing and tone.

My main issue with the book was the decision that was made to cut off sentences and paragraphs throughout the book. It happened too often to be anything but a literary ploy, but I am not sure all of the instances where a sentence was left hanging were necessary. The sheer amount didn't add to the book. If fact at certain points the break of a page into three separate pieces of the story detracted from the pace of story telling.

I would recommend this book to others who like a mystery, because on that front it does deliver. However, I would warn anyone who I recommend it to about the way the book occasionally gets in the way of itself.

One word I would use to described this book is "meh". Yep, that is it. The book was just "meh" - it didn't excite, thrill, or captivate in any way. A disappointment from start to finish.

A psychologist in suburban Cleveland, Dustin is still haunted by the fact that his adopted brother Randy has been in prison for 30 years for the murders of their parents and aunt. But now he's been exonerated by DNA evidence, and Dustin begins to question his memories of that time. Were they real, or tainted by the satanic possession theories so popular back then. To add to his confusion, Dustin meets an unusual patient and gets involved in the man's personal investigation into a series of killings of college students in the area. Is he trustworthy or could he just be the real killer?

Wow is all I can say right now. I had to keep putting this down to think about what was happening. Set in the CLE which made it extra real for me. I know some reviewers didn't like all the speculation, but for me that added to the creepiness factor big time!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy!

I have always been a fan of Dan Chaon's work. I have all of his books, so when I saw that "Ill Will" was available I couldn't wait to read it. Cheri's review does a fantastic job explaining that the author may have been experimenting with a unique writing style. Cheri also does make a fantastic observation that some readers may get frustrated due to the writing style, but also with Dustin sometimes not finishing his sentences as a reflection of his thinking. It took me an extremely long time to get used to these devices the author uses. I was at first frustrated with the way Dan Chaon shifts from telling the story jumping from different parts of the story, but also different time lines. When I got used to the fact that the timelines and different parts of the story shift in a non linear fashion I became less frustrated. This book is also quite dark throughout the whole story and I felt a lump in my stomach while reading it.

The themes of how honest are we with the things we tell ourselves along with how reliable are our memories is quite strong. This is quite apparent with Dustin's character and also his cousin Kate. I felt very unnerved and felt a sense of dread the more I read. Actually I felt extremely uncomfortable with the story. I do get a sense that is what Dan Chaon is trying to achieve with his writing and it feels relentless. His writing is very powerful and it keeps up its impending escalation of sense of doom. This is probably the darkest book he has written. There is no feel good moments that we look forward to when reading to be found in this work. I do think the author is very talented to be able to get under our skin with a propulsive sense of impending doom that ascends the more we read on.

There is also quite a lot of different strands of the story that we are bombarded with. There is the timeline and story about his psychology practice and the boundaries of therapist and patient relationship increasingly getting crossed. There is the part of the story of a young Dustin, Rusty, Kate, Wave and their parents Colleen, Vicki, Dave and Lucky. There is the drug addiction of Aaron and Rabbit and the dissolution of friendship,there is the time period when Dustin and his wife's Jill's metastasizing cancer spreads to her brain and lungs which I felt the realism was brutally heartbreaking--and as parents keeping that secret from their two son's and their secret about Rusty, there are many, many different threads to the story that all come together in the shocking conclusion. The ending left me with a lot to think about and as I write this I am still thinking about it. I think if the reader accepts the seemingly disjointed sequence that this is a story that will leave you haunted.

Thank you to Net Galley, Dan Chaon and Ballantine Books for providing me with my digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Dan Chaon, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.

This is a novel of the life of Dustin Tillman, beginning with the death of his parents and Aunt and Uncle when he is 13 in June of 1983, seeing him through his relationships with others - his adopted brother, the cousins who shared their parental loss with him, his wife, his children, the patients he tries to help in his practice as as a therapist. It is a strange and solitary and chaotic journey. There are times you want to snatch him up and set him straight, but for the most part you rather pity him his lack of true connection to other lives. But when he decides to break out of his shell, watch out! He and his patient and perhaps friend Aqil Ozorowski begin a journey that can only end in disaster.

The author grabs the readers within the first few pages and doesn't let go. And just when you think you've got the plot all figured out, Dan Chaon leads you down another twisted path. The mind is a mysterious place, and it certain doesn't always follow logic. Even at the end, you can't be sure who did what - and to whom.

Here is a review by Jennifer: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1919946326

https://angryangelbooks.com/2017/02/27/ill-will-angry-angel-abandonment/