Kill Creek in Creatures, Creatures Everywhere!

May 18, 2018 Latasha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ghosties-haunted-house, books-i-own, re-reads, audio-books, horror, tosh-s-picks-2018, hahalloween2021

OMG this book is so freakin awesome! and this is Scott Thomas' first book?! WHAT?!?! He is clearly a horror fan and it just makes this book that much more awesome. this is my favorite book of the year (so far). Bernard Setaro Clark narrates and he does such a good job. if your a horror fan and enjoy haunted houses, you should've already began reading or listening to this. you won't be disappointed.

2nd reading- Still great, still love it. ...more

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Jan 17, 2019 Fiona Knight rated it it was ok

Shelves: horror, books-about-books, ghost-stories

"Certainly there are spots which inevitably attach to themselves an atmosphere of holiness and goodness; it might not then be too fanciful to say that some houses are born bad" - The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

No house is born bad. - First sentence of Kill Creek, Scott Thomas.

It takes cojones to come for the groundbreaking queen of the haunted house story, and in the first sentence of your first novel, no less! But unfortunately for me, this was probably the boldest move I felt the a "Certainly there are spots which inevitably attach to themselves an atmosphere of holiness and goodness; it might not then be too fanciful to say that some houses are born bad" - The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

No house is born bad. - First sentence of Kill Creek, Scott Thomas.

It takes cojones to come for the groundbreaking queen of the haunted house story, and in the first sentence of your first novel, no less! But unfortunately for me, this was probably the boldest move I felt the author made.

Kill Creek starts as many horror stories do - four people brought together to visit an infamous house, rumoured to be haunted. Here, it's four horror authors brought together by the owner of a horror-fan site, and that owners girlfriend/personal assistant. The authors include one older gentleman, writer of classic and almost literary horror, one so-edgy-she-just-might-cut-you female author of sexualised splatter-gore-fests, one very Christian writer of young adult morality horror, and one incredibly personality-free writer of very commercially successful books. The owner of the site is a rich kid trying to live up to his father's media success; his girlfriend/PA screams cannon-fodder from the moment she hits the page. Not one of these characters ever defied an expectation I had for them. The female author and the Christian in particular were on the border of caricature, though the labels I've given all of them - gentleman, female author, Christian - are about as far along as anyone gets in character development.

And the horror itself - it just didn't scare me. And some of the scenes in this book should have - I have a particular thought that crosses my mind sometimes, when I'm reading my Kindle with the lights off, that because the screen is lit up ANYTHING could be behind it in the dark, just inches from touching me. That's awfully close to some of what is described in Kill Creek, and yet - I read it at night without a problem. And horror that fails to get into your head - or better still, the edges of your peripheral vision - just hasn't really worked.

All of that said, I still finished the book, and it's a debut. So there's allowances to be made, and if the story sounds like your sort of thing then absolutely give it a try, because life is too short to think we all have to like the same books. But for me, this is one haunted house that can keep it's ghosts. ...more

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Nov 23, 2020 Tyler Gray rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Well...I can't believe I was pulled into this book at all when it just kept pissing me off, but I kept trying to give it the benefit of the doubt. I thought the characters were somewhat interesting, the what appears to be PTSD rep with Sam, the MC, hit me in a personal way and I thought the ending was...going to be better. Sadly, I was very disappointed, with the whole thing.

Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD (also a negative review...you've been warned)

The ableism that initially I kept giving a pass becau Well...I can't believe I was pulled into this book at all when it just kept pissing me off, but I kept trying to give it the benefit of the doubt. I thought the characters were somewhat interesting, the what appears to be PTSD rep with Sam, the MC, hit me in a personal way and I thought the ending was...going to be better. Sadly, I was very disappointed, with the whole thing.

Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD (also a negative review...you've been warned)

The ableism that initially I kept giving a pass because it was stuff like "confined to a wheelchair", please, stop saying "confined to a wheelchair" and actually talk to people that use wheelchairs. Wheelchairs set us free, to do things we couldn't otherwise do. Of course as a wheelchair user (see how easy that is! And it's even less words!) myself and very much in the disabled community, being multiply disabled, I realize not everyone is like myself. But oh..the ending...disabled people are scary and evil don't ya know? (Oh just writing this review is making me angry)

The women in the book are very sexualized, I wish I kept track of the amount of times breasts were oddly and irrelevantly mentioned. And when they can't be sexualized, because old, their evil. Also slut shaming the black woman for having a boyfriend I guess? And of course, she's the first on screen kill.

Moore, at first she annoyed me but she did grow on me, though it was despite the way she was written. She writes her book with the "pagan ritual" of naked in the mornings. Why, I don't know. And as a pagan, I didn't realize writing nude was a pagan ritual...she has sex with the what I can only assume is the author avatar character in a dream (and might be a manic pixie dream girl kind of thing?) and is quick to comfort the men characters when they are really sad, but does she get any of that back? Despite having a history of domestic abuse that gets to her (that I also really related to for personal reasons)? No.

Of course the gay is sad gay, and also dies. Only the white cishets can live.

Look, i'm not against diverse characters being evil or dying, especially in an adult horror book, but nothing interesting happened with it. I thought it was going to do something..interesting..maybe thought-provoking...and...nothing. It's just mediocre old hashed tropes from where i'm standing.

I also predicted some things, like Sam's big secret that was I guess supposed to be shocking?

The way the fat character was written, Daniel, i'm also not totally sure on...it seemed a bit overdone sometimes?

It kept me reading the entire time. I did think about DNFing but by that point I was so close to the end and begging the ending "please, do something, save this"...it didn't and now I just feel like I wasted my time. ...more

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Dec 10, 2018 Elke rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: e-kindle, 2018, netgalley, ha-2018-pages-read, ng-2018, novels, free4review, review, horror, halloween

What caught my eye first was not the haunted house theme of the book, but the protagonists who meet in the infamous Finch House: four horror authors, lured there for some online event to discuss and promote their work. But what they get is more than they bargained for, and when they return home, something evil follows each of them...

I loved how the author created four very different faces of horror with the authors, and on top of that added the haunted house. It was fascinating to see how the ho ...more

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Oct 04, 2018 Bookish_predator rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley, horror

When I read the synopsis for this book I knew I had to read it, I was extremely happy to find it available to request on NetGalley as was so excited when I was approved a copy.

Haunted house books are one of my favourites to read as I love the slow build up, the increasing level of spookiness and threat and how the characters respond to it.

Here we have 4 horror authors invited to the Finch House for a group interview by Wainwright, the founder of a horror website and a huge fan of all 4 authors, ...more

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Oct 03, 2020 Final✘Girl✘Magick rated it liked it

I hate to give this book an average rating. Everyone has hyped this book up so much but to me it gets a meh. Kill Creek is very well written. It reads like a movie. Very descriptive to the point I started spacing out and glossing over at some points. Its also a slow burn until the last part of the book. Then it picks up getting gory and we get more of that supernatural element. Only one chapter creeped me out that was towards the end of the book. We get supernatural elements through the first th ...more

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Jun 03, 2019 Mike rated it really liked it

3.5 stars

Four horror authors visit a haunted house in a viral stunt.

Pretty standard haunted house stuff long enough to lull you into feeling safe, until things get really bad.

Quite the page-turner, especially in the last hundred pages.

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Jun 30, 2018 Ami Morrison rated it it was amazing

Shelves: horror, don-t-own, audio-book, paranormal-fiction, ha-reads, ghosts

At the end of a dark pararie road, nearly forgotten in the Kansas countryside, lies the Finch House. Abandoned for decades, the doors will be opened for the first time when a group of horror authors are invited to spend Halloween night in the famous haunted house. But what began as a simple PR stunt soon becomes a fight for survival- the entity the have awakened will follow them, torment them and attempt to make them apart of the bloody legacy of Kill Creek.

Ooooh, this book is GOOD! :D So creep ...more

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Apr 19, 2019 Becca rated it really liked it

Shelves: lgbtqia-rep, horror-recs

3.5 rounded up!

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Apr 27, 2021 Justin Hall rated it it was amazing

This book was phenomenal; completely immersive settings, intricate & complicated characters and a haunted house that knew no limits. Thomas’ creativity seems to be almost contagious after finishing this novel. I will be searching out more of his work.

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