Welcome to Litsy!

I think the best way to describe reading this book is you‘ve completed a puzzle, but it has like 20 pieces missing. You can visualize what the whole picture is supposed to look like, but can‘t quite get there and have to fill in the gaps yourself. This book is murky, and at times a little too vague for my taste, but was still very engaging and nuanced and had interesting themes. I think I need to sit with this one a bit more.

This is really interesting so far! The narration is experimental and a little bit creepy, and I‘m liking the ideas about memory and reality and hyperfixation. I also wasn‘t expecting the formatting to get creative so that‘s been fun to read. I‘m not really certain how I feel about most of the characters but being in their heads is fascinating for sure.

After seeing @CSeydel reading this I thought I‘d finally pick it up since it‘s been sitting on my shelf for years!

Wow! This was fascinating. This psychological thriller is not so much interested in getting to the bottom of the crime (or crimes, perhaps?) as it is exploring the nature of reality itself. What is memory, what is perception, what is truth? Do we experience our lives as a set of verifiable facts and events, or are our lives crafted from a set of perceptions and inventions that we arrange in a way that makes sense to us?
#AwesomeApril
#EasterOMC

Guys, this book is off the rails! I was expecting a psychological thriller but this is taking “psychological” to a whole ‘nother level. I have no idea what‘s going on and I love the weirdness in Dustin‘s narration - sentences that just stop in the middle, weird blank spaces - something is very wrong with this man but I don‘t yet know what.
Happy Easter! Time for chocolate! 😁

#photochallenge #readingsnacks
#EasterOMC

My reading buddies
#Litsypets #EasterOMC #photochallenge

My morning coffee & stack
#EasterOMC
#bookandbeverage

“Sometime in the first days of November the body of the young man who had disappeared sank to the bottom of the river.”
#firstlinefridays
#EasterOMC
#photochallenge

Behold my #EasterOMC and #AwesomeApril readathon books … let‘s gooooooooo

Just gotta get through Friday - but after that let‘s gooooo

Can‘t wait! I impulsively grabbed Ill Will from the library a couple months ago but kept putting it off to read book club selections or challenge books. But it looks so intriguing! Time to read it!!
#BookSpin

Ill Will is so chilling. Chaon is very good at channeling different voices for each character. He pays close attention to minute details, such as whether a teenage guy would know the name of a certain fabric. The story unfolds in two timelines from six people's perspectives.

"No doubt this must happen to everyone at a certain age: You look up for a moment and you're not sure which life is real. You've split yourself into so many honeycombed parts that they barely notice each other--all of them pacing, concurrently, parallel streams of thought, and each one thinks of itself as me."

Like the film Memento, Ill Will is about crime, memory, and identity. Chaon shifts perspectives and skips around in time as he carefully unveils the story of a family destroyed by murder set against the backdrop of the "Satanic Panic" of the '80s.

February #Bookspin is on deck! Sick pup and Ozark competing for my attention but ready to dig into this.

I‘m supposed to be reading books I already own but at only 49 cents each these books were screaming “take me home with you”. I really didn‘t have a choice.😁

#96 of my year. I‘m like 12 pages in and I‘m already deeply invested.

This was such an eerie, paranoia-inducing read. I loved it! It was told through flashbacks to the 1980s satanic panic and roughly present day. Lots of interesting themes regarding memory and if we can trust our own judgment about our pasts, or if we construct new memories because it‘s just easier to cope with life after tragedy that way.

#unpopularopinion time
I polished off these three tonight. And I didn‘t like any of them 😕
I DNF‘ed the two on the right - I just didn‘t care.
I did finish Looking for Alaska, but by skimming. I‘d heard it was amazing, & kept trying to give it a chance. But I didn‘t care about anyone in that book except the religion professor🤷🏻‍♀️
At least I‘m free to make some new pics tomorrow.

Starting this one tonight

“Don‘t you think that there‘s really a reality, and we all know IT IS realty?” — Uncle Rusty (p. 298)

This book gave me nightmares, but Lordy, is it well written. I found myself not liking any of the characters, with the exception of Uncle Rusty, and even he was an abuser. Unmoored from time, and truth, manipulating and manipulated, each person is strangely compelling.

Do I recommend it? Only for those with intact egos, and only for daytime reading, but yes, an incredible read.

This book was full of unreliable narrators and it was such an uncomfortable read. And that is where I have to admire Chaon. He made it so uncomfortable a read yet it was a book that I couldn't stop reading. It wasn't something I could read and read and read. I had to stop and put it aside but I kept going back to it. Until it was done. And I reckon that's the mark of an excellent writer.

What do you call the opposite of a book haul? Here are the books I‘ve painfully culled to donate to the annual Books for Keeps booksale in Athens, Georgia. They‘ll raise money for a good cause and as a bonus, there‘s a bit more space for new books.

This novel moves back and forth through time, exploring the tragic events in Dustin Tillman‘s life and multiple mysteries. I‘m not sure how to rate it, as it started out quite promising, got a bit weird, then weirder, then ended in a place I didn‘t see coming. I enjoyed it, but I completely understand the mixed reviews.

Here is my list so far of heart pounding thrillers. I haven‘t read most of these. Does anyone have one to add?

Hmm... not sure what to say about this one. There was certainly a darkness that was intriguing. I found the flipping of narrator and POV a little confusing and the way it was broken up (chapters?) was a little annoying, but maybe this was due to listening to the #audiobook, perhaps that would be easier with a print copy. I don‘t think I‘d say the end was satisfying... I could only recommend to a certain kind of reader 🤔
#MountTBRChallenge

A deeply unsettling psychological thriller, which I greatly enjoyed. A man whose family was murdered when he was young tries to come to grips with a string of local unsolved deaths that he believes may be connected. I can‘t stop thinking about the ending.

Cool book! Cold day.

One of only 20 or so books on all 3 pick lists (NPR, NYT, WaPo), I had great expectations that unfortunately were not met. Seemed like it was heading toward a breakthrough or big reveal, but instead the late-plot twist felt like a cheat, negating all the development up to that point. I was intrigued by the premise—troubling issues of repressed/false memories and the deception of self and others—but ultimately it offered little substance. ⭐️⭐️

1. ILL Will by Dan Chaon
2. Robert Mccammon
3. The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
4. Discworld
5. The Red by Tiffany Reisz
6. Hex by Thomas Olds Huevalt and The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas #7GoodThings

I have finally finished this book. I would‘ve bailed but I felt committed to finishing it. The plot was decent but the writing and the set up of the chapters were just way too confusing. 👎

and..nothing, it just went to the next chapter!!

I‘m finishing this on principle at this point because I️ really can‘t stand these paragraph drop offs.

Cold, grey winter days call for creepy, suspenseful books. And this one is doing the trick.

Each page in this chapter is split into 2 different thoughts, I don‘t like it...

My first Dan Chaon novel and it is not disappointing. So many folks whose taste I admire love him, and I‘m happy to finally be joining the club.

Finished this one at lunch. Not as great as I was hoping. The book jumped around a lot between characters and time periods, sometimes going pages without mentioning names. The ending felt rushed as well.

Going to finally finish this one today. The formatting went all crazy on my kindle yesterday so finishing it off on the tablet.

Currently reading. I'm enjoying so far though it it does jump around between time and characters quite a bit.

“I realized that I had the choice. I could give this moment a meaning, or I could choose to ignore it. It just depended on the kind of story I wanted to tell myself.”

Central point in Ill Will, a thriller I liked very much. It was about #KnowYourEnemy. The question is: did he? #Rocktober

This is my first Dan Chaon. I really liked this book even though I have MANY unresolved issues. It‘s pretty dark and includes heavy situations. The narration of this book was good and I‘m glad I went that route considering other reviewers had issues with the written version.

Parts of this book were amazing. The characters and flash backs kept me reading. But there were some things, like writing in columns over a few pages, that I did not enjoy at all.

First few pages into this.... I've heard it's great!

This had a story that could've been really good, but it seemed like the author just got way too many strands going and couldn't figure out what to do with them. The ending was pretty unsatisfying.

This book. Messed up enough for my tastes but I was not a fan of the writing. AT ALL. The dual unsolved mysteries and multiple POVs were engaging but the editing and style made for a frustrating and annoying read. There was a ton of detail yet I finished the book completely unsatisfied because I felt like I was given the wrong details to draw conclusions and get a finished story. I don't know that I wanted more but I definitely wanted different.

So far the narration is great and the dual mysteries have me hooked.

Chaon is a heck of a writer, but this is possibly the darkest book I've ever read. I didn't 'pan' it because I was intrigued enough to finish it, although I was not surprised by the twist at the end.

Since I just finished A Separation, this was on my list because it was paired against it for the summer match up done by the team that produces the Tournament of Books. I am liking it so far and interesting in seeing the critique and match up!