Hello obscurists, why don’t we slip into something spooky? I was thinking for today’s review we’d discuss “Kill Creek” by Scott Thomas, and since this is my blog, you’ll have to humor me on that… please. Please humor me on this. It’s so lonely here in the Obscure Dome.
***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***
What I love about this book:
That first chapter after the prologue, man—I still go back and re-read it every few weeks. It feels like auditing part of a master class on horror writing. It feels that way, because well, it is in a way, Sam McGarver is a best-selling horror author teaching a college class on the subject of horror writing. I’ve never been more jealous of college kids. Why I especially like it is, from the little bit of his class, we as the audience get to see, Sam seems like a great teacher and I found it all very engaging.
"Kill Creek," is a book about writers, specifically horror writers, experiencing a haunted house together, which is a concept that I find infinitely amusing—a model that’s been working for Stephen King for more than half a century, so it ain’t broke.
As such, when the bestselling authors show up at the creepy mansion, the tone and sense of fall weather, and Halloween style horror is palpable. For me, that’s like a mental warm and cozy wingback chair next to the fireplace, blazing with hellfire. So the whole concept is really in my wheelhouse.
The fact that these famous authors are all at this haunted house for an interview as a publicity stunt for a wealthy playboy website owner devoted to anything and everything in the horror genre—especially tickles me. I have a website. I talk about horror a lot. Why not Kevin? I like Wainwright, the rich kid who owns the website, as a character, and his earnest endeavor to make all things horror more mainstream, even though the success of his fictional website seems—well, let’s say unlikely.
What I don’t love about this book:
Sam McGarver isn’t a real person and doesn’t have a freshman-level class I can take, and this book reminds me again that life is just truly unfair.
Back on the topic of the book, and with less melodrama, T.C. Moore, the female author of the group, is problematic as a character. On a side note, I didn’t see this aspect of her character until after I finished the book and a friend pointed it out to me, which goes to show when you like the overall product as much as I did with this book, you can be blind to its faults.
As a deuteragonist, she has her positives, she’s undoubtedly a very strong-willed woman, but they’re overshadowed by her negatives, which cause her to fall into stock-character parody at times. T.C. Moore falls into that super serious badass woman trope, who isn’t afraid to use her sexuality as a weapon—which is an overcorrection from the weak-willed damsel in distress cliché. Being a badass and having a strong sexual identity aren’t bad things, but they’re literally all of her things, she has no more qualities to round her out. Now given a choice between her or the damsel in distress, I’d pick the super-serious badass woman every time.
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***The Spoiler part of this review***
***Ye be warned to turn back now***