I love horror, and haunted house stories are my favorite subgenre of horror. I’m always on the lookout for new (to me) horror writers and twists on the usual haunted house theme. Kill Creek promised both.
Four famous horror writers are invited to spend Halloween night at the infamous house on Kill Creek. They’ve been invited by media mogul Wainwright, who wants to interview them for his website. The authors couldn’t be more different from one another or Wainwright. Sam writes stories about families struggling with one another and mysterious foes in the Midwest. TC writes about young people in urban settings fighting evil, while having sex and committing body horror. Daniel writes teen horror with a moralistic message, usually involving temptation and the Devil. Sebastian, the oldest of the group, is a living legend. His books inspired most of the other authors. Rounding out the group is Wainwright’s girlfriend, Kate, who is the audio and video engineer for his website.
The interview promises to be great publicity for the authors and Wainwright. While the house is creepy, they all leave thinking the haunting was just a legend. Unfortunately for them, that’s what the house wanted them to think.
I never know how to rate books that are objectively good but that I wasn’t crazy about. Kill Creek is good. The story is inventive and fast-paced. I loved that the characters are all very different from one another. But, the thing that sets it apart from other haunted house books was actually my problem with it; the action starts when they leave the haunted house. It’s brilliant, but I wanted them all together at the house. By the time they returned to Kill Creek, the magic was lost for me.