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Ill Will: A Novel by Dan Chaon

March 8, 2017

Ill Will by Dan Chaon
Published by Ballantine Books
Publication date: March 7th 2017
three-half-stars

ill will

 

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 read. 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. 

 

Dustin Tillman has a lot on his mind. His wife died less than a year ago and his relationship with his two sons seems to be drifting away. He’s a psychologist and has a new patient, Aqil,  he can’t quite get a handle on. And now, his cousin Kate has called to let him know that his adopted brother, Rusty, is getting out of prison twenty-nine years after being convicted of murdering all of their parents. A conviction that was obtained through the specific testimony of Dustin and Kate, but has now been overturned by DNA evidence proving his innocence. This is Dustin’s world in Dan Chaon’s new novel, Ill Will. A world that is going to get a lot more complicated.

Yet, even given all these circumstances Dustin seems relatively unfazed by this latest news. In fact, he’s largely unruffled by almost anything. Instead, he exhibits a distracted air in much of his life and always has. He has been joked about within his family as being spacey—a fact Chaon highlights in Ill Will’s formatting by leaving many of Dustin’s sentences open. No ellipses of thought, no trailing off, just a stopping of whatever he might have been trying to say. This dreamier mental pace serves him well as a psychologist, allowing him to assess why Aqil is obsessed with a series of drowning deaths of college-age boys that have occurred in their area over the last decade, but won’t talk about his own past at all. Until, Aqil’s fixation becomes Dustin’s own and what was a harmless inattention begins to feel like negligence in and denial of his own life for some wild theories about serial killers.

Dustin is not the sole focus of Ill Will. Chaon makes use of his cousins, Kate and Wave; his younger son, eighteen-year-old Aaron, and even Rusty, as narrators. Not surprisingly, even going back to the summer of 1983, each has a very different story to tell. Chaon ups the creepy factor by tapping into a very real social phenomenon of those times: the belief that there were widespread Satanic cults committing heinous acts of ritual abuse throughout America. Some of Rusty’s teen behavior aligns with the sensationalistic news and is, ultimately, what Kate and Dustin say led him to murder four family members. Now, Rusty is out and has chosen Aaron as the only member of the family to contact. Aaron, who didn’t even know he had an uncle, much less one that murdered his grandparents.

Because there are so many ways a mystery can go I have to give credit to Ill Will for choosing an option that only works if the tale has been strong enough all along—that of the ambiguous ending. Whereas Dead Letters slammed an unexpected reality into my face, Ill Will insinuates right up until the very end. Throughout the novel Dustin Tillman is a vague figure—is he troubled? Dangerous? A dupe? Or the exact opposite of all these, the Keyser Söze of the novel? No spoilers from me. Suffice it to say, what I liked most about the novel was that Chaon made sure I wouldn’t stop reading until the last sentence and he did so not just with murder, but by delving into the always intriguing concept of reality, specifically how we perceive the world, ourselves, and how we are perceived. Scary stuff.

three-half-stars

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15 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Ballantine, family, mystery, psychology, suspense

Comments

  1. Lauren says

    March 8, 2017 at 12:10 pm

    Ah, I’m so glad you read this. It’s been on my list for a while, but Chaon’s work has been hit and miss for me. This one seemed right up my alley and it seems my gut may be right. Thanks for the great look inside the covers!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      March 8, 2017 at 4:39 pm

      I’d suggest the print version because the formatting choices come off very annoying in the electronic one.

      When I finished, I wasn’t sure what I thought, but it’s a percolating book and after a day when I was still thinking about it, I realized I liked it more than I thought.

      Reply
      • Lauren says

        March 9, 2017 at 12:01 pm

        Thanks for the heads up on the formatting. I think I’ll put it on my tree book list at the library. I completely understand what you’re saying about ruminating on things when you’re done. it’s a different kind of appreciation, but one I enjoy.

        Reply
  2. Kathy @ Kathy Reads Fiction says

    March 8, 2017 at 3:42 pm

    I’ve seen others who were disappointed in this one, but I’ve been intrigued by it. I think I would read until the last sentence, too. If only to finally find out the ending after all the insinuations.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      March 8, 2017 at 4:40 pm

      I can see that it will be hit or miss for people. There was formatting in the e-version that bugged me so much I almost quit, but then the publisher sent me a print copy and it made sense. There was just something about it that stuck with me.

      Reply
  3. Sarah's Book Shelves says

    March 9, 2017 at 4:44 am

    I’ve never heard of this one! Since I seem to be itching for great thrillers these days, I might give it a try at some point.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      March 9, 2017 at 2:13 pm

      I know, right? I thought March was going to be historical fiction month for me, but I’m reading more thrillers than anything!

      Reply
  4. Tara says

    March 9, 2017 at 9:36 am

    WOW! Based on your review, this sounds pretty fantastic! I’ve never read any of his work, so thanks for putting this on my radar; the fact that you’ve included Dead Letters in the same sentence has me very intrigued. 🙂

    Reply
  5. susan says

    March 20, 2017 at 4:01 pm

    I have yet to read Dan Chaon but some love his work. Though some are better than others right?

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      March 21, 2017 at 10:44 am

      This is the first book of his I’ve read! Do you have any recommendations for others?

      Reply
      • susan says

        March 21, 2017 at 1:21 pm

        I think I have mixed him up with another author, as Chaon has only written a few. I’m way OFF if I’m thinking of Dan Simmons, oh my.

        Reply
        • Catherine says

          March 21, 2017 at 7:19 pm

          LOL! But in talking about Simmons- I agree! Some of his stuff is good and some is really not good.

          Reply
  6. Katie @ Doing Dewey says

    March 21, 2017 at 9:50 pm

    I really don’t like ambiguous endings, so I might pass on this one, but I’m loving the cover and the quote you shared. It seems like this could be fun and creepy.

    Reply
  7. Sondra says

    August 16, 2017 at 2:19 pm

    So what do you think happened back in the 1983 murder? Why does Aqil even care about this, what’s his connection?

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      August 18, 2017 at 6:37 pm

      I’m sorry, I read this so long ago, I don’t remember! I do remember that it was the ambiguity about the plot that I liked- there were questions not answered so maybe that’s it.

      Reply

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