Book Review: Chills by Mary Sangiovanni

Chills by Mary Sangiovanni

Paperback, 320 pages

Published September 2016 by Lyrical Underground

“True Detective” meets H.P. Lovecraft in this chilling novel of murder, mystery, and slow-mounting dread." The description of this novel above sold me. I have enjoyed SanGiovanni in interviews on podcasts, and even though I had a couple copies of her books on my shelf for years I never got around to reading them. This was going to be the first one because I loved the tone suggested and the plot sounded interesting.

A freak late spring snowstorm hits as a detective tries to solve a bizarre murder. The first act of this book is a very intense slow burn cosmic horror piece. Each page develops serious dread. Honestly I could have handled another hundred pages of this.

One of the best most fascinating scenes was an interrogation between the lead character and her brother - a serial killer now in prison. This is where the True Detective comparisons come into play. Really it is one chapter. It was very tightly wound and I was hoping the novel would returned to it.

The deep and cosmic dread of the first half was everything I was looking for and the second half of the novel turns into something else that I feel gets into the territory of spoiler. Consider yourself warned. Chills is the third in a trilogy, a fact I didn't know this until I went to Good reads to post this review and had re-edit it. I am not sure if I am missing something, maybe the back story with the brother - not sure.

The best thing I can say about this one is I now want to read the novels that will for me be prequels. However I didn't enjoy the second half of the novel quite as much once it became a full on monster attack. SanGiovanni did such a wonderful job building the dread I wish the book had a longer second act focused on that part of the story and a shorter third act that dominated the novel's entire second half as is.

Am I glad I read Chills? Yes. For sure. I think horror fans will too, and I think many will disagree with me about the second half. I think you should decide for yourself. It is a cool book and deserves to be read and debated. SanGiovanni certainly knows how to write monsters. I am sold for sure and will read more SanGiovanni.