William
An up-all-night slice of Halloween horror for fans of Stephen King, Black Mirror, and Frankenstein
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William
Narrated by:
Honey St. Dennis
Buy Now for £17.94
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Narrated by:
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Honey St. Dennis
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By:
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Mason Coile
'Best thing I've read this year' Will Dean
'Terrifying' Kiran Millwood Hargrave
'A brilliantly plotted story' Guardian
'Gripping . . . A twist on The Shining' New York Times
'Its chilling final twist will have you turning directly back to the first page' Mail on Sunday
Henry, a brilliant but reclusive engineer, has achieved the crowning discovery of his career: he's created an artificially intelligent consciousness. He names the half-formed robot William.
But there's something strange about William.
It's not that his skin feels like balloon rubber and is the colour of curdled milk, nor is it his thick gurgling laugh or the way his tongue curls towards his crooked top teeth. It is the way he looks at Henry's wife, Lily.
Henry created William but he is starting to lose control of him. As William's fixation with Lily grows and threatens to bring harm to their house, Henry has no choice but to destroy William.
But William isn't gone. Filled with jealousy for humanity, for its capacity to love and create life, William starts to haunt the house.
He lurks behind each locked door. You can hear him muttering in the eaves of the attic. He is whispering in Henry's head. And he will be the one to take control . . .
Readers are loving William:
'Nothing prepared me for the final twist' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'A weird and wonderful book' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Creepy, terrifying and has a killer twist that I did not see coming' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Truly scary and unpredictable! What a brilliant book' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'An addictive read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐©2024 Andrew Pyper Enterprises, Inc
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Critic reviews
[A] timely spin on fears about AI developing consciousness . . . a diabolically disguised twist will bring you up short. Sleep tight
A brilliantly plotted story combining horror tropes, suspense and metaphysical speculation about the nature of the soul . . . a terrifying, thought-provoking read (Lisa Tuttle)
A gripping, AI-infused take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Its chilling final twist will have you turning directly back to the first page
Best thing I've read this year. WILD. Frankenstein meets Rosemary's Baby with hints of Shirley Jackson. Just superb. Unsettling in the most beautiful way (Will Dean, author of THE LAST PASSENGER)
A book that probes at the fears for our future and provokes the terrors of our pasts - William asks, if the things we make reflect us, what does that say about what we are? Also - it's f***ing terrifying (Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of THE MERCIES)
Creepy, clever and unsettling. If you want something both classically spooky and terrifyingly timely this Halloween, this may well fit the bill
Short, sharp and packing a cleverly constructed last act surprise
Truly weird and scary
A tour de force of psychological horror and speculative fiction . . . William is an absolute must-read
This sounds like my perfect Halloween read - an AI twist on Frankenstein
The uncanny aspect of AI is front and center in William, Mason Coile's slim, gripping novel about the horror of watching software embrace its will to power . . . he has crafted a cyber-horror tale that combines cerebrality and carnage, a twist on The Shining in which the house is haunted by a ghost in the machine . . . The action is cinematic, complete with jump scares and bloodshed sufficient to satisfy any gore hound. Shopworn as these elements are, Coile elevates them with meticulously unsettling prose and a knowing dissection of character that transcends stereotype
A smart home turns into a house of horrors in this suspenseful outing from Coile . . . Coile expertly imagines the sort of ghoulish snares a cybernetic environment could spring upon its unprepared captives and throws in a late-inning explanation for the source of William's apparent sociopathy that is as believable as it is chilling. It's a frightening Frankenstein fable for the age of AI
Moments of this cinematic tale truly terrify . . . Coile maximises his premise's inherent tension using nightmare imagery and an uneasy third-person-present narration shot through with powerlessness, paranoia, and dread. Gleefully lurid fun (Kirkus)
It was hinting at the supernatural, before seemingly becoming horror sci-fi. However, it veered back, last minute, into being supernatural again. I understand why, as the books namesake would have vanished around 2/3 of the way through, never to return. Personally, it would have been a far scarier ending had it not had that supernatural element return towards the end. Also, the ambiguous ending only kind of made sense. If you like to guess where things are going, not be told, this might leave you asking "ok, but why?".
I personally felt the narrator was not the right choice. She just didn't fit. I also found the way the dialogue between characters was written to be juvenile, uncreative and repetitive ("Blah blah blah" NAME said. "Blah blah blah" OTHER NAME said).
Lastly, I could maybe understand if you were reading the short chapters (a staggering 50 in total!), then it might build suspense. As an audiobook, I don't"t feel it works. It took me out of the story, making it feel like a stop/start jerky car ride.
Overall, worth a listen. Some of the choices could have been better, definitely not as scary as I anticipated but thought provoking, if you ignore the supernatural element.
Interesting.....not that scary though
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The book was fine, but knowing a twist ending was coming made it easy to guess was said ‘surprise’ was
Spoiled ending
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Great twists throughout the story
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