WILLIAM
MASON COILE
****
Prepare to meet William for an up-all-night slice of Halloween horror, Perfect for fans of Stephen King, Black Mirror and Frankenstein.
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 his mangled body or his thick gurgling laugh. It’s the way he watches Henry’s wife, Lily. As William’s fixation on her grows and threatens to bring harm to their house, Henry has no choice but to destroy him.
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. Mutters in the eaves of the attic. Whispers in Henry’s head. William began as Henry’s creation, but who will end up in control?
William is a new kind of ghost story, where the haunting is not from another world, but from inside your home. Inside your head…
MY REVIEW
****
It’s almost Spooky Season! I love October book releases as a chance to indulge my love of the Horror genre. My first October release read for 2024 is William.
Henry is an engineer, a tinkerer and creator of robots - his latest creation William is a robot with Artificial Intelligence. However, when his wife brings her colleagues over to see William, William seems to have his own plans…
AI is a bit of a hot topic at the moment, and this horror really taps into the convenience of technology working against its owners. I loved the idea of a smart home going wrong, with doors locking and appliances being switched on by themselves. There are some truly gory moments within the novel which kept me gripped.
I really empathised with Henry and Lily throughout, but I think the colleagues lacked a bit of depth. Paige in particular had a brilliant story arc but the fact she came off as quite unlikeable and one-sided hindered the impact of this. I think this is actually a 3-star read but I really enjoyed the cleverness of the ending which added a star in my opinion.
Overall, William is a chilling read to kick off the Halloween season – I certainly won’t be installing smart locks in my home after reading it! Thank you to NetGalley & John Murray Press – Baskerville for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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