Ill Will by Dan Chaon

"We are always telling stories about ourselves."

So goes one of the many unreliable narrators of Dan Chaon's Ill Will. The unreliable narrator is a workshop tool used in countless books. A narrator who witholds information or outright lies to the reader. Patrick Bateman and Holden Cuulfield are two notable characters who deploy this tactic. Ill Will magnifies this technique with multiple unreliable narrators. Broken up into differing perspectives and set on a timelne alternating between 1983, 2012, 2013, and 2014.

The story begins when psychologist Dustin hears the news of his adopted brother Rusty being released from prison. The crime being the murder of Dustin's parents, aunt and uncle. Dustin testified against Rusty, believing him to be linked to a satanic cult.

A mysterious new patient named Aqil enters into Dustin's life with theories about a string of murders that may be connected by dates of triplets (6/06/06, 7/07/07, etc.).

Watching things unravel within the final 40 pages of this book caused immense unease and bordered on a horror novel. Perspective is something that, when used effectively, help create deeper understanding of ourselves. What Dan Chaon does so expertly in here is using perspective to show how unreliable the past can be.