ARC Review: An Evil AI

William by Mason Coile

Publication Date: September 10, 2024

Summary from NetGalley:

Psychological horror meets cyber noir in this delicious one-sitting read—a haunted house story in which the haunting is by AI.

Henry is a brilliant engineer who, after untold hours spent in his home lab, has achieved the breakthrough of his career—he’s created an artificially intelligent consciousness. He calls the half-formed robot William.

No one knows about William. Henry’s agoraphobia keeps him inside the house, and his fixation on his project keeps him up in the attic, away from everyone, including his pregnant wife, Lily.

When Lily’s coworkers show up, wanting to finally meet Henry and see the new house—the smartest of smart homes—Henry decides to introduce them to William, and things go from strange to much worse. Soon Henry and Lily discover the security upgrades intended to keep danger out of the house are even better at locking it in.

ARC provided by Penguin Group via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

I am not a horror fan but I do enjoy a bit of horror in my reading from time to time and this book fit that niche perfectly. This is more of a psychological thriller than a horror story and also there is a little bit of a locked door mystery as well. But the really scary part is that it will leave you with a sense of what might happen if AI is allowed to run amok.

There is not a lot of character development in this short novella, but you do get a real good sense of who the characters are at the moment that this story takes place. Henry carries most of the narration, but the others chime in from time to time. I can’t say that I really liked any of them, but I did feel for them and the dilemma that they found themselves in. I found Henry especially creepy from the get go, and I was worried about him and what he was capable of throughout the story.

There were other things in the house besides William the extremely creepy AI robot that Henry had built. There was a creepy doll and a magician riding a bike, as well as a robot dog that wasn’t quite right. The house as well was very creepy. I am not a fan of smart houses, but this one is somehow the creepiest house I have ever read about. The house and the robots, especially William, really helped set the stage for the whole story and added to the horrific scenes the characters found themselves in.

The story moves along at a brisk pace, and could easily be read in one sitting. But I found myself needing to take breaks from it as it was a bit overwhelming at times. Then there was this plot twist that came out of nowhere and the ending was certainly something I did not foresee and that just scared the heck out of me. But in retrospect the twist and ending made the rest of the story more terrifying. There are some gory scenes and there were a few times that I worried things would go too far, but for the most part the gore was manageable.

I am finding this a hard review to write and to explain my feelings without giving the story away, so hopefully it makes sense to you. If you are into horror and want a quick read that will bring all of the gore and terror you crave, then this is a book you want to take a look at. I picked it up more for the evil AI aspect of it, and that certainly did not disappoint.