The Chrysalis Kindle Edition

I'm referring to the plot. Character development / description / settings are all pretty good....but the plot is extremely derivative of many books and movies, most of which were better than this book. Pacing: No slow suspenseful build....just, unfortunately, slow. The author shows promise.....please promise me a better plot vehicle next time. Oh and finally....gratuitous use of four letter words.....a little is somewhat authentic, but here it was grossly over-used, and inserted clumsily as well. Most people don't talk like that....and even if you think they do....it doesn't add anything....just detracts.

I read through this book faster than I anticipated. The characters are real and likable. Which makes this story all the more painful to read as horror starts to take over their lives. The atmosphere and tension builds slowly with some intense moments (which ironically the two strongest both come during parties). The mystery of it all leaves the ending in limbo. You don't know what to expect and the climax really embraces the story's horror roots in an unexpected way.What did I dislike? Well, like I said, the story is definitely a slow build. Especially at the beginning. The premise is also something I've seen/read a dozen times before. Young couple buys a house that's cheap because it also happens to be creepy. But the plot really comes into its own from there.If you were like me and enjoyed roaming the horror/sci-fi sections of Blockbuster as a kid than I recommend this book.

I don’t typically see myself as a SciFi fan but this book was pretty good. In fact, I will be offering it as a suggestion to others because it was entertaining for sure. I feel like it ended almost too abruptly though. Maybe that means I liked it even more than I expected since I didn’t really want it to be over. 👍🏻

Loved the book! The character development, the way the story was put together using months and how Deneen tied things together - fantastic. Read it in four days; didn’t want to put it down. Hope there is a movie.

The Chrysalis was a fun book to read! My initial interest in the book stemmed from reading the synopsis and seeing the tagline on the cover, DON'T GO IN THE BASEMENT. I had expected a lot more horror than I got, and even read a few reviews that considered this sci-fi and not horror at all. While I agree that it is not as MUCH horror as I wanted, it is still horror (horror light? horror adjacent?) and I do not really think it is sci-fi by any means.I really enjoyed the protagonist's descent into madness based on the basement/what's in the basement. It was reminiscent of Jack Torrance from The Shining in some ways, and it made for an unpredictable character to read about!If anything, I want to know more about the house, its past, the previous owners, the basement, the thing in the basement, etc. I don't feel like we got enough of that which could have helped with the element of horror.Overall this was a great read and I give it 4 out of 5 stars! Thanks to the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

The Chrysalis is being described by a lot of readers on Goodreads as “science fiction,” but I just don't get that. To me, this was pretty clearly a horror story, and while it might not work for some horror aficionados, I personally enjoyed the slowly building terror and the creepy atmosphere. This isn’t a haunted house story, but there is something awful living in the basement of the Decker’s new suburban home, and it wreaks havoc on Tom and Jenny’s relationship, not to mention their relationships with their friends and family. Take a bit of Rosemary’s Baby, add in a dash of Little Shop of Horrors and The Shining and mix well with Deneen’s horrifying glimpse into an imploding marriage and you’ll have an idea of what to expect.Tom and Jenny Decker are a young couple living in New York. Tom’s an artist but works as a bartender, and Jenny is a personal trainer, dodging lewd passes from her businessman clients. They live in an apartment that they love, until one day the landlord triples their rent and they are forced to move out of the city. Luckily, they find a huge old house in the suburbs that they can easily afford (with the help of Jenny’s rich sister Victoria), and despite the fact that the house is literally falling apart and is stuffed full of the previous tenant’s junk, they decide to move in, thinking it might be a fresh start. And just days after they arrive, Jenny discovers she is pregnant, a surprise to both of them since they hadn’t even been thinking about starting a family.Jenny refuses to go down into the basement, which is stacked high with old furniture and boxes, but Tom is drawn to it, for some reason. One day he decides to start clearing out some of the junk and discovers something sinister: hiding behind an old refrigerator is a large, slime-covered, pulsing chrysalis clinging to the wall. Tom feels compelled to touch it, and when he does, he feels an intense, drug-like high that also gives him blood-soaked visions of killing people. When Tom snaps out of the influence of the chrysalis, he barely remembers anything, but just like any addict, he can’t stay away from the chrysalis for long. Soon he’s sneaking into the basement at least once a day for a fix, but Jenny knows something is up.As Tom begins to change from the loving husband she once knew, Jenny knows she must do something to bring him back. But the chrysalis has other plans for them…We spend a lot of time with the characters in this story, and not so much time in the basement with the chrysalis (more about that later.) But I’m not complaining. I loved getting to know Jenny’s sister Victoria and her wife Lakshmi. The dynamic among the four of them is fraught with tension, since Tom can’t stand Victoria. We also meet Tom’s best friend Kevin, who is constantly trying to get Tom to come and work for his company. As the story progresses, and Tom’s personality and behavior goes downhill, we get to see how that behavior affects each relationship in a different way. I thought it was an interesting choice to make Tom and Jenny heavy drinkers, just bordering on alcoholism in my opinion, which also affects all their relationships.I loved the atmospheric quality of the story. I’m a sucker for creepy house stories and Deneen does a great job of describing the house with all its dark corners and terrible smells, rotting wood steps and peeling wallpaper. The suburban setting adds to the feeling that the Deckers are no longer in the heart of the city, but stuck out in the boonies by themselves. The story is divided into nine sections which follow the progression of Jenny’s pregnancy, which I thought was a clever way to frame the story. It also added a lot of tension, as Jenny gets closer and closer to that nine month mark. Jenny’s due date is in December, and I loved how the weather turns cold and snowy as things move towards their inevitable climax.One of the odd things for me in this story is that the chrysalis itself is mostly “off screen.” Most of Tom’s interactions with it are described after the fact, so as far as monsters go, it was pretty passive. If you’re looking for an in-your-face, action-filled horror story, you won’t find that here, although there are some violent moments. Instead, this story is character focused, and the real horror is Tom’s descent into homicidal madness. Deneen touches on lots of human fears--impending parenthood, job security, money worries and changing relationships--and uses the chrysalis to magnify those fears.There were several story elements that I felt could have been better developed. Let’s just say I had a lot of unanswered questions when I finished reading the book, and while the author may have deliberately left things vague, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions, I would have liked to see the story expanded in parts. For example, Tom makes friends with Malcolm and Hannah, a father and daughter who own a local bar, and when they first meet, both are taken aback at how much Tom looks like Malcolm’s deceased son Nick. Later, Jenny visits the bar, and Malcolm and Hannah tell her that she looks exactly like Malcolm’s dead wife. This weirdness is never explained, and in fact has nothing to do with the rest of the story. Since the author never did anything with the idea, I just felt, what was the point of putting it in?There’s also a hint that Jenny’s unborn child has something to do with the chrysalis, but again I felt like it was a terrific idea that just wasn’t fully developed. The action picks up near the end, although the ending left me scratching my head a bit and also felt a little abrupt. Ultimately, this story isn’t about the chrysalis, it’s about Tom and his addiction to the chrysalis. Deneen almost could have left out the scary bits and this would have been an effective and emotional drama about a troubled marriage, but luckily he didn’t. If you’re in the mood for an atmospheric, psychological tale with a focus on the characters, then you’ll love this book.Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

I fell for the pretty cover art. I totally thought there was going to be some great amazing backstory to this chrysalis and there was none. Tom's behavior is extremely predictable throughout the entire book, and I'm not really sure why it takes Jenny so long to catch on. I enjoyed Brendan's style of writing and it had so much promise in the beginning, but I found myself waiting for it to get better but it never did. If you like a straight A to B plot line, this will work for you. I was just hoping for more complexity to the plot.