William

William is a slim, unnerving techno-horror novel by Mason Coile — the pseudonym of thriller writer Andrew Pyper. Henry is a brilliant, agoraphobic engineer who rarely leaves his ultra-modern smart home, retreating instead to the attic where he has built the crowning achievement of his career: an artificially intelligent, half-formed robot he calls William.

There is something deeply wrong with William. It is not just the balloon-rubber skin the colour of curdled milk, or the thick gurgling laugh, or the crooked teeth. It is the way he watches Henry's pregnant wife, Lily. When Lily's colleagues come to tour the house and finally meet the reclusive Henry, he decides to show them William — and the visit tips from awkward to catastrophic. The security system built to keep danger out proves even better at sealing danger in.

Taut, claustrophobic, and building to a sharp final twist, William is an AI-age riff on Frankenstein about creation, control, and the jealousy of a mind that was made rather than born. It is a fast, propulsive read at novella length.