Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - Thirteen Storeys

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Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims

26 reviews

sucrecube's review

dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Read this because I listened to The Magnus Archives and very quickly became deeply obsessed (listened to 140 episodes of it in a week), and NEEDED more of Jonathan Sims' work. I plan to read more of his stuff eventually as well.
If you're familiar with The Magnus Archives, this has a similar sort of format; a bunch of short horror stories that are, in some ways, connected, and a main plot is built with that. Sims is really excellent at building intrigue for his mysteries, and he's also quite good at building tension in his horror. I would personally say a good chunk of the horror in this book is more "psychological" in nature, rather than "thrilling," which is absolutely perfect because that's my favourite kind. None of the stories overstay their welcome, and they're all varied, so there's basically a charcuterie board of horrors here. I also really loved the themes in this book!

I hate the rich!

One of my biggest problems is the pacing of the final chapter. I understand the difficulty in

juggling like 13+ characters, and I definitely think it was handled decently, but I do feel like it could have been better. In juggling those 13+, I also feel like a few of them were kind of flattened personality-wise to, again, work with the fact that there were so many characters.

Overall though I really enjoyed the ending! It felt insanely satisfying, which is great because I, honestly, often leave a book or show dissatisfied with its ending, especially when it comes to horror.
Another teeny tiny thing is that I hate the amount of typos. I can overlook a couple but there were probably at least ten or so? I feel like even that is a major understatement. I mostly overlook it in the case of this book because of how much I enjoyed it but typos are a massive pet peeve of mine in a piece of writing.

Despite my criticisms I really don't want to rate it lower than I have because I enjoyed it and I generally enjoy Sims' work so much!! Despite its flaws it was just such a fun read. I've been trying to read more lately, and this was probably the fastest I've finished a book of this length in a very long time because of how much I loved it. Maybe I'll adjust my rating at a later time but I just really can't bring myself to rate it any lower right now lol.

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cranberry10088's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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rayne_fall's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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rachelunabridged's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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bookcheshirecat's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

“This world was designed to generate winners and losers, and it showed a lack of character to wish yourselves a winner without accepting what it does to those who lose.”

➽ I can't believe I waited this long to finally read Thirteen Storeys, as it was amazing! I was so excited for Jonathan Sims' debut novel because I loved The Magnus Archive, the podcast he was a writer on. I'm normally not really into Horror but TMA got me super obsessed and I loved the way it was written. Luckily, he's also fantastic at writing novels and just really writes Horror in a way that draws me in. Thirteen Storeys is focused on Banyan Court, a huge complex that was built by the eccentric billionaire Tobias Fell, who has become a hermit and rarely leaves his penthouse anymore. The story starts with a newspaper entry about his sudden death following a dinner party with 12 guests ... who have no idea what happened. We're slowly working our way back by following different people in the weeks leading up to the dinner party and the strange experiences with Banyan Court.

➽ This feels more like an anthology, as every story is about a different character's life and how Banyan Court haunts them in one way or another. Still, after a while you begin to see the connections between the stories and I loved figuring out what was going on! The dinner party itself only happens at the very end, but I personally didn't mind that as the setup was intriguing and gave us some insight into Tobias, his dubious past and the secrets of the building. The people he invites for the party couldn't be more different, as the complex has two sides. One is for the rich people, but the back is hidden away and full of cheap apartments for those who can't afford better. There were so many intriguing stories, we've got a young woman who only works the night shift, a couple horrified by a mysterious stain in their wall that won't come out, a startup CEO whose own technology turns against him and an art collector who gets obsessed with a painting. There was always a sinister undercurrent to the stories, especially when it comes to the concierge who deals with an intense coworker and a plumber who has been noticing that the pipes don't work like they should. Every single story left me intrigued and I'm definitely excited for more books by Jonny!

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