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A review by ladymab
Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A warning: There is "take, eat, this is my flesh (literally)" level cannibalism at the very end (so, character is alive, gives flesh willingly, "cool motive still cannibalism" etc etc).
A comfort: the children are fine in the end -- as knowing that a kid can be in danger while reading is a distraction, so don't worry there, both kids make it out okay.
Oh, you could DEFINTELY get the Jonny Sims vibes all over this book and I loved it. Each of the individual narratives was normal until it wasn't, and just the subtle creeping dread through the course of them until it just sat and lurked over the shoulder of each narrator. In some cases quite literally. You could feel the influence of TMA on it, of course, hard not to with the set up, but it definitely stands out in its own right and I'm extremely excited to see more from him.
He does an effortless job of just adding in casual references to queer/trans characters that it feels natural and easy. There are a whole host of backgrounds for each narrator, and each of them had that sort of impactful payoff at the conclusion -- tying in not only the pieces that had been bound to them, but from their own backgrounds and histories as well.
The final chapter I think only wasn't as impactful because of the need to change narrators constantly. I get the need to do it, and how it all panned out, and I'm really interested to see how the audio book might do it if they rely just on the voices that have told the story to that point (since it's a full cast production) or if they'll need to pause to name the narrator. It is something that would do very well in a non text format specifically because it had to rely on letting you know who was who without feeling like it was slipping from one narrator to another instead of having a focus character etc. Visually played against it for pacing, would work in any other format though.
So saying, I am incredibly excited to listen to the audiobook version of this when I get the chance.
A comfort: the children are fine in the end -- as knowing that a kid can be in danger while reading is a distraction, so don't worry there, both kids make it out okay.
Oh, you could DEFINTELY get the Jonny Sims vibes all over this book and I loved it. Each of the individual narratives was normal until it wasn't, and just the subtle creeping dread through the course of them until it just sat and lurked over the shoulder of each narrator. In some cases quite literally. You could feel the influence of TMA on it, of course, hard not to with the set up, but it definitely stands out in its own right and I'm extremely excited to see more from him.
He does an effortless job of just adding in casual references to queer/trans characters that it feels natural and easy. There are a whole host of backgrounds for each narrator, and each of them had that sort of impactful payoff at the conclusion -- tying in not only the pieces that had been bound to them, but from their own backgrounds and histories as well.
The final chapter I think only wasn't as impactful because of the need to change narrators constantly. I get the need to do it, and how it all panned out, and I'm really interested to see how the audio book might do it if they rely just on the voices that have told the story to that point (since it's a full cast production) or if they'll need to pause to name the narrator. It is something that would do very well in a non text format specifically because it had to rely on letting you know who was who without feeling like it was slipping from one narrator to another instead of having a focus character etc. Visually played against it for pacing, would work in any other format though.
So saying, I am incredibly excited to listen to the audiobook version of this when I get the chance.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cannibalism