Scan barcode
A review by btrz7
Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I have been looking forward to this book since it was announced. I am a big fan of The Magnus Archives podcast and I really wanted to see what its writer would produce in book form.
I have to say I was not disappointed.
The story is about a strange murder of the billionaire, Tobias Fell, owner of a building named Banyan Court. Its appeal is that it's a luxurious development in a poor area of London, but the other side of coin is that due to city rules a percentage of flats need to be made affordable to lower income tenants. With this, behind the luxury front apartments, there is a number of smaller apartments in the building for those not part of an elite - segregated, of course, from the wealthy tenants. With a diverse set of characters, each one with a different background and living very different lives from each other, we get a haunting story for each of the characters present at the dinner party where Tobias Fell eventually died. Some are tenants of the building, in both the rich and the poor areas, some have other connections to it. It is through their stories that we find out about Mr. Fell's and the building's dark history, and what led to his ultimate demise.
Besides being a collection of terrific individual horror stories, in which Jonathan Sims does what he knows best - create a vivid painting of a character, with their life and unique voice, and then slowly unravel it into pure nightmare fuel - this book also manages to be a blunt critique to the capitalism society we live in, and how we don't always seem to want to acknowledge its consequences, which can be far more terrifying than any horror story.
I have to say I was not disappointed.
The story is about a strange murder of the billionaire, Tobias Fell, owner of a building named Banyan Court. Its appeal is that it's a luxurious development in a poor area of London, but the other side of coin is that due to city rules a percentage of flats need to be made affordable to lower income tenants. With this, behind the luxury front apartments, there is a number of smaller apartments in the building for those not part of an elite - segregated, of course, from the wealthy tenants. With a diverse set of characters, each one with a different background and living very different lives from each other, we get a haunting story for each of the characters present at the dinner party where Tobias Fell eventually died. Some are tenants of the building, in both the rich and the poor areas, some have other connections to it. It is through their stories that we find out about Mr. Fell's and the building's dark history, and what led to his ultimate demise.
Besides being a collection of terrific individual horror stories, in which Jonathan Sims does what he knows best - create a vivid painting of a character, with their life and unique voice, and then slowly unravel it into pure nightmare fuel - this book also manages to be a blunt critique to the capitalism society we live in, and how we don't always seem to want to acknowledge its consequences, which can be far more terrifying than any horror story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Body horror
Moderate: Cannibalism, Death, and Gore
Minor: Deadnaming