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A review by sucrecube
Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims
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 injuggling 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.
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!
One of my biggest problems is the pacing of the final chapter. I understand the difficulty in
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore
Minor: Transphobia