Thirteen Storeys

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Switching P.O.V.: The final story "The Builder" introduces Tobias Fell but also freely switches from him to the other previous narrators as they all gather at the penthouse dinner party. A dinner party is held in the penthouse of a multimillion-pound development. All the guests are strangers - even to their host, the billionaire owner of the building Capitalism Is Bad: Tobias Fell and the hauntings embody everything wrong with late-stage capitalism, from poor workman protection to pollution. Jonny Sims is one of a very small handful of authors whose work I will read (or often in his case, listen to) immediately, no questions asked, no summary needed. Jonny Sims made it, so I will consume it. that said, this is what i would say is sims first true foray into a novel. while 13 storeys was a book, it was more a collection of related short stories culminating in a finale that felt kind of awkward - this is another sims trademark, he feels the need to end things with a spectacle for the audience. i am pleased to be able to say that though family business -does- end in a true spectacle, it doesn't feel out of place or out of pace in any way.

stars ONLY because we never got a final scene of the cat being safe, and my little non-british heart Cannot trust an indoor/outdoor cat just "is" safe. even if he's fictional. I wasn't so sure about this at first because I've never actually read a horror book, I've read thrillers but never horror so it was a bit of a leap in the dark but I'm glad I chose this book. I feel like I am missing a reference regarding the character and motives of Mr. Bill, our antagonist. I'm hoping it's some reference to English lit or demonology of which I'm not yet aware (and that goodreads reviewers will soon fill me in!) He showed up after WWI and seems to be working towards something at the 100 year mark? My idea (knowing the author's preoccupation with The Extinction) is that his ultimate feast will be the result of climate change; that humankind itself will be wiped out with no one to remember us. Within Thirteen Storeys, you will find tales of hauntings, spiralling obsessions, paranoia and underneath it all, of tragedies long buried, and by the end you will surely learn that the forgotten will be forgotten no more. I really liked how interconnected Banyan Court and the lives inside it feel, and Sims deserves great credit for balancing all these different perspectives together nicely. There are some really original ideas at play across the book, and that is always more interesting than stories that play things to a tried-and-tested formula.It took me a little while to get into, I think partly cause I didn't particularly love any of the first few characters, but what kept me reading was the atmosphere. If you take one thing away from this review, let it be that My God, Jonathan Sims knows how to write a creepy atmosphere. I had literal chills. As I read further I started liking more of the characters (namely Cari - 7, and Damian - 12), but mid-way through the book I was completely invested - regardless of which character was being followed. This is from a man who normally can build a gradually revealing plot over the course of 40 episodes per season in a podcast so I don’t really know what’s going on here. I think the novel format just doesn’t suit him as much as the podcast format. He also clearly wants to keep doing short stories as he builds his novels around the short stories rather than on the main characters. The things I know about Diya are that she’s into women and Clea DuVall in But I’m A Cheerleader, and is isolating herself in grief. That could be said about half of my tumblr mutuals. Another example of this is the side character who is a gay woman that’s in love with Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars. Listen. I am a lesbian who loves But I’m A Cheerleader and who thinks Daisy Ridley is hot and has called Rey my girlfriend but that shouldn’t be all I know about these women. It feels like it was more important to show they’re gay than to show who they are as people. And there are other ways to make a gay woman. I’ll get into the one bit that DID resonate with me on an emotional level as a lesbian below. Jonathan Sims’ debut is a darkly twisted, genre-bending journey through one of the most innovative haunted houses you’ll ever dare to enter. My Thoughts The finale in the penthouse generally worked, however, I also thought it was a little on the predictable side and just a little rushed compared to the short stories earlier in the novel. Bizarrchitecture: Banyan Court, which on the surface seems like an ordinary tenement building is home to layer upon layer of supernatural happenings: a plethora of hauntings, corridors that appear out of thin air, shifting walls and apartments and a network of of pipes that physically make no sense.

An astonishing debut from Jonathan Sims. A wonderful new twist on an age-old genre. 5 out of 5' SFX Children Are Innocent: Anna Khan, being a six-year-old girl is confused by the more disturbing traits of her imaginary friend Penny. She also doesn't understand Tobias's explanation of the hauntings, and is the first to eat the cube of Tobias's cooked flesh when she mistakes it for bacon. The Night Owl: Violet Ng is this by necessity of her night occupation, as she works from evenings until mornings in a soulless, grueling office job. A modern horror classic from one of the most exciting writers in the field today.' - Starburst MagazineA few forgettable stories and a couple of personal gripes around formatting and the ending means I’m probably not as attached to Thirteen Storeys as some, however, it is still undoubtedly a must-read for any horror enthusiast looking for a good scare. I think The Magnus Archives will “haunt” Jonny’s career as a novelist, in that it is so very tempting to sort his newer work into the categories laid out by the Fears, the entities he fleshed out so well in his much acclaimed podcast. I now find myself sorting most horror into the 15 fears – a lasting take away from the Magnus Archives that I simply can’t shake. I suspect Jonny’s audience will have a hard time not doing so here. Mr. Bill is so well suited as an avatar of the Lonely, after all. A beautifully written contemporary horror novel that I know for sure will leave its mark on me. I don't remember reading anything like this before and it was an absolute delight.' - Damp Pebbles Blog

A dinner party is held in the penthouse of a multimillion-pound development. All the guests are strangers - even to their host, the billionaire owner of the building. I really liked the way the book built up, with each different character's perspectives, and how each character's chapter ended with them receiving their invitation to dinner with Tobias Fell. By the time I got to the thirteenth chapter, I was very excited to find out how everything fit together and the conclusion did not disappoint. There are small connections between the various stories. Several characters notice an elderly lady isn’t out much and someone else seems to be staying in her house, for instance. But overall, each story functions as its own thing. it is a story about standing up to a status quo that says it will protect you while it grinds others like you up for its own needs, and hurries to leave the spot they occupied in the world neat and tidy so no one is bothered by thinking too deeply about it. xen is right at home.

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This book certainly has its chosen topic, and the metaphors are not subtle. What the haunting represents is very clear by the end of the first chapter, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. I was actually quite excited to see that my guess was correct, and the exploration of all the different aspects of it was very fun to read, with some unique takes on it. Sometimes it does kind of feel a little like being bashed over the head with Meaning, but not in the way that annoys me. Some authors have a nasty habit of doing this because it's quite clear that they believe their reader is too stupid to follow along with it, but with this, I think it was actually more of a distraction. The whole thing is two-fold, with what the haunting represents and then its reason for occurring. I think the sometimes heavy-handedness with the former allows the latter to go undetected, and it certainly worked with me. I actually found the reasoning behind the whole thing very interesting, which is a relief, because often when ghost stories try to explain their ghosts the whole thing falls flat. In this case that didn't happen, but unfortunately the ending fell flat for other reasons.

Family Business is a dark, gory, morbid little beast with a bright and defiant heart. It opens with quite a disgusting clean up of a flat after it's owner passes away (it put me right off my late-night-reading mug of hot chocolate) but if you can get past that, the horror blooms into that of a different sort. The disgusting becomes mundane and the fear becomes not one of the mess after a person had passed, but of the loneliness and isolation one can sink into during a lifetime. A fear of being forgotten and abandoned by those you love. A true and abiding horror. It's a physically demanding & emotionally taxing job, but Diya is surprised to find herself enjoying working with Frank & his two daughters, Xen & Mary. That is, until she starts getting weird visions where she feels as if she is living out the deceased's last moments. Initially worried she is ill, Diya starts to notice other odd things at the business: the phonecalls to Frank from 'Mr Bill' that seem to lead to jobs, the fact that at a building collapse where the tenant died, the neighbours are adamant that the flat was empty for months, & the fact that another member of the family, Frank's son George, recently died & everyone avoids the subject.

Surprisingly Happy Ending: In spite of the protagonists' previous stories ending in trauma and fright by the building's various ghosts, everyone who attends the fateful dinner not only survives but defies Tobias's attempts at corrupting them into killing an innocent man. Tobias himself, the villain of the novel is rightfully punished for his crimes. Blood for Mortar: Reclusive billionaire Tobias Fell has Banyan Court built to his specifications, whilst also burying the many of the workers and other people he decides to dispose of (such as disagreeable business partners) in the foundations and walls of the building. This is entirely designed to create a "spiritual faraday Cage" to protect him from the ghosts of his victims instead passing their vengeance off on other innocent people.' The Magnus Archives has excelled at taking short horror ideas and linking them together into a coherent metaplot without giving up on making almost every episode stand alone. Thirteen Storeys threads a similar needle. Each chapter is from the point of view of one person who either lives or works in Banyan Court, an apartment building owned by billionaire Tobias Fell. Dirty Cop: Tobias seems to have at least some members of the London police under his control, getting Jason out of interrogation when he is linked to the death of James Andre and getting some to be on stand by to protect him during the dinner.