I previously enjoyed Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims, which was one of my favourite reads for 2020 so I was excited to start Family Business. They are two very different books, but Sims is a master of the horror genre and this new book really hooks you in and keeps the unease high before unleashing a paranormal threat on the main characters as the book rushes to an action-packed finale.

Our main character is Diya, a woman who has lost her way after her roommate dies. She starts a new job with Slough and Sons, a family business who perform deceased clean-ups. The family are strange enough, but when Diya starts getting visions and her memories start to fade, she soon realises things are not all they seem. Diya is a well-rounded character and the portrayal of grief over her roommate is really touchingly drawn. The other characters are all well-defined and easily relatable – the gothic Xen, spiritual Mary and gruff Frank all have their own secrets but are still interesting in their own right. The deaths that they clean up are gory or even just sad at times and the flashbacks to see into their minds at the time of their death is a nice twist.

The build up to the paranormal element with the introduction of Mr Bill is written carefully and slowly, steadily building the tension and allowing space for a suspension of disbelief. Some of the scenes where Diya is running from the man with the eternal stretched smile were very creepy and difficult to read at night! I do perhaps think that some of the middle of the book could have been trimmed or edited down as it did feel like it dragged in a few places. This becomes particularly apparent when compared to the action-packed finale.

Overall Family Business is a spooky horror, perfect for Halloween reading on a cold, dark night. Thank you to NetGalley & Orion Publishing Group – Gollancz for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When Diya Burman's best friend dies, her life falls apart. She loses everything. But then she gets a job: working at Slough and Sons, cleaning up after the recently deceased. Clearing away the remains of lost lives, Diya begins to see things. Horrible things, that can't be written off as imagination. Nothing is as it seems with the sloughs.

What a nice cast of realistic and lovable characters. Diya gets a job with Slough and Sons cleaning up after the recently deceased personal belongings - trinkets, love letters etc. But Diya begins to see strange things and a mysterious man keeps appearing. This well written book is easy to read. The storyline will stretch your imagination. There are also parts that are quite creepy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I would like to thank #Netgalley #OrionGroupPublishing and the author #JonathanSims for my ARC of #FamilyBusiness in exchange for an honest review.

Family Business may be the very definition of a slow burn. But that works so well for this story. It puts a new perspective on how we as individuals and as a society look at people and death and how grief and sadness can consume us. It took me a little longer than usual to read because it gave me so much to think about. That sounds really heavy but of course there’s a very ominous supernatural mystery happening throughout which at times is quietly creepy and I enjoyed that. I did wonder occasionally where the story was going but then the real horror kicks in with an intense ending which is done so well and gives you answers but also leaves a lot open to interpretation which I love!!!

Stand up to your demons!

Thank you so much to netgalley and Orion for the digital ARC

This was a good read! I found the first two thirds of the novel to be a bit of a drag but the final third was fantastic! It’s one that I may reread in the future now that I know the ending

I received an ARC for this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sims is on-form with Family Business, with his classic blend of supernatural horror and slow-building suspense. His characters are believable, diverse, and easy to get invested in, and in a departure from Thirteen Stories, it’s a pleasant change to have a little more time to get to know them, and really dig into the themes of grief, memory, and legacy at play. Sims’ prose is effective and often very eerie, and Sims demonstrates his gift of harnessing horror to deliver empathetic social commentary to great effect here. The sudden tonal shift at the end of the book felt a little too left-field for this to be a five from me, but it’s well worth reading, and definitely won’t disappoint fans of his work.

I discussed this book further on The Hidden Bookcase: this review will be updated with a link to that episode when it has aired.

When Diya Burnman's best friend and roommate Angie dies of cancer, she is grief-stricken and struggling. She takes a job at a trauma cleaning service. She begins to see things while cleaning away the items left by the dead and it is not clear whether it's all in her head or if there is something supernatural going on. This horror element if very well done and doesn't venture over the line into being ridiculous that so many horror novels do. The story had me gripped and was completely different from anything I've ever read.

This is a very unusual book, that will stretch your imagination. Diya's best friend Angie has died of cancer, and she is finding it difficult to cope. In a rash moment she leaves her office job and joins Slough and Sons as a cleaner. Except they don't clean office blocks, they clean up after sudden deaths. Frank, Xen and Mary become her lifeline, giving her life purpose and she finds the work fulfilling.

However, some jobs seem different. She begins to see visions of the lives and deaths of the people for whom she is cleaning, disturbing visions that she cannot understand. She begins to discover that working for Slough and Sons isn't quite as straightforward as she thought, but much more dangerous.

Very much in the style of Stephen King, which is a great compliment, this story will grip you and make you both want to race ahead to see what happens and fear to turn the page. A great read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orion Publishing Group and Gollanz for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the sound of this book, but unfortunately I just couldn't get in to it at all. I found the writing style hard to read, and the story line slow

I am afraid I struggled with this book. I found it didn't really grip me, and it was too long .I am really sorry that it didn't really click with me.

This was something completely different from what I have been reading lately and I absolutely loved it. Diya Burman starts a new job cleaning up after someone has died, she is in a bad frame of mind after losing her best friend so when she is offered the job in the family run business of Slough and Sons she thinks what the heck just give it a go but it soon becomes clear that things are not quite as they seem and when Diya begins to see strange things and a mysterious man keeps appearing she begins to question is it her grief after losing her friend or are strange things really happening !
This book is many things a thriller, a horror story but it also deals with grief and the aftermath when a person dies and it’s written excellently by Jonathan Sims. It did take me a little while to get into the story but once I did I was hooked and flew through it and having previously read his other book Thirteen Storeys I an fat becoming a big fan of this author who never fails to surprise.
My thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group, Gollan z for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Absolutely loved ThirteenStories so was keen to feel the same about the authors new book,and I did like ….chilling and creepy it was hard to stop reading once started,lots of characters to get to know which at times was hard going but on the whole another good read from this author

I thought this was ‘just’ going to be an entertaining book about a bereavement cleaning service, about one young woman’s journey with her grief. I thought it might be a bit gruesome too. But it’s much more than that. It has a mystical, supernatural element to it, it explores how magic and fantasy can be scary and dangerous and not trifled with.

I wasn’t completely enamoured with our main protagonist at first - don’t ask me why, there was nothing amiss with her, I just didn’t gel with her. But I soon became to enjoy her relationships between her and her colleagues, they were real foils of each other and made for such subtle but excellent scenes.

Considering the supernatural event to it, it all felt so real that I would imagine even the biggest magic sceptics amongst us would be hard pressed to deny it.

As someone who has been well acquainted with death and grief, I enjoyed the exploration of death and grief and a look at how we all deal with it in our own ways, and they may seem wrong to some people, but as long as it’s right for that person then it doesn’t matter.

It’s thrilling, I don’t mean that in a fast-paced, all guns blazing within the first couple of pages, no. It’s quieter than that. It grabs your hand and whispers “come with me” and you have no choice but to follow.

It’s a thriller, a fantasy, a horror, a science fiction; it flows really well and you’ll finish it before you know it. It’s scary but not hide-behind-your-sofa terrifying, vivid but not gory, amusing but not comedic, it’s the perfect balance of everything to give you an entertaining read.

It reads so well, so smoothly. It’s a first class piece of storytelling. It’s my first book by Jonathan Sims but it definitely won’t be my last.

Review:
4.5🌟
I absolutely could not put this book down, if I didn't have to go to work, this would have been devoured in one sitting.

Family Business follows the morbid job that the Slough's, and their apprentice Diya, complete on a frequent basis - Trauma Cleanup.

The story initially starts with humour and when the crescendo hits, spirals into mystery and horror.

Whilst not entitely scary, it was necessary to read with the lights on in fear of seeing those supernatural smiling teeth in the corner of my own room!

I will absolutely recommend this book for those who are not turned away by gore and thrills. The characters were extremly loveable and the ending was just *chefs kisses*.

Thankyou NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group, Gollancz for considering me to review this book. All opinions are my own.

#bookstagram #bookreview # review #books #reader #FamilyBusiness #NetGalley #OrionPublishingGroup #Gollancz

A bit of a disappointing second novel from Sims, best known as the creator of The Magnus Archives podcast. I loved the variety of voices in his first novel, Thirteen Storeys, and hoped to see more of that here, unfortunately it was lacking in that sense and I grew a bit bored at times. I would still recommend this to fans of the author, however.

I am always excited to read new work by Jonathan Sims, so I was really intrigued by this novel! Sadly, I found it a bit too long and dull in parts - despite an interesting premise, the story dragged and there were too many characters. Sims' strength seems to lie in episodic tales, such as his podcast and debut novel, and I hope he writes more of these in future.

I probably shouldn't have stayed awake until nearly 4am this morning reading this, but I just couldn't stop. I didn't expect the way the plot unravelled, but it drew me in and time flew. The writing was descriptive enough that I could imagine what was happening (so I may be looking over my shoulder today 🤣). I recommend reading it in daylight!

Having enjoyed Sims' first novel, I was keen to read this new one. "Family Business" knocks "Thirteen Storeys" out of the water, in my opinion. Jonathan Sims has a way with words that creates such a sense of reality and the mundane, giving life to characters and places so that they feel like people and places that you know, that you've been to. The mundane realism of the narrative and world-building draws you in and once the supernatural happenings start, they seem all the more real because of it.
The mystery of what was going on was compelling, and the mix of normality and everyday with moments that were genuinely creepy (including one scene that was directly borrowed from an actual nightmare I once had) was a great build-up of dread and anticipation. Just like Diya, I got drawn into the creepiness and then snapped back to reality, over and over again, with the creepiness ramping up every time.

(copy and pasted from my goodreads review)

When Diya Burman's best friend Angie dies, it feels like her own life is falling apart. Wanting a fresh start, she joins Slough & Sons a family firm that cleans up after the recently deceased.

Old love letters. Porcelain dolls. Broken trinkets. Clearing away the remnants of other people's lives, Diya begins to see things. Horrible things. Things that get harder and harder to write off as merely her grieving imagination. All is not as it seems with the Slough family. Why won't they speak about their own recent loss? And who is the strange man that keeps turning up at their jobs?

If Diya's not careful, she might just end up getting buried under the family tree.
Couldn’t put it down really gripping and really enjoyed this book totally recommend
Thank You NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group
I just reviewed Family Business by Jonathan Sims. #FamilyBusiness #NetGalley