Trigger warning: The book starts by letting readers know about triggers for depression and suicide.

Set in Montreal, the book concerns a young man, Vicken, who is contemplating ending his life. From a personal standpoint, one of the reasons I was very excited for this novel, apart from the phenomenal author, Sofia Ajram, is that it’s a horror novel set in Montreal which hasn’t really gotten its due in terms of ‘big city horror’ but also in Canadian horror spaces although the city is home to many wonderful horror creators in different domains. If you’re from Montreal or have visited, you will enjoy the familiarity of the places like the subway stations and other sites.

The novel firmly establishes itself in a Cronenbergian, existential and philosophical horror space which means it’s wonderful for readers who don’t know where the narrative is going because it’s not a straight trajectory from A to B to C.

(Vicken is queer btw; he has sex in a bathroom with a guy named Felix)

He’s looking for an outbound station to exit but he can’t find one. He’s soon joined by another woman who he nicknames Pashmina. She has had the same problem for days. And then together, their days multiply.

What they find is a scene out of a nightmare that would make even Clive Barker terrified.

Vick starts to wonder if he has died and is in purgatory or has he been infected with something causing him to hallucinate this new reality?

It chronicles his descent into madness about what his purpose is and what he is really doing by being trapped here and surviving. It forces the reader to share the terror of Vick with all of life’s unanswered questions like: what does this all mean? Why are we here? And that is as much a part of the terror as wondering if he will survive this hell.

And by the time the elevators enter the chatroom, things get even weirder.

Then the book started to remind me very much of “House of Leaves” where the character’s madness turns into an entity of its own.

And then — this is one of the most interesting aspects of the book — it becomes a Choose Your Own Adventure text in which if you’re reading the eBook, you can click on the links. It leads to at least a few different endings, and all I will say is that it isn’t going to be what you expect!

Overall, definitely one of the most unique and innovative horror novels I’ve read in some time! Very original!

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

Content wise you really feel the dread and misery, and the hopelessness associated with luminal spaces. This is one of the only luminal space books that I really felt transported to and not bored? So that's a plus. It highlights that waking/dreaming feeling.

This Kafkaesque nightmare of a novella is at turns really sad, suspenseful, and even gag inducing. For such a small page count Ajram creates a fully realized world in this never-ending subway station. It’s an experience!

An experimental novel with beautiful prose, this novel was such an experience to read. I really enjoyed the writing and commentary on life and death and finding meaning in the mundane. I also found it claustrophobic and slightly disturbing in certain parts, which only added to the overall experience. The ending especially was creative, I enjoyed the different options presented to the reader to control the narrative. A uniquely creative story!