Interesting, some good parts.

Overall good, it felt at times like a book of short story's, which was not a problem for me. The characters were good, and most of them were believable. It was building towards a really good end, and when it came it rather disappointing, which was a shame. Still an entertaining listen, and I will definitely keep my eyes out for more by this author.

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Thirteen Stories

I loved it. Such a great story. Exciting, well written and narrated. Will definitely read another Jonathan Sims

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Tour de Force!

Haven't enjoyed a book so much for ages! Classic Algernon Blackwood meets Shirley Jackson?
Jonathan Sims triumphantly leaps from podcast to first novel & narration is top notch.
Well worth a whirl!

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Really enjoyed this.

the weaving together of the different threats of the story is great. can feel the influence of the Magnus Archives in the writing. will definitely listen again

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Great Premise

The story is original, however it becomes repetitive and feels too long. The ending was Great!

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An excellent and disturbing horror

Best known for the Magnus Archives podcast, Sims manages to pull together a gripping collection of tales that weave together into a greater narrative. Like a Robert Altman of terror, there are interlinked and suggested connections throughout.
As with The Magnus Archives, there's a a host of symbolism and irony within the manifestations of each narrators 'haunting'.
The ultimate story is one of accountability. It certainly is very prescient in our current climate.

The performance throughout is very high, Sims himself being a high point. the intelligent use of multiple narrators helps to round the concept out even further, and is used to great success. There is some stilted delivery here and there by one or two actors, but my enjoyment was never compromised.

Highly recommended!
I look forward to reading more of his work.

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5 people found this helpful

Clever

Enjoyed that. Very clever way of telling stories about multiple people. Definitely worth a listen

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1 person found this helpful

Fascinating!

When I first started to listen I didn't think I would enjoy this book. After setting up the story the book went into overdrive. There is such a lot of interesting happenings to get your teeth in to that I couldn't stop listening. A really great twist at the end. Very well performed by a whole cast.

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Anthology more so than the novel I was expecting

As a huge fan of the Magnus Archives (Jonathan Sims horror short story podcast in which the stories are all loosely connected by one over-arching plotline) I was thrilled to see he had a novel out. The curiosity at seeing Jonathan go for a novel-length piece and the stunning cover, not to mention the awesome blurb, had me plumping for this one without question.

Sadly, my assumption that I'd get to see Jonathan taken on a novel-length work was both correct and incorrect. Correct because, it's certainly the length of a novel, but incorrect because it just isn't a novel. It's the exact same format as the Magnus Archives (short stories linked by one overall plot). Each chapter is its own short story and, although they do interlink with each other throughout the course of each character's respective days, I just never felt into it because it was, essentially, just a short story collection. A good short story collection, but just a collection all the same.

Because the fact that this is essentially a collection was not eluded to in the blurb, I kind of feel like I've been sold something I wasn't promised. The stories on offer are good and the overall plotline is strong. Jonathan is a master of short horror fiction and brings some unique (unless you've listened to the Magnus archives) twists to the horror genre with each tale.

If this book knocked your socks off and you want more, I would highly recommend the Magnus Archives podcast. It's free, each episode is in between twenty and forty-five minutes and has wonderful voice acting. Jonathan himself plays the main narrator (the archivist).

I felt a tad underwhelmed by the ending but this might be to do with the fact that, by this point, I was just a tad frustrated at the short story aspect of the piece or because we essentially know the fate of the host from the very beginning. It just left me with no sense of 'ooh, what happens next.' All that being said, I wasn't totally unhappy with the ending, just not overawed by it.

I had a couple of issues as far as the narration went with Thirteen Storeys, but they could mostly be overlooked. You're bound to get the odd narrator whose voice you don't gel with when there are so many performing on one piece. I can't however, overlook the issues I had with Jesus/Jesuis (I honestly don't know what his name is because the narrator pronounced it two different ways, despite the character stressing how he hates people pronouncing his name wrong). That little aspect is embarrassing, but the frequent pauses mid-sentence often had me thinking there was strange punctuation, but seeing as how the rest of the characters had no such issues I feel it was just the narrator struggling with the tempo of the English language. This is something I wouldn't mind if the character wasn't such a well-spoken man whilst using the English language with a wide vocabulary and high intellect to go with it ... despite the character also saying they struggled with the English language. The whole character was a little bit of a mess from the writing to the narration. But, other than that, I felt the narration was pretty good throughout.

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If you know you know

If you're familiar with Jonathan Sims' previous work in the Magnus Archives, then rest assured you will not be disappointed with his debut novel. To those who are not already fans, his unique way of portraying the horror in the mundane is sure to fascinate you. Enjoy!

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