The Graveyard Apartment
A Novel
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- $10.500
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- $10.500
Descripción editorial
Discover what lurks in the shadowed corners of The Graveyard Apartment, and brace yourself for a literary experience that you won't forget.
This psychological horror unravels the unsettling experiences of a young family, innocently enticed by the seemingly idyllic vistas of their new apartment. Situated beside a graveyard, the building quietly harbors an insidious evil, nudging them down a path of inexplicable, panic-inducing occurrences. With each passing day, the walls of this pristine apartment close in bit by bit, trapping them against the bygone souls that echo from beyond the grave.
With the complex interplay of nail-biting suspense and thrilling horror, this masterpiece will challenge the bravest of readers. Its haunting narrative, intricately woven around the domestic and psychological aspects of horror, intensifies with each page turn, culminating with a conclusion that will make you think twice before ever going into a basement again.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Reviewed by Cherie PriestIt's been 30 years since The Graveyard Apartment was published in Japan, and now this new translation aims to bring the supernatural stylings of Mariko Koike to a 21st-century English-reading audience. This claustrophobic ghost story does lay down the creepy atmosphere and hit the form's best notes, but I suspect the reception will be mixed largely because the book could be at least a third shorter, and its protagonists are real jerks. Teppei and Misao Kano are seeking a fresh start in a largely vacant apartment building called the Central Plaza Mansion. Sure, it's surrounded on three sides by an old cemetery and it overlooks a temple with a crematory, but the price is right and the building is practically brand new. Immediately upon arrival, their pet bird dies, their small daughter complains of ghostly visits, and their dog behaves weirdly. One by one, the neighbors move out, and the scary incidents escalate. From a high-level genre standpoint, it's satisfyingly paint-by-numbers which I don't say as a criticism, or intend as a backhanded compliment. I'm a big fan of ghost stories, and I don't want every one of them to reinvent the wheel. I love a good wheel.However, there's a lot of filler, and the narrative is almost entirely tell, no show. Too often the action slows down for a lengthy aside on a topic such as civic planning or urban real estate, and the characters routinely indulge in hefty interior monologues that mostly underscore what terrible people they are.To be frank, despite their adorable daughter and dog, the newest residents of the Central Plaza Mansion are hard to root for. Their relationship began as a torrid affair that drove Teppei's first wife to suicide, and even when he found her body hanging in their apartment, he couldn't find it in his heart to say anything nice about her. Instead, he idly mused about how badly he'd treated her when she was alive and how much she'd deserved every minute of it. Misao isn't much better, though she does show a little embarrassment about the whole affair-and-suicide thing. Unfortunately, when she isn't going through the motions of respecting the dead wife's memory, she's busy being catty about people who are kind to her. By the end, I was hoping that the kid and dog would ride off safely into the sunset, and everybody else would go ahead and get eaten by monsters. That said, the supernatural mystery at the center is pretty interesting, and there are several solid scare-scenes that are beautifully done. The Graveyard Apartment requires some patience in places, and not everyone will hold out for the reward at the end. But for true genre enthusiasts, it's worth a look.Cherie Priest is the author of 19 books and novellas, including the gothic horror novel Maplecroft and the Clockwork Century series. Her novel The Family Plot will be out from Tor Books in September.
