Coup de Grâce
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3.5 • 8 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
BRAM STOKER AWARD WINNER.
"A harrowing exploration of the expanding labyrinth of despair and the self." Paul Tremblay.
A mindbending and visceral experimental horror about a young man trapped in an infinite Montreal subway station, perfect for readers of Mark Z. Danielewski and Susanna Clarke.
Vicken has a plan: throw himself into the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal and end it all for good, believing it to be the only way out for him after a lifetime of depression and pain. But, stepping off the subway, he finds himself in an endless, looping station.
Determined to find a way out again, he starts to explore the rooms and corridors ahead of him. But no matter how many claustrophobic hallways or vast cathedral-esque rooms he passes through, the exit is nowhere in sight.
The more he explores his strange new prison, the more he becomes convinced that he hasn’t been trapped there accidentally, and amongst the shadows and concrete, he comes to realise that he almost certainly is not alone.
A terrifying psychological nightmare from a powerful new voice in horror.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Taking the form of a disturbing, high-stakes choose-your-own-adventure novel, Arjam's captivating debut explores loneliness and desolation. Vicken intends to ride the Montreal subway to the end of the line, where, at the Saint Lawrence River, he plans to die by drowning. When he arrives at his stop, however, he finds himself unable to exit: the station has turned into an enormous, incomprehensible, unmappable maze of hallways and caverns. Reminiscent of Susanna Clark's Piranesi, and with nods to Borges's "Library of Babel," it's a surreal setting rendered all the more horrifying by the mysteries lurking beneath the empty halls. Readers ostensibly control Vicken's choices as he navigates this harrowing labyrinth, flipping to different pages depending on what action they want him to take, but as the novel unfolds, one is left with the feeling that free will is an illusion. Equally haunting and heartbreaking, this complex meditation on belonging announces an exciting new voice in experimental horror.
