Coup de Grâce

Starred review from September 1, 2024
Ajram's unforgettable novella lives up to its provocative title, delivering a gripping story that is as brutal as it is beautiful. Vicken is on the Montreal subway, making his way to the final stop, where he plans to exit, walk to the St. Lawrence River, and end his life. But after exiting the train and going through the one-way turnstile, he is caught in an inescapable labyrinth of never-ending, gray corridors, moving in and out of rooms and levels that vacillate between blandly colorless and existentially terrifying. Vicken's engaging first-person narration draws readers into the story immediately as he shares his struggles and fears, ratcheting up the unease at critical moments by using dark humor or turning to speak directly to the reader. As Vicken continues to wander, Ajram cleverly transforms what seems like a simple plot into a complex, moving, and immersive contemplation of the very real horror of living with severe depression. A stellar option for fans of liminal-space horror like The Hollow Places (2020), by T. Kingfisher, as well as those who enjoy intense tales of an unreliable narrator exploring a terrifying and mysterious landscape, such as The Luminous Dead (2019), by Caitlin Starling.

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Starred review from August 12, 2024
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.