Sarah O'Connor

“Pain is a God the body worships,” (Ajram 69).

Vicken has planned his suicide; he will drown himself in the Saint Lawrence River after suffering from clinical depression for years. But when he gets off the subway he finds himself in a strange, endless labyrinthine station that he can’t escape. And he’s beginning to suspect he isn’t alone.

I am so angry. This is the second time I’ve foolishly let myself be drawn into a horror novella only to be incredibly disappointed by the execution of it. I’m starting to realize that much like any business, if you have the money to hire a good media team to plug your book and convince audiences that this is somehow on the same level of Mark Z. Danielewski’s brilliant House of Leaves then you’ve got it made. But I also seem to be in the minority for this book, many readers are raving about it. But the same thing happened with Nothing but Blackened Teeth, so we’ll see…

Let’s start with the good, because it wasn’t all bad. There were some truly horrifying moments in the beginning, a flesh tunnel and some very good body horror descriptions. I liked the liminal space of the subway station and the backroom vibes of the setting overall. I think when Ajram isn’t being overly verbose or using purple prose, the writing isn’t bad. Vicken’s hopelessness and deep depression is written very bleakly and will, unfortunately, be relatable to some readers. There are some very good quotes and ponderings throughout the book, but it doesn’t last.

As many reviewers have already mentioned, Coup de Grâce is an overwritten novella. Words like feculent, modicum, enfilade, and others are used for no real purpose but to make the author look smart. It’s also an incredibly hard book to follow for one so short. I love weird fiction, but being weird just to confuse your readers in an attempt to seem profound is annoying. No matter how weird a book is reader’s need to be able to understand it in some capacity, there has to be some sense. I was pleased to find another reviewer similarly confused over a scene where a character falls seemingly to their death only to appear in the next scene harmed but not as bad off as the previous description implied. The book also becomes a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure at the end which I thought was an incredibly stupid choice. It seemed like an attempt to break the fourth wall and live up to those House of Leaves comparisons, but if you want to write a book about characters and agency and fate, go watch Bandersnatch, it does all of this better. There is also only one ending Ajram wants readers to choose and it’s the one in which true love instantly cures depression. As nice as that sounds, it just isn’t going to happen. Codependency isn’t cute.

I know this is partly my fault. I was sucked in by a Canadian author and a House of Leaves comparison, but on the plus side maybe I’ll be better at recognizing when a book is being overmarketed. All I know is that I won’t be wasting anymore time on the authors future works.

Publication: October 1 2024
Publisher: Titan Books
Pages: 144 pages (Hardcover)
Source: Library
Genre: Fiction, Novella, Horror, Canadian
My Rating: ⛤⛤
Summary:

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.