Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims

14 reviews

misslupescu's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use and Cannibalism

fionamclary's review

challenging dark inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Johnny Sims is truly a storyteller for the ages with a distinctive voice and clear passion for his themes. As a longtime Magnus Archives fan, it was delightful to experience that distinctive voice in a different format with new subject matter. Thirteen Storeys is terrifying and satisfying, as the best horror novels are. The wide range of characters we meet within its pages should give any reader someone to identify with. Chapter one comes out strong with my personal favorite, Violet, our office-job drone turned anticapitalist militant. The description toward the end of her chapter of her personal haunting had me equally spooked and hyped and in awe of this man's writing. It is clear just how committed Johnny is to making sure that we know that the real monster, the true horror of this world, has been capitalism this whole time. Johnny also makes prolific use of his penchant for sleep disorder horror, with multiple characters experiencing insomnia and other sleep disturbances that make you question whether the things they're experiencing are real, or just an exhausted hallucination...and which option is scarier.

My only complaint is that my copy is bursting with typos. I almost feel bad for the copy editor credited in the back because I'd hate to have my name on something where I don't seem to have done my job. There's multiple instances of missing words or words that shouldn't be there, incorrect or missing punctuation, wrong words, and even one instance where a character's entire name was different. I hope there's other editions out there that don't have this problem, but it was so egregious that it sometimes took me completely out of the story. Which is a real shame, since the story is a masterpiece.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Slavery, Police brutality, Grief, Cannibalism, and Colonisation

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Deadnaming, Genocide, Mental illness, Transphobia, Vomit, Death of parent, and Deportation

Homelessness, eviction

rayne_fall's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Chronic illness, Homophobia, Suicide, Transphobia, and Colonisation

One of the ghosts is a chronically ill older man who was due to be evicted after his partner died and it's implied that he took his own life as a result of this. It's also mentioned that the same character didn't receive anything from his partner's estate as a result of either a lack of legal recognition or his partner's family being homophobic

One of the main characters gave his digital assistant control of everything in his apartment. The assistant becomes haunted and acts outside of its programming, eventually imprisoning him in the apartment and replacing him with a doppelganger who's supposed to be a better version of him

Another main character experiences severe insomnia and becomes dependent on a fictional medicine (which was recalled due to side effects) in order to sleep

vstarlight's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Cannibalism, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

westernskynaida's review

dark mysterious tense

3.5

Man where to start. Being a big fan of The Magnus Archives I know how Jonny writes pretty thick so it’s why it took me a while to really start. And just like TMA, it starts slowish not a bad slow but you definitely need to get past the first 15 pages or so before the mystery starts picking up

Each chapter follows a different person who either lives in this housing complex, works there or the agent who rented out the apartments. The final chapter brings them all together in the climax of what was told in the prologue

There are definitely some deep and hard topics to read about but even then, I’d go back to older chapters to see if I can spot where a name had previously been mentioned or what apartment these people were from

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Mental illness, and Cannibalism

ladyinverse's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this book was a slow start but as more mystery piled in, the more intriguing it was. the end was horrifying, constructed beautifully and was very satisfying. 10/10, will be mildly traumatized for the rest of the day.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, and Classism

Moderate: Violence, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Medical content, Kidnapping, and Grief

slime_retro's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Drug use and Vomit

gracecrandall's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Deadnaming, Racism, Transphobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Deportation

songofthewolfy's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Excellent debut novel by Jonathan Sims! I loved The Magnus Archives, and thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I did feel that the end went a little fast for how much of a build-up there was to the climax. But I found it very enjoyable, and can't wait for more from him!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Blood, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Sims uses the listed content warnings to deliver a scathing critique of society. However, he does not shy away from depictions of mental illness, gore, and trauma. Please use discretion.

plumwildflowers's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Police brutality, and Colonisation

Minor: Transphobia