Title: No One Gets Out Alive
Author: Adam Nevill
Genre: Horror
Pages: Paperback, 628
ISBN: 978-1-4472-4090-7
Opening Lines: "
The dream receded quickly and Stephanie recalled little of it, beside an anxious desire to leave a cold, greyish place; a narrow space in which people stood too close to her. One of them had been crying."
Rating
"Cash-strapped, working for temping agencies and living in a shared accommodation, Stephanie Booth feels she can fall no further. So when she takes a new room at the right price, she believes her luck has finally turned. But 82 Edgehill Road is not what it appears to be.
"It's not only the eerie atmosphere of the vast, neglected house, or the disturbing attitude of her new landlord, Knacker McGuire, that makes her uneasy — it's the whispers behind the fireplace, the scratching beneath the floors, the footsteps in the dark, and the young women weeping in neighbouring rooms. When Knacker's menacing cousin, Fergal arrives, the danger exceeds her darkest imaginings.
"But this is merely a beginning, a gateway to horrors beyond Stephanie's worst nightmares. And in a house where no one listens to the screams, will she ever get out alive?
~ Jacket copy
After a bad break-up and a crummy home life, all Stephanie wants to do is make it one her own. Unfortunately, working in work temp agencies affords her little more than the "Cage"; however, she has to get out. She cannot live there another day. As luck would have it, she sees an advert for a boarding house for girls at a price she cannot refuse. Unfortunately, she refuses to listen to her better reason, over look all of the warning signs, and takes the room for the decent price. And that's when everything starts happening
I wanted to like this book. I desperately wanted to like this book! Many of the reviews said to hang through the first 200 pages, and then it would pick up. If you can get over Stephanie refusing to stand up for herself and her whining, it would get better. At times, I honestly believed the reviews. Yes, the first 200 pages are hard to slog through; however, Nevill has some great world/setting building in those pages. He sets an amazing tone and mood that carried the book through. Unfortunately, it should have ended after the ninth day in the house.
The book has a very good undercurrent of the paranormal, and, at times, it invaded my dreams. I found myself a bit paranoid after reading the book. Sadly, Stephanie is not a likable character, and she is rather daft. Without getting into the aspect of the Black Maggie, Knacker's plans were obvious. Even the idea of the Black Maggie was overused and played out.
After reading
House of Small Shadows and reading rave reviews of Nevill's other books, I desperately wanted to venture into his other works. If his other books are like this, I will be staying away from him in the future. He suffers from TELLING and not showing. Much of the last third of the book was spent skimming and skipping large sections. It was more erroneous and superfluous detail that completely took me out of the story. As mentioned before, the entire last part of the book was completely unnecessary, and the story itself would have been improved had it been scrapped during editing.
All in all, this book ended up being more of a disappointment.
