In a sweltering train car in the London Underground during the hottest summer on record, five strangers witness…something. They can’t remember it, but soon each of them find themselves stalked by pale creature that leaves
them paralyzed in its proximity. Terrified, the strangers reconnect and piece out what happened, working together to escape the creature hunting them before it’s too late.
I think this book started off really strong and then just lost me. Sims does a great job building tension, particularly in the first and second section when we’re getting each of the passengers’ POVs from the train car, and then these unsettling moments where each of them begin to realize that something is after them. I like multi-POVs and ensemble casts so I really liked that aspect of the structure. The heatwave is also a great backdrop. I feel like we get a lot of blizzard horror and not enough heatwave horror, which is a shame because during a heatwave everything feels surreal and claustrophobic. I also always have to shoutout casual queer rep because it’s always nice to see stories with queer characters that aren’t necessarily about queerness.
Unfortunately, after about the 60% mark it’s a lot more action heavy and the enemy is a lot more tangible so you lose the benefit that comes with leaving the creepy bits up to the reader’s imagination. The action isn’t particularly unique or exciting and the culmination is super anti-climactic. I liked the characters in the beginning but I feel like we lose them over the course of the story and there are some weird time-jumps that skip over relationship-development and also make the timeline of the whole thing kind of unclear. It feels like it all happens over the course of a few days but in particular it seems like Tash and Elsie’s relationship develops for a while off-page even though there doesn’t seem to be much time passing between the jumps. Will also really quickly goes from a very hesitant ally to “I need to protect my friends at any cost!” despite us not really seeing his (very critical) mindset towards the others change.
There is a worthwhile message somewhere in there about class privilege and how the elite will do anything to hoard the wealth and power, even if those things are monstrous, but it’s kind of heavy-handed in a way that makes it feel like an afterthought. It’s also not helped by the fact that the generally positive ending is only enabled by the characters getting money, which is great for them but doesn’t really address all of the other people who suffer from the system.
Strong start and good ideas but I had some trouble with it, both because of personal preferences and because of some genuine weak spots. I haven’t listened to The Magnus Archives but I know a ton of people love it. I’m sure Jonathan Sims is talented but this could have used some more work. Still, if you’re a fan of his or you like horror with more action than I do, I think this is worth giving a shot!
Thank you to Jonathan Sims and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!
Happy reading!
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