Synopsis
A mindbending and visceral experimental horror about a young man trapped in an infinite Montreal subway station, perfect for readers of Mark Z. Danielewski and Susanna Clarke.
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.
A terrifying psychological nightmare from a powerful new voice in horror.
Review
With only 24 hours left of 2024, I decided to try and fit in one extra little story. So, I pulled this little novella off my shelves and proceeded to consume it in one sitting.
This story took me completely by surprise. What I found behind the very satisfying looking grey tone and red brutalist cover was a tale written very much in a stream of consciousness manner, a tale that was wholly a descent into the dark places of the depressed mind. Following Vickan as they find themselves stuck in an endless twisting subway station, filled with the brutalist architecture and lifeless design one expects from these liminal spaces, we take this journey through purgatory with them and discovery a number of surprising turns along the way.
“Yet, despite all that, I sometimes relapse into hope. Just as Orpheus, just as Lot’s wife, at times I turn, as a result of sudden, mad temptation for the lust of life, of love, of remembering, and look back upon living with fondness, and embrace uncertainty.”
What I immediately latched on to was the imagery and metaphor of this endless subway station. This sprawling, unending labyrinth of grey concrete, grey stairwells and even greyer moods. Sofia punctuates this dull, never ending maze with moments of shocking body horror and visercal brutality, almost dreamlike (no, nightmareish) in their description.
Don’t expect this one to be plot twists, sweeping character arcs, and exciting action; that simply isn’t what Coup de Grâce is. Instead, it is a deep exploration of the effects of depression, suicide, loneliness, aimlessness, regret, capitalism, the futility of life. And what Sofia does in short 135 pages is remarkable. As someone that knows what even a mild state of bad mental health can do to oneself, reading this was both deflating yet also strangely uplifting. Through Vicken’s tunnel vision caused by his mental health, I found myself being able to see the light that he simply couldn’t. The final 30 pages were my absolute favourite, and what Ajram does with the narrative and the techniques he employs really hit home.
“Trauma does not always carry big battle wounds. Sometimes it appears in the broad daylight of cold wars fought in silence.”
I will say, however, read this when you are in a good mood. There are moments in this that I related to, either through my own experience or through those I love, and these moments were so REAL that I could feel myself replaying my experiences in my head.
Overall, I found this to be a brilliant piece of speculative horror! Genuinely mind-bending, and “enjoyable” – if that’s even the word you should be using for something like this – to the point that I very eagerly anticipate the next piece of art that Sofia Ajram produces!
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