Vicken is a depressed and lonely EMT working in Montreal who is traveling to the St. Lawrence River via subway train to stuff his pockets with rocks and end his misery once and for all. And that is where this reader's misery began.

What this novella is, is a very minimal story with lots and lots of florid language to prop it up and puff it out, like a bloated corpse adrift on a raft of adjectives (I guess it's infectious, eek!). Take the following example:
"Their essence starts to fade and at once explodes in a fit of fury into a thousand shards, wriggles and broils, effervescing into something larger and more complex; impaling slats of light, a howl of fluorescence through darkness no longer shrouded in emptiness, but gestating, somehow into an empty room; room; rooms, multiplying like cells; mapping the interior void from which we later arise." I could close my eyes, flick through to any page on my e-reader, point, and hit a fragment like this.

The author also displays a penchant for alliteration and a handy thesaurus with words like caliginous, prodrome and feculent thrown around willy nilly, perhaps in an effort to throw the reader more off course? I'm not really sure. Other things that seem thrown in at random just to provide more padding to the story include arbitrary breaking of the fourth wall and the viral Cecil Hotel elevator footage of Elisa Lam.

On the positive side, there is some gross body horror and some insightful passages and statements (that the author immediately ruins dead-horse style in subsequent sentences), and while I found the ending sort of annoying, there was also a part of me that appreciated its novelty. But like a scarf worn by a character that is described as "baroque and threadbare," so is this story. To be entirely honest, I would have dnf'd this if I hadn't felt obligated to submit a review to NetGalley.

In any case, thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for a digital advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review. Coup de Grâce will be published on October 1, 2024.

CN suicide
Coup de Grace is a beautiful, tightly written novella about a suicidal man getting trapped in a labyrinthine part of the Montreal subway network.

The prose was a strong point of the novel; the imagery was vivid and rich, and where needed, visceral and unsettling.

I enjoyed the scenes with Pashmina a lot—I feel like having a character to bounce off really helps the novel, though I understand why for much of it our narrator had to be alone. My favourite part was the choose your own adventure segment towards the end of the book, I found it really hit hard.

I read a lot of this novel on the London Underground, and I don’t think I’ll ever look at it the same again. This was a heavy read, and the content warnings should be heeded, but I enjoyed it and would definitely read more from this author!

Reading this book is what I imagine a hallucination feels like. It takes you inside the mind of someone with suicidal ideation but then twists it into something Escheresque.

Today is Vick’s last day. When he gets off this train he’s going to end his life. However, things don’t exactly go to plan.

“It gradually dawns on me that I've been denied a destination, caught in a transitional environment, a space between beginning and an end.”

There’s the dread of anxiety and the muted colours of depression. There’s the wandering through life without purpose, turning a corner and finding you’re back where you started. There’s the isolation of feeling like there’s no way out. It’s bleak and confusing, and there are choices to be made.

“We are small in this place; silence its judgement and indifference our condemnation.”

This is a strange novella. I’m not entirely sure where I sit on the love-hate continuum. I loved how experimental and disorienting it felt. I didn’t always love the descriptions, which sometimes landed on using the most obscure word in the thesaurus. I loved that the … journey (for lack of a better word) embodied the hopelessness of suicidal ideation.

For a kid that lived for choose your own adventure, I didn’t love that aspect and that’s what’s sticking with me. I was uncomfortable making decisions that would result in how Vick’s story ended. Yes, this is fiction but apparently that doesn’t change how I feel about this.

I’m not on board with trying to make other people responsible for you. For better or worse, your actions are your own.

Having friends who have experienced suicidal ideation as well as having been there myself, I cannot emphasise enough the value of appropriate support and resources when it feels like there are no good choices.

A list of international suicide hotlines can be found here: https://www.suicidestop.com/call_a_hotline.html

Favourite no context quote:

“Isn't that what sickness is? A violence, in need of direction, channeled inward?”

Content warnings include anxiety, body horror, death by suicide, depression, self harm and suicidal ideation.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this novella. I’m rounding up from 3.5 stars.

This was comfortably cruising towards being a 4 or 4.5 star rating for me…some of the descriptions were so visceral, so haunting - like Clive Barker doing existential horror - and even though I struggled to fully grasp everything here, it was so damned affecting and gut-churning that I couldn’t help but be drawn in. Then, a choice was made - a tactic was used - towards that end that completely took me out of it and I fumbled through to the end wading through sections that jumbled up the tone of the whole thing and just left me confused. I loved what this was trying to talk about and do, and was transfixed by most of it…but then *that* happened and it just threw me.

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my review.

Wow! What a hell of a debut novel! In this never ending nightmare of a rabbit hole we follow Vickens who has decided not to renew his subscription to life, he is stuck on a metro station on what seems to be an eternity of nothingness and everythingness all at once, its a modern take on Dante’s inferno that takes you on a spiral of emotions and extremely detailed and raw descriptions.

Have you ever read Goodnight Punpun and John Dies At The End? If you have then you would know if those two story lines get married and have a baby then you’d get this amazingly comical psychological horror that you can’t stop thinking about.

If you are a fan of getting mind f*cked while still having some giggles in between then this here is for you. I cannot rave more about this novel, it was perfection! I’m so grateful to NetGalley, Sofia Ajram and Titan Books to have given me the change to read this e-book ARC

"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."

I mean, I can see the Mark Z. Danielewski connection with House of Leaves, but Susanna Clarke?

This was beautifully written. From beginning to the end, this book is full of dread.
Sofia is a brilliant portrayal of being stuck in a rut and you can’t seem to get out no matter what you do.

This was very relatable to me and I found I could hardly put this down. Also at the same time I wanted to take my time with this one and slowly read what was being said.

The horror is perfect and it will make you squeamish all over. It’s a very unique way of telling a story and I can’t recommend it enough.

Thank you to Netgalley and Titan books for my ARC copy.

Ajram captures the crushing feeling that far too many of us battle and struggle with, pining for leverage, trying to hold on, wanting to hold on, and fighting and fighting and fighting with more than we’ve even got inside, and how it debilitates, and if you can never be who you are, who you want to be, who you’re meant to be, who you need to be, is it ever enough? Or, does it matter? It’s all topsy-turvy. We’re devoured by the machine. The grinding, crushing, pulping, extracting machine. 


(If your body’s ever been a stranger)


The routines. The waiting. The betrayals and adjustments. When everything feels like it’s beating down on you — mashing, mashing, mashing — it’s hard to feel that our lives are truly ours, that this is our ride. 


(If you’ve ever been on the medication rollercoaster — something will work, something will work)


All of us, sometimes, want to turn it off. 

But maybe we can save one another.

Together.

Even when the days blend together, even when the days are monotonous, never changing, indistinguishable, and never ever ever ending.


(And every speck of time feels like: please remain on the line… please remain on the… please remain on the line…)


We get through together, as people. 


(Try to live, and then keep trying and trying and trying and, always, live)


The spark that stories hit us with, Ajram delivers that spark, and then whirls it into a full-on wildfire.


(Your life matters.)




Stay.

It started good and I hoped I will like it, but unfortunately the writing is not for me. I don’t think I’m the right person to read this one.

Thank you to Sofia Ajram, Titan Books, and NetGalley for the ARC!

The writing was very poetic and detailed. I think the concept was very interesting and at its’ core, the story was a metaphor for depression. However, I don’t think it was necessarily my thing, it didn’t feel long enough for me to fully connect and felt more like a monologue than a story. I’m not sure I really liked the ending.

Very cool read though! Trigger warnings for body horror and suicidal themes for anyone looking to read it.

Thank you, NetGalley and publisher, for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Now, I know the comp titles are different, but hear me out: The Magnus Archives meets Piranesi. It has all the cosmic horror and unending, dimly lit rooms your little heart might desire. Extra points for a mention of brutalism that's not inevitably tied to an evil empire.

Big trigger warning for suicide and body horror, as they're central to the story, but if you're okay with these, give it a go. You won’t be disappointed.

When Vicken, a 32-year-old with clinical depression, concludes he just can't take it any more, he decides to head to the St. Lawrence River in Montréal to end his life. But when he disembarks from the subway, he finds himself in an uncharted station, and eventually discovers himself lost in a seemingly never ending series of passageways and rooms, some with bizarre things inside. He soon begins to question his decision as he wants nothing more than to be free of his new prison.
I almost gave up on the book early on because it has a bit of a rocky, confusing introduction to the story. However, once Vickren starts exploring the maze-like underground, the story really begins to click into place, despite some truly out there things occurring along the way. I don't think it's a stretch to say that everything in the strange tunnel system is one big metaphor for depression, which Vickren is experiencing both symbolically and literally.

This is one of my favourite books of the year.

Get lost in a liminal maze, while staring at yourself in the mirror, in this gorgeously written nightmare novella.

I've been having the same dream for 15 years, where I am stuck wander in a liminal space, sometimes I am trying to find a way out, sometimes I'm trying to escape from something. I always wake up without ever finding a way out. So when I heard that this is premise of Sofia Ajram's book, I almost fell off my chair. The book is almost exactly my dream, and it's also so much more.

This is like a magic eye picture, one way to read it is as a man who is lost in a never ending subways station, then at the same time, in the same image, it's a deep dive into the layers that make up depression and nihilism.

The prose are beautiful. I highlighted over 100 quotes in this book, and already pre-ordered the physical version so I could highlight and tab. Here are a few of my favourite quotes:
- There's not getting out of here. There is no way out. I feel like it's somehow all my fault.
- If you need me, I'll be having a nice ugly cry lying down on the floor.
- Pain is a god the body worships.
- Everything that makes me feel good, simultaneously makes me feel lost.
- Jesus take the wheel.

I love the exploration of place and belonging, from being stuck in a never ending subway station, to the things about this book that are very Quebecois. We also explore life as a place to stay or leave, and home as a real place vs a memory we're trying to return back to. It's gorgeous and heartbreaking.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan for the ARC.

This book is best read on a subway, while a cute guy flirts with you. Call him or continue? The choice is yours.

Liminal spaces absolutely terrify me and the premise of our main character being stuck in a subway station was one I thought I'd be so wrapped into because the real world fear it holds for me. This unfortunately fell short and I'm gutted to admit that. Ajram's writing was so good but maybe I'm just not the target audience for this type of book.

(I received this book from the editor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)
Welcome to the backrooms: They are located in Montreal, somewhere among the subway lines, invisible but always vigilant, and they are composed of emptiness, despair, some not-so-healthy food and the worst nightmares your mind can create.
I loved Sofia Ajram’s Coup de Grâce. I was going to say “enjoyed” but that definitely is not the most precise word. With its unique and dreamlike style, I was entrapped inside the subway almost from the beginning, even if I was still not sure of what this journey to nowhere was going to lead me.
This novella deals from the start with very heavy subjects: its main character, Vicken, is really depressed and suicidal and his emotions are shared with the reader with no sweetener. We follow his attempts to find an exit very closely, his encounters with anxiety, his feelings with fear. The story turns graphic when needed and does not gloss over anything.
And then, suddenly, the book does the cruellest thing imaginable; I think that is the best way of describing it without spoiling any details. I can honestly say I felt numbed for a moment and questioned whether what I was seeing was real or just some type of joke. I was definitely not expecting it and I’m sure no one will if not told beforehand.
However, even in its cruelty, it was such an original twist, so unique, it really got me. I wanted to go on but at the same time I was so afraid for Vicken I think I stayed longer than usual in each page. I hope more people get to this book because I really need to talk to someone about that last third. Simply genius. And so, so cruel.

Your enjoyment of this book may depend on two factors;

1. Do you like liminal spaces? I do. Pockets of alternate reality where the rules are turned upside-down excite me. The subway station is an interesting liminal space.

2. Do you like dense philosophical prose? This isn't quite my jam, fiction-wise. The author is talented and if you're into this type of prose, you may enjoy the novella!

Ultimately, the premise is interesting. I'm not sure if the end was clever or if it took away from the book. I can't say more without revealing what happens. Check it out and decide for yourself. Do heed the warnings if you're sensitive about suicide.

I wanted to like this book as the overview sounded intriguing but I just couldn’t connect with it.
The first part dragged for me, making this feel like the longest short book. It felt like Backrooms from 4Chan had a baby with House of Leaves.

Things picked up about two-thirds of the way in, but even after finishing, I still feel like I missed the point.

I’d much prefer a Goosebumps PYO ending!

It is written well, but it felt too 'flowery,' almost like the author fell into a thesaurus. Honestly, the real coup de grâce would’ve been someone putting me out of my misery while reading this.

These are just my personal thoughts!

ARC from NetGalley- published by Titan Books 1st October 2024

This book was absolutely stunning. The main character, Vicken, finds himself trapped in a labyrinth of a subway station and unable to find his way out. The horror of Vicken's situation mirrors his mental health struggles. The books is grotesque and captivating all at the same time and has some fun little surprises in it as well. It's something I will be rereading more than once!

I had high hopes for this novella about a suicidal man trapped in an endless Montreal subway station, spurred by the comparisons to Susanna Clarke. Unfortunately, Coup de Grâce is no Piranesi. Protagonist Vicken is unshakeably determined to die—and I appreciated Ajram sticking to his (the author uses he, she and they pronouns) guns on this; few novelists are so willing—but we have almost no sense of what their situation is in life, or who their family and friends are. There are dropped hints: EMT training because med school was unaffordable; a mother who rarely comforts or soothes. But overall Vicken's personhood feels unconvincing. He also often drops in philosophical or artistic musings that, while obviously not impossible for someone of his socioeconomic standing, aren't properly integrated; they feel authorial, external to Vicken's consiousness. The deserted subway station setting, meanwhile, is creepy, but marred by persistent overwriting: "Overhead, inverted crenellations of concrete dissever further mezzanine landings and cut the harsh luminescence of the overhead lights into a lambent gloom." File under "not for me".

Vicken has thought about suicide for a long time, and now he's ready to follow through. There's too much suffering, too much mundane, too much expectation and loneliness. As he rides the subway to his final destination - the Saint Lawrence river - he falls asleep. When he wakes, Vicken discovers the subway station he's in isn't like any he's ever seen before. It has no exit. It's geometry and architecture make no sense. There's no natural light and no other people (at least, not really). At the same time, he's certainly not alone.

To put it simply, I wasn't the right audience for this book. Ajram is very obviously a talented writer (albeit a little prone to excess in my opinion) and the imagery in Coup de Grâce hit hard. The endless subway station was mesmerizing, grisly, horrific, and completely dreadful. Vicken's helplessness and frequent hopelessness was palpable, made all the more painful knowing he was struggling well before landing in this monochromatic prison of sorts.

But, and this might sound contradictory given the outlandishness of the setting, the story was too grounded in reality for me. I think I expected the suicidal aspect to take a back seat to the drama/horror fantasy of the neverending station. Instead, the two are inextricably linked. Despite being a novella, the constant cycle of Vicken's internal depressive and self-loathing monologue became too much. I also felt a bit cheated when it came to the ending.

A huge thank you to Sofia Ajram, Titan Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. Coup de Grâce will be published and available on October 1, 2024.