Coup de Grâce - Sofia Ajram
Starting with what I liked about the book. I thought some of the descriptions of the endless hallways were creepy. Especially in the combination with the pictures Jana posted. That had potential. And I thought the scene with the not-person in the elevator was genuinely creepy. I never heard of the Elevator Game before. Or this cave that was mentioned, or Elisa Lam. I avoid creepy-pastas (though Lam was a real person, so that word might not fit), I never visited Rotten dot com.
But then, after the chapter with the "not person-person" which left me positively scared, the tone shifted completely and got a bit stupid, with this talk to the elevator maintenance person. And that was in general one of my problems with the book. The pacing and tone was all over the place. Could be called "experimental", or just "confusing". Like others, I expected him to "slowly find out he is not alone" and then Pashmina appears in chapter four. And then dies a confusing death. Was that symbolism for her cancer?
It felt like the author wanted to cram as much symbolism into the book as possible. The station is depression. Okay. As someone who dealt with depression, medication, hopeless thoughts, therapy... at one point in her life, okay, I understand some of that. But then the descriptions of SA were way, way, way too much for me. Then this monster wall thing appeared early on and scared them, and then.. that was it, no explanation? I also did not understand why the eloquent/pretentious/overwritten language was chosen. The MC is an highly depressed EMT. Where did he learn to talk like that?, where does he get the energy? Not saying EMTs cannot be well-read ofc. It just felt weird.
It would have been fine by me to read a few different endings right after another. But not with a "flip to page xy" book. I am not doing that. I have not signed up for this. It is just confusing.
I ended up reading it in a linear way and just got confused.
And the whole Felix thing. So the person he banged once in a subway bathroom is the person he thinks about, when thinking about love and hope?? That is the way out of the depression? Uhm. That does not seem healthy. I get that a new partner might seem like a silver lining in dark times. But I did not care about Felix, and to show all the resources of medication, therapy, a stable job/family/life in general as useless; but then this one man he does not know is a way out of hell? Nope. There was also not enough about Vickens life to really connect to him.
Final thoughts: There was potential, but the quality of the book steadily declined. Started it hopeful and curious, ended it annoyed. 1.5/5 stars from me.
