No One Gets Out Alive
Ratings10
Average rating3
Now a major Netflix film. Winner of the August Derleth Award, No One Gets Out Alive is the ultimate haunted house thriller from horror writer Adam Nevill. Darkness lives within . . . Cash-strapped, working for agencies and living in 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 Edgware 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 floors, the footsteps in the dark, and the young women weeping in neighbouring rooms. And when Knacker’s cousin Fergal arrives, the danger goes vertical. 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?
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I'm truly sorry but reading this felt like a chore and I was bored out of my mind.
I'll say 3.5 stars.
Now, I'm not a huge fan of female in peril tales. They easily trespass into sexism. But call me crazy here, I felt like Mr Nevill was heading in the direct opposite direction. It seems as though poor Stephanie annoyed some readers. Honestly, I felt that she was painfully realistic. Anyone who has ever lived below the poverty line should be able to comprehend something of her desperation, her vulnerability. It's exactly because she is realistic that this book is so frightening and, at times, awkward and painful to read. She's alone and basically one step away from being homeless. She moves into a home with rooms to let, little knowing that her landlords will be expecting her to become a sex worker. And little knowing that the house is haunted–rather, perhaps, possessed?–by something incredibly nasty and awful.
This book is not just a horror novel about a young woman managing to stay alive and win the day. It is also the story of how a very young woman manages to stay alive despite the horrible sexist treatment she receives at the hands of her landlords; despite the creepiness of the murdered ghosts she hears every night. This book is sort of a worst case scenario of the female experience. That might be why I was more disturbed by this book than I was by the other two delights I've read by Mr Neville.
