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Vertical
A group of urbex explorers breaking into the world’s tallest skyscraper in Moscow grapple with dangers from all sides in this pulse-pounding cinematic thriller for readers of Greg Hurwitz and Patrick Hoffman.
Michael Foster, Cam Buckley and Maddie Acosta – all former activists in the infamous urbex crew Les Furies. Together they scaled buildings, broke into the spaces no-one else could, and chased a rush that still haunts them.
Now though, Michael is stuck recovering from an injury, coding in a dead-end start-up, But Les Furies cannot hide forever. A journalist has uncovered Michael’s identity and he is being sent anonymous videos of his time in the crew.
When he discovers that Cam and Maddie are planning on reuniting the crew one last time, to scale the Korova Tower in Moscow, he is sceptical. But the tower has never been scaled before. Breaking into the world’s tallest building on Russia Day is too good an opportunity to pass him by.
But Michael is about to discover that the vertical city has another purpose, one far more sinister than he could have imagined, and this one final ride for Les Furies might well be the last thing any of them ever do.
Michael Foster, Cam Buckley and Maddie Acosta – all former activists in the infamous urbex crew Les Furies. Together they scaled buildings, broke into the spaces no-one else could, and chased a rush that still haunts them.
Now though, Michael is stuck recovering from an injury, coding in a dead-end start-up, But Les Furies cannot hide forever. A journalist has uncovered Michael’s identity and he is being sent anonymous videos of his time in the crew.
When he discovers that Cam and Maddie are planning on reuniting the crew one last time, to scale the Korova Tower in Moscow, he is sceptical. But the tower has never been scaled before. Breaking into the world’s tallest building on Russia Day is too good an opportunity to pass him by.
But Michael is about to discover that the vertical city has another purpose, one far more sinister than he could have imagined, and this one final ride for Les Furies might well be the last thing any of them ever do.
- GenresThriller
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 26, 2023
About the author
Cody Goodfellow
163 books385 followersCODY GOODFELLOW has written nine novels and five collections, and has won three Wonderland Book Awards for Bizarro Fiction. He wrote, co-produced and scored the short Lovecraftian hygiene films Stay At Home Dad and Baby Got Bass, which have become viral sensations on YouTube. He has appeared in numerous short films, TV shows, music videos and commercials as research for his previous novel, Sleazeland. He also edits the hyperpulp zine Forbidden Futures. He “lives” in San Diego. Find out more at codygoodfellow.com.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 10, 2023
Almost two decades ago I went to a coffee house to meet a local horror author to see if there were ways we could work together to promote our small horror community. I read his debut novel before we hung out and frankly, I couldn’t believe how good it was. I had first heard of Cody Goodfellow in an intensely hyperbolic review in Cemetery Dance Magazine by Splatterpunk legend John Skipp. (Skipp would go on to team up with Cody on a couple of novels) Throughout the years there have been lots of reviews and blurbs that will tell you how genius Cody Goodfellow is. Skipp and I are far from alone.
I assumed once the secret got out he was on track to become the biggest writer of our generation, a household name, bestselling novels, home on paperback racks that kind of thing. To me, he was that good. Over time I learned that happens to your Ray Bradburys and Isaac Asimovs. When the people doing really crazy original stuff like Barry Malzberg and Norman Spinrad you get respect from the hardcore but it took death for Octavia Butler and Philip K. Dick to be recognized as the towering giants they were. They didn’t play it safe; they wrote revolutionary genre fiction and sometimes it helps to be a mad scientist.
That is what Cody Goodfellow is at heart, a mad scientist, who unlike most literary freakazoids from those earlier generations Cody grew up with more than a massive library, but also punk rock, alternative culture, and an open attitude toward mind-altering genre and chemicals. The kind of alchemy that creates in Cody Goodfellow a human who writes novels that are so good, so weird the world is just not ready for them.
I once asked Cody what he was working on. He responded “A body horror novel about a haunted house with bees that turn you into communists.” The result was a horror novel Perfect Union. This novel is a masterpiece, but when Cody shopped it to major publishers the silence was deafening. In my opinion - they didn’t get it. This novel recently reissued by Ghoulish Books is STILL ahead of its time. It is better in my opinion than hundreds of mainstream horror novels and stomps most Stoker award-winning milk toast.
Didn’t matter if he wrote weird mystery noir like Repo Shark or SF dystopia in Unamerica it was equally good. I was ready for him to write a straight-ahead action techno-thriller like Vertical. I knew that this project was brought to Cody by Alcon Entertainment. He was given a Screenplay in development, but as a long-time Goodfellow reader I wouldn’t have guessed, because the characters feel like his and the action and details elevate what could be a simple action adventure in a less dynamic storyteller’s hands.
Vertical is the story of an Urbex crew of adventure activists who pull off daring stunts sometimes with a message. Outlaw athletes who pull off political pranks they broke up after the last stunt almost killed them. Michael Foster has moved on to working as tech-bro when Cam and Maddie from the crew recruit him for the ultimate prank. Climbing the unfinished tallest building in the world being built in Moscow and billed as Vertical City. Once up the plan is to send a friend to launch in a dangerous wing-suit flight.
The Korova Tower on Russia Day is a prank for the ages. The location and set-up are one that Goodfellow doesn’t rush. The characters are key in thrillers and Cody fills them with reasons, flaws, strengths, and motivations. They are not plot chess pieces, and that is important because when shit gets crazy you need a reason to give a shit about them.
Let's start by talking about how well Goodfellow sets the stage for the location.
“As they passed out of the tunnel, a gargantuan shadow fell across the highway, eclipsing the pale, rising sun.
Twice as tall as the cluster of gleaming spires around it, Korova Tower looked like a ladder to the stars. Its one hundred and ninety stories dominated the skyline, surmounted by a forked crane that made the already imposing tower look like it has horns.”
The reputation Goodfellow has for writing bonkers stuff and that kind of hides how powerful and poetic his prose can be. That is an example of excellent writing. This book is filled with moments like that it in a book designed to be a commercial vehicle. Another thing that elevates the book is the balance between knowledge of the gritty underground world matched with above-average knowledge of historical and literary details. Vertical has a urbex crew a reference to the Illiad, and former punk rock Russian cop who makes jokes about Sex Pistols in his narrative POV. Speaking of that guy’s band The Great Train Robbery whose records were pressed on the vinyl on old X-rays, a detail Goodfellow uncovered doing intense research. That is key Vertical is intensely researched.
It has to talk about the white-knuckle action of the final act without spoiling the action, so if you want a spoiler-free experience go read Vertical meet me back here at this part of the review.
Going into the book I assumed it would have Die Hard feeling, with the Russian agents or Mob chasing the team around the building but a few set pieces in particular drive the action. The one I didn’t see coming was an earthquake under Moscow. The reason for this is one I appreciate but won't give away.
It is one thing for a city not used to earthquakes to suffer one during the Russia day party, that is enough to add chaos to your adventure story but…
“Like its neighbor, the Federation town, Korova stood on a shelf of sedimentary rock separated by a thick stratum of alluvial clay from deep but perennially depleted aquifer, which served as a perfect transmitter for the longest wavelengths of the distant quake to strum the skyscraper like a taunt string. Built to suspend 190 stories of concrete, steel, and glass on a minimal footprint with little consideration for seismic endurance, the skyscraper’s tripod shaped foundation core tisted against itself as if some greater force was wringing it dry…”
Now imagine your prankster crew of activists are trapped on the half-finished top floors. Once the building starts to fall part of the adrenaline ride of the story starts. Like another horror or suspense thing you have to put yourself in the shoes of the characters and the whole thing would be gut-wrenching and terror-inducing, not just for the fear of heights but the building falling apart.
Goodfellow figures out dozens of crazy ways the building and events would kill a character, and who survives drives the tension.
Of course, this would make an incredible movie, just the scene of Tom Cruise hanging off the building of Mission Impossible was nail-biting, a whole movie of it done right could be crazy good. We don’t need to wait for it. We have to story already playing out in this novel with the unlimited budget of your imagination. Cody Goodfellow is a wordsmith hell-bent on giving you the literary feeling of looking over the of high-up building. Now imagine that building starting to crumble apart. Vertical is an action thriller that works on the page.
I assumed once the secret got out he was on track to become the biggest writer of our generation, a household name, bestselling novels, home on paperback racks that kind of thing. To me, he was that good. Over time I learned that happens to your Ray Bradburys and Isaac Asimovs. When the people doing really crazy original stuff like Barry Malzberg and Norman Spinrad you get respect from the hardcore but it took death for Octavia Butler and Philip K. Dick to be recognized as the towering giants they were. They didn’t play it safe; they wrote revolutionary genre fiction and sometimes it helps to be a mad scientist.
That is what Cody Goodfellow is at heart, a mad scientist, who unlike most literary freakazoids from those earlier generations Cody grew up with more than a massive library, but also punk rock, alternative culture, and an open attitude toward mind-altering genre and chemicals. The kind of alchemy that creates in Cody Goodfellow a human who writes novels that are so good, so weird the world is just not ready for them.
I once asked Cody what he was working on. He responded “A body horror novel about a haunted house with bees that turn you into communists.” The result was a horror novel Perfect Union. This novel is a masterpiece, but when Cody shopped it to major publishers the silence was deafening. In my opinion - they didn’t get it. This novel recently reissued by Ghoulish Books is STILL ahead of its time. It is better in my opinion than hundreds of mainstream horror novels and stomps most Stoker award-winning milk toast.
Didn’t matter if he wrote weird mystery noir like Repo Shark or SF dystopia in Unamerica it was equally good. I was ready for him to write a straight-ahead action techno-thriller like Vertical. I knew that this project was brought to Cody by Alcon Entertainment. He was given a Screenplay in development, but as a long-time Goodfellow reader I wouldn’t have guessed, because the characters feel like his and the action and details elevate what could be a simple action adventure in a less dynamic storyteller’s hands.
Vertical is the story of an Urbex crew of adventure activists who pull off daring stunts sometimes with a message. Outlaw athletes who pull off political pranks they broke up after the last stunt almost killed them. Michael Foster has moved on to working as tech-bro when Cam and Maddie from the crew recruit him for the ultimate prank. Climbing the unfinished tallest building in the world being built in Moscow and billed as Vertical City. Once up the plan is to send a friend to launch in a dangerous wing-suit flight.
The Korova Tower on Russia Day is a prank for the ages. The location and set-up are one that Goodfellow doesn’t rush. The characters are key in thrillers and Cody fills them with reasons, flaws, strengths, and motivations. They are not plot chess pieces, and that is important because when shit gets crazy you need a reason to give a shit about them.
Let's start by talking about how well Goodfellow sets the stage for the location.
“As they passed out of the tunnel, a gargantuan shadow fell across the highway, eclipsing the pale, rising sun.
Twice as tall as the cluster of gleaming spires around it, Korova Tower looked like a ladder to the stars. Its one hundred and ninety stories dominated the skyline, surmounted by a forked crane that made the already imposing tower look like it has horns.”
The reputation Goodfellow has for writing bonkers stuff and that kind of hides how powerful and poetic his prose can be. That is an example of excellent writing. This book is filled with moments like that it in a book designed to be a commercial vehicle. Another thing that elevates the book is the balance between knowledge of the gritty underground world matched with above-average knowledge of historical and literary details. Vertical has a urbex crew a reference to the Illiad, and former punk rock Russian cop who makes jokes about Sex Pistols in his narrative POV. Speaking of that guy’s band The Great Train Robbery whose records were pressed on the vinyl on old X-rays, a detail Goodfellow uncovered doing intense research. That is key Vertical is intensely researched.
It has to talk about the white-knuckle action of the final act without spoiling the action, so if you want a spoiler-free experience go read Vertical meet me back here at this part of the review.
Going into the book I assumed it would have Die Hard feeling, with the Russian agents or Mob chasing the team around the building but a few set pieces in particular drive the action. The one I didn’t see coming was an earthquake under Moscow. The reason for this is one I appreciate but won't give away.
It is one thing for a city not used to earthquakes to suffer one during the Russia day party, that is enough to add chaos to your adventure story but…
“Like its neighbor, the Federation town, Korova stood on a shelf of sedimentary rock separated by a thick stratum of alluvial clay from deep but perennially depleted aquifer, which served as a perfect transmitter for the longest wavelengths of the distant quake to strum the skyscraper like a taunt string. Built to suspend 190 stories of concrete, steel, and glass on a minimal footprint with little consideration for seismic endurance, the skyscraper’s tripod shaped foundation core tisted against itself as if some greater force was wringing it dry…”
Now imagine your prankster crew of activists are trapped on the half-finished top floors. Once the building starts to fall part of the adrenaline ride of the story starts. Like another horror or suspense thing you have to put yourself in the shoes of the characters and the whole thing would be gut-wrenching and terror-inducing, not just for the fear of heights but the building falling apart.
Goodfellow figures out dozens of crazy ways the building and events would kill a character, and who survives drives the tension.
Of course, this would make an incredible movie, just the scene of Tom Cruise hanging off the building of Mission Impossible was nail-biting, a whole movie of it done right could be crazy good. We don’t need to wait for it. We have to story already playing out in this novel with the unlimited budget of your imagination. Cody Goodfellow is a wordsmith hell-bent on giving you the literary feeling of looking over the of high-up building. Now imagine that building starting to crumble apart. Vertical is an action thriller that works on the page.
November 30, 2023
Fast paced and draws you in
When a group of young American and French athletes and climbers decide to scale the still under construction Korova tower in Moscow they have no idea what they’ve stumbled into. It’s an intense action packed story and the main character, Micheal, is very easy to connect with. Perhaps because he has anxiety and was previously injured in a fall, so he’s a bit frightened by the climb. Hard to put down. Recommended
When a group of young American and French athletes and climbers decide to scale the still under construction Korova tower in Moscow they have no idea what they’ve stumbled into. It’s an intense action packed story and the main character, Micheal, is very easy to connect with. Perhaps because he has anxiety and was previously injured in a fall, so he’s a bit frightened by the climb. Hard to put down. Recommended
February 28, 2026
Unlike its characters, this novel never makes a wrong move. I wonder why we didn't hear much about it? I have some theories. Maybe the extreme sports angle was promoted more heavily than the secret of the "starscraper" tower? But even though the reveal does shift the genre a bit, the (un)natural disaster of the ending still cements it firmly in harrowing, adrenaline junkie territory so maybe ignore what I just said. But seriously, why isn't this a hit? It's got the short and snappy chapters, and every character gets a proper intro with a zinger, foreshadowing how their personalities will affect the narrative (except for the twist with that one (half) person). And Goodfellow really does some masterful work raising the stakes at *exactly* the halfway point, when our gang deploys a decoy crew to send the security guards at the Russian monolith on a wild goose chase and discovers they're very serious about trespassers. The brutal executions of some of their stunt doubles effectively shows-don't-tells the reader that our plucky heroes are in way over their heads (literally heyoooooo). Also they call these local boys a bunch of "CHUDS," one of several movie references, which made me smile. Although The Lost Boys gag is probably the highlight of the pop culture seasoning throughout (or the deftly deployed nod to the dynamite toss in The Thing) mostly because they're woven so effectively into the moment. For the middle sections, I thought I had a gripe regarding the lack of a real villain (it's, what, dark money or black banks or something?) but then I realized... wait a minute, the earthquake is the villain. And the fire is the villain. Because this is at its fast-pumping heart (see above) a disaster movie! But then (spoiler) there were some villains embedded in their crew, which was a surprise I guess I just ruined. But like I said earlier, no one seems to have read this thing, through no fault of this novel. Maybe it accidentally predicted something nefarious regarding the financial future of these shady nations, and someone clipped its (paraglider) wings? Either way, someone dropped the ball here. Which reminds me... did you know a basketball hits terminal velocity (50 miles per hour) after it falls 150 feet? But it takes us about 1500 feet to achieve this? Squad goals! I don't know where I'm going with this but it's definitely down.
November 28, 2023
A riveting adventure that takes the reader from Chicago to the city of Moscow and hundreds of meters into the sky. In begins in the head of man who is falling to his death. Tossed off a skyscraper in Chicago by gangsters. A disturbing opening but also fascinating. Soon we are introduced to our main characters. Michael, a coder who is recovering from an injury he suffered while engaging in parkour like activities around the city. He seems to a part of a group called the Furies that scales buildings and nearly died when his parachute didn’t engage. His good friends Maddie a very athletic and beautiful woman he is secretly in love with and Cam her fiancee and fellow “Furie” who organizes their stunts are well formed characters that immediately draw you into the story.
I loved the moment that Michael quits his coding job by dropping off the building in front of security. I’m also intrigued by the incredible descriptions of Moscow and the mysterious woman reporter who follows them there for their biggest stunt yet. This book takes the reader places I know I could never go and its feels very real.
I loved the moment that Michael quits his coding job by dropping off the building in front of security. I’m also intrigued by the incredible descriptions of Moscow and the mysterious woman reporter who follows them there for their biggest stunt yet. This book takes the reader places I know I could never go and its feels very real.
July 13, 2024
So after all this time and many, many great books, Cody Goodfellow has produced something I can only describe as average. It was only a matter of time I suppose, and he should be able to dip a toe into waters he usually doesn't swim in godammit, I mean, that's fair. Part of the creative process. And even still it was better than most could muster. But at the heart of the matter is it's just a story of a bunch of not very likeable American young people attempting to scale a super skyscraper in Moscow and bad shit happens to them. No radioactive monsters or ravenous sharks or other Goodfellow accoutrements. So I'm guessing I'll just wait for the next one, or maybe re-read some of his other things. Cause when he's on, you can't beat him wit an armfull of drumsticks.
November 10, 2023
“3.5 stars”. Fast-paced, action-filled, exciting….this book is all of those things. I do wish the characters were written with more depth-I wanted to know them all a lot better. The story was interesting and the action didn’t stop until the last page! Fun & entertaining read!
September 26, 2024
Didn't really grab me. A lot of the beginning of the book contained background that didn't seem to add much to the book. The link between the main characters and the locals trying to expose the building's ultimate purpose was weak at best.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews