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Five Stories High #1
Maggots
Willy Randle is a sensitive young man from a close, loving family. With a place at university and a new girlfriend, he’s happy and confident, his future secure – until a minor accident leaves him with altered perceptions, and his world is shattered.
Willy begins to doubt his own senses, convinced that the world and the people around him are not what they seem. Determined to discover the truth about what has happened to him, he sets out on a quest that leads him ever further from the reality he has rejected – and deeper into the nightmarish and labyrinthine secrets of Irongrove Lodge...
Willy begins to doubt his own senses, convinced that the world and the people around him are not what they seem. Determined to discover the truth about what has happened to him, he sets out on a quest that leads him ever further from the reality he has rejected – and deeper into the nightmarish and labyrinthine secrets of Irongrove Lodge...
100 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 14, 2023
Reread December 2019, December 2023. Original review (June 2018): The below is taken from my review of Five Stories High. I didn't finish the whole book, which is unfortunately very uneven, but I loved 'Maggots'.
Five Stories High is a little like David Mitchell's Slade House, if each chapter was written by a different author. The central figure is 'the dwelling (entity?) known as Irongrove Lodge'. This form-shifting house seems to exist outside time and space; capable of choosing who it appears to, changing location, resurrecting itself after being burnt down, and being much bigger on the inside than the five stories you see on the outside.
The first story, 'Maggots' by Nina Allan, is nothing short of brilliant. (It's because of Allan that I rescued Five Stories from the depths of my to-read list in the first place, having loved her story in the anthology New Fears.) It follows Willy, who's doing alright in life – he has good relationships with his family and girlfriend, he's doing well at university – until he becomes convinced that his Aunt Claire has been abducted and replaced with an imposter. Despite the pleas of his loved ones, Willy can't let go of this obsession, and it takes him down a dark path that will eventually lead to a dealer in murder memorabilia whose business is based out of Irongrove.
This is an ingenious way to approach the theme, so much more imaginative than anything else in the book. The protagonist is fully realised. The story is replete with literary and pop-culture references and a deep knowledge and understanding of what makes horror work. It's very subtle and deceptively ordinary, yet there is a scene, and a particular piece of description, here that has stuck with me vividly and still makes me cringe when I think about it.
The more of Allan's short stories I read, the more I am convinced she is an absolute master of the genre.
Five Stories High is a little like David Mitchell's Slade House, if each chapter was written by a different author. The central figure is 'the dwelling (entity?) known as Irongrove Lodge'. This form-shifting house seems to exist outside time and space; capable of choosing who it appears to, changing location, resurrecting itself after being burnt down, and being much bigger on the inside than the five stories you see on the outside.
The first story, 'Maggots' by Nina Allan, is nothing short of brilliant. (It's because of Allan that I rescued Five Stories from the depths of my to-read list in the first place, having loved her story in the anthology New Fears.) It follows Willy, who's doing alright in life – he has good relationships with his family and girlfriend, he's doing well at university – until he becomes convinced that his Aunt Claire has been abducted and replaced with an imposter. Despite the pleas of his loved ones, Willy can't let go of this obsession, and it takes him down a dark path that will eventually lead to a dealer in murder memorabilia whose business is based out of Irongrove.
This is an ingenious way to approach the theme, so much more imaginative than anything else in the book. The protagonist is fully realised. The story is replete with literary and pop-culture references and a deep knowledge and understanding of what makes horror work. It's very subtle and deceptively ordinary, yet there is a scene, and a particular piece of description, here that has stuck with me vividly and still makes me cringe when I think about it.
The more of Allan's short stories I read, the more I am convinced she is an absolute master of the genre.
January 28, 2019
A high-concept premise--a young British man suddenly believes that his aunt is no longer herself but invaded by another being--that is nonetheless invested in doing more than telling a good story. While the premise keeps you turning the pages, the underlying questions of knowledge and self and truth leave you wondering even after the mystery is wrapped up.
I'm eager to read more by Nina Allan.
I'm eager to read more by Nina Allan.
September 24, 2021
Well, anything that even remotely reminds me of Slade House is bound to be a favourite! Loved Nina Allan's writing and can't wait to read more of her work!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews