Apartment 14F

by C.M. Saunders, C.M. Saunders

When Jerry leaves his old life in London behind and travels to Beijing to take up a teaching position, at first he is enchanted by the brave new world he finds waiting for him. However, things soon take a turn for the worse. Upon his arrival he learns of the mysterious disappearance of his predecessor, and after he moves into his new apartment he is plagued by strange dreams in which he shares the dwelling, and his bed, with a ghostly entity. Then things start going bump in the night, and Jerry soon finds himself embroiled in the kind of supernatural drama that had previously been unthinkable to him.

An encounter with a fortune teller with a difference proves the catalyst for a new wave of terror and eventually, he is forced into the accepting the realisation that something else was waiting for him on the other side of the world, and perhaps even in the next world. What's more, his time is quickly running out.

This is a new edition, revised version by the author.

Bonus content:

Inside Apartment 14F (essay)
Little Dead Girl (short story)

"The author shows amazing depth and realism supported by interesting and well developed characters as well as a plot that will require a night light after reading. You might also want to consider checking under the bed."

- Bitten By Books

Genres: Horror, Ghosts, Fiction

99 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

Christian Saunders, a constant reader who writes fiction as C.M. Saunders, is a freelance journalist and editor from south Wales. His work has appeared in almost 100 magazines, ezines and anthologies worldwide including Fortean Times, the Literary Hatchet, ParABnormal, Fantastic Horror, Haunted MTL, Feverish Fiction and Crimson Streets, and he has held staff positions at several leading UK magazines ranging from Staff Writer to Associate Editor. His books have been both traditionally and independently published, the latest release being Tethered on Terror Tract Publishing.

Reviews

[Bandit · Rating 2 out of 5]

So apparently Einstein had some racist tendencies…or so the sensationalized recent news articles would have you believe. What it really means is that in a recently translated into English travel diaries of his from 1920s he has some less than kind things to say about some nations, particularly the Chinese. The thing is, though, Einstein has made quite a reputation for himself in his later years in the US as a very outspoken antiracist, so was it down to maturity of character or was it that coming from such a civilized place as Europe of 1920s a young Einstein was simply unable to comprehend and process the cultural differences of less developed nations…because there were certainly plenty. Then and, going by this book, now. And Saunders has actually lived in China and worked as an English teacher there, so this is definitely the case of write what you know and his version of the cultural mishmash is quite striking also, albeit from a more well rounded less judgmental perspective. In fact, his observations on the social differences between East and West are quite interesting. But political correctness goes right out of the window almost from the get go…Oriental, really? We’re not in 1920s anymore, Einstein (sorry, involuntary). And this isn’t a one off either, the author uses the descriptor extensively, once (a definite no no) even referring to a person as such. And here is a proper culture clash, then. Because the author is British and quite possibly they use the word there and it’s ok, but in the US where the book was published it isn’t. Basically the word Oriental implies a Western-centric perspective since by definition it defines Orient as relative to Europe or Europeans, so it’s a totally colonial perspective.I don’t want to turn this into a lecture on political correctness, although really the book takes place in China and it wouldn’t kill the author to describe something or someone as Chinese now and again and not that word. Anyway…there’s also a matter of editing. From laughable (emancipated instead of emaciated) to messing up a character’s last name more than once to minor typos. It isn’t overwhelming or super distracting, but still…for a small book that’s apparently been revisited and rewritten many times, it seems kinda…sad. The stories (there’s the main novella and a bonus short) are actually decently written and entertaining enough and go well together and served as a semi adequate diversion for a short while, but the presentation left something to be desired. The cover looks good and it's always nice to see a scary story like that set somewhere other than a creaky old estate in the middle of nowhere. Ok for a random kindle freebie, for whatever that’s worth, and mostly for the cultural observations, though certainly it wasn't meant as a travelogue.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jerry has taken a job as an English teacher in Beijing, China. It is pretty much everything he wanted and expected except for one thing. His apartment is haunted.

Apartment 14F: An Oriental Ghost Story is, in a way, an old fashioned horror story that builds up slowly and ends with a shock. No fancy word plays and no secret message. It entertains by its sparse and direct storytelling. It is a refreshingly straight-ahead ghost story. C. M. Saunders spent time in China so he is able to portray the area quite accurately and catches a lots of the nuances of both Chinese culture and the traveler’s struggle with an unfamiliar environment. The perspective of the narrative is mainly through Jerry but the ghost story is feels quite Chinese in many ways. It has many of those little details that show up in Chinese ghost tales; strange hair in the sink, moaning ladies, apparitions in your dreams and in your bed, flickering lights and a few others. These should be familiar to anyone familiar with Asian horror films or literature, especially that of China, and the author incorporates them well. We also have the Chinese sidekick who helps Jerry understand what is going on, a blind fortune teller who “reads” palms in a very weird way, and the ubiquitous apartment employee that has seen and heard it all. The importance of the numbers “14F”, which I am assuming is accurate in the way the author describes it, was also fascinating to me. Throughout it all, there is a nice build-up of eerie events that lead into the surprising climax. It is a quick read but one that will stay with you… perhaps even in your dreams.

This is a revised version of Saunders’ story that was originally published in 2009. He includes an essay titled “Inside Apartment 14F” that explains the creation and evolution of his story as well as adding a mildly cautionary tale about editors and publishers. Also included is a work of short fiction titled “Little Dead Girl”. It is a much shorter ghost tale which is quite good but suffers from the inclusion in this book due to the similarities to the main event. But if seen as icing on the cake, it becomes a nice exclamation point to the very entertaining Apartment 14F and the essay that followed. Overall, a good read and a recommended one for those who like fiction about ghosts and China.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well-written novella about a British teacher in China who comes to believe his apartment is haunted. To this end, he gets his teaching assistant to find him a fortune teller to see if she can discern anything. After a creepy visit to her, and several other events occurring in the apartment, it becomes apparent, he's right. For the most part the story clicked along smoothly, except for the beginning where Sunders felt it necessary to fill the reader in on lots of background information about China and its citizens' thought processes. At times this felt like he was writing a treatise on Chinese culture, other times like he was criticizing it, but there was more included than was necessary for the tale.

[Dez Nemec · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too much background for a short story. When we actually got to the haunting it was okay, but I actually forgot about the ghost amid all the crap about Chinese culture, much of which was irrelevant to the story (or could have easily been covered in a few sentences).

[Nev Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

"This is a story that I think will appeal to a wide range of people, for many different reasons. It is very well written in a non-fancy way, if I can use that term. By that I mean that there are no glamourous scenes or over the top storylines to beef the story up. It is told as a bare basics type of story and that method is extremely effective. It feels like one of those Japanese horror films you would watch. Very moody and atmospheric."

See here for the full review:

Apartment 14F

[Su Halfwerk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apartment 14F started off nice and sweet with a description of Jerry's new life in China and the country's economy, culture, and even political changes over time. With great timing, the author introduced the ghost at varying and startling intervals that got me eager to understand the driving force behind this haunting.
Throw in the mix a fortune teller, a mysterious disappearance, and the main character's stubbornness to walk away from any trouble (he has to face them, he couldn't just leave without a resolution) and you have a world weaved so tightly, you will believe everything in it.
There were a couple of scenes that reminded me of The Ring and Grudge, but frankly, they worked so well to support the story to the surprising end.
I think isolation is an important factor in this book-actually in any good ghost story-and I could feel Jerry's loneliness a mile away.

[Annabele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even with the typos, it's still a pretty good read!

This eBook was an enjoyable way to kill time, the storyline was well thought out, flowing from one event to another, the characters were fleshed out with just enough background details so you not only got to know them, but even cared enough to stop them if they accidentally stepped in front of a bus. :)

Included was a Bonus Short titled "Little Dead Girl." While entertaining enough, it read like a rough draft. There was one particular scene (approximately two paragraphs) repeated almost word for word as a previous event, with the exception of the last sentence. Overall, the entire eBook could've used an editor to correct the accidental spelling errors, I say accidental as several were done intentionally to establish the existence of a slight language barrier.

[Kim Byrd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spooky!!!!! Enjoyed this quick read by Christian Saunders! While I was reading the book, I was looking around because I started hearing all sorts of sounds (that really weren't happening). The hairs on my arms stood up! The characters were well written. The fortune teller scene got me kicking into high gear, and topped it off with the elevator lady visiting Jerry's room!

Highly recommend this for you horror lovers. It will mess with your mind!

[Terri Oconnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an okay ghost story with a twist at the end you’ll never see coming. There is some language difference between the characters as he is a teacher of the English language but it doesn’t take from the story. No does the well described information on the area he lives and works in. I just wish there was a little more ghost in the story. The second included story was short and again had a surprised twist to the end.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A horror story your mind can definitely work with. Me,being a horror movie finatic in my younger years can easily picture this story. No guts and killing needed with this quick read just let your mind wonder. It has a suprise ending.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. It was different but very engrossing, mixing Chinese life and culture but from the perspective of an Englishman to create a more direct but still very menacing horror novella. Will definitely look for more by this author.

[Sandra Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this! Plus a bonus short story

Man moves to the Orient. He became a teacher of English to his foreign students. The prior teacher, disappeared without a trace. The apt they both lived in, is haunted.

[Milt Theo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the overall feeling of the story. It managed to give something of the way a Westerner sees China. But, for a horror story, and a short one at that, it was too much. The creepiness I appreciated, but the haunting turned out to be rather secondary, the point was entirely different.

[AnnieIsReading · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good short little ghost story, I liked the setting quite a bit! It probably didn't need to go as in depth on Chinese history bits but I thought the info on Chinese social aspects were interesting.

[Elli Toney · Rating 2 out of 5]

The actual story, I liked. However, I think because the author had himself lived in China as a language instructor, it went way too deep into memoir territory, reflecting the experiences he had while living there. Too much background, cultural differences, and history lessons, when what I wanted was the ghost story. Because that consumed so much of the book, I had to rate low. However, for the ghost story itself, I would give it 4 stars.

[Gary Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jerry, newly arrived in China as an English teacher, settles in to his lonely new apartment, unaware that he will soon be drawn into the mystery of what happened to the apartment’s previous tenant. What he learns frightens him, but even this knowledge may not be enough to drive him away… or to save him.

This story manages to do a lot within its very brief span. It creates an atmosphere of lingering dread, not only of the ghost itself, but of its loneliness and need. It’s an effective and slightly surreal tale of alienation and terror, easily read in a single sitting.

[Clayton Bye · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.thedeepening.com/horror/20...

[Teri Christman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining, very short story of an English teacher that moves to Beijing. Surprise, his apartment his haunted by a pale skinned, long dark haired ghost. Fairly predictable but well written.

[Michael Keyton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apartment 14 F doesn’t plunge us into horror immediately. Christian Saunders first immerses us in everyday living in modern China—that is for a naïve but adventurous western ‘teacher’ called Jerry. He ends up in China almost by accident and ends up living in a haunted apartment in much the same manner.

Some may find the opening chapters a slow read as various abstruse details like guanxi are explained, the mixed responses to ‘Westerners’ and the varied and complex factors that determine the Chinese character, and what is involved in living in modern day Beijing. The detail though serves a purpose.

I especially enjoyed the anecdote about barbershops moving a ‘westerner’ close to the window for outsiders to see, and likely leave the blond locks on the floor as further evidence of cosmopolitan chic.

There are some bits of basic history that could be easily left out, but the prose is lean and spare and matter of fact. The pages turn easily and, more importantly, the prosaic realism and attention to detail grounds the reader, and makes the horror to come more believable. Jerry and his new environment become real and so we readily suspend disbelief—especially when the first strange noises materialise—then glimpses caught from the corner of the eye, followed by one unaccountable fact after another. His first real experience, one combining horror and lust hints at some kind of Asian succubus—but it’s worse than that. Suffice it to say the Pantene Pro hair commercial will never appear the same again.
About halfway through, mystery is added to the horror as the fate of a previous occupant of Apartment 14 comes into question. The protagonist’s added purpose draws the reader in more as we share with Jerry the compulsion to know.
It’s a fast read, partly because of the stripped down prose and —a contributory factor—an efficient but unobtrusive structure. A case in point is an early mention of a Chinese fortune-teller, and her appearance at just the right moment. Here the ‘gross’ quotient increases along with dark hints of worse to come.
The denouement illustrates perfectly two old adages: ‘curiosity killed the cat’ and: ‘Be careful what you wish for.’
Little Dead Girl is a shorter, bonus story exemplifying some of the strengths of Apartment 14, ie the fusion of prosaic realism with surreal almost hallucinatory detail of a child who won’t go away.
Thoroughly enjoyable reads both.

[Netanella · Rating 4 out of 5]

If he had been at home in London he wouldn't have given the scream a second thought, he would have just put it down to teenagers messing around. But here, in this strange new environment, every negative was magnified tenfold and seemed altogether more ominous and threatening.

Saunders does this Oriental ghost story right. Everything is spookier when you're a foreigner in a distant land, isolated and alone. There are some scenes here that will stay with me, such as Assistant Teacher always calling Jerry "Jelly," and of course the blind fortune teller giving Jelly a palm reading with her tongue.