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Apartment
Recent college grad Jason dreamed of moving to Korea to teach English and immerse himself in the world of KPop, Idols and all things Korean. Thrust straight into the classroom before he even sees his new apartment, Jason has a high-speed, exhausting welcome to his new life abroad. His boss's behavior is bizarre, his co-workers are mean or strange, his brand new apartment is supposedly haunted, and he can't open his mouth without pissing off his boss or coworkers. From the time he gets off the plane, life is one confusing series of unforeseen mishaps and misunderstandings... Apartment is a creepy, jarring story about a young teacher who moves across the world to Seoul, South Korea, with big dreams that go horrifically off the rails.
- GenresHorror
80 pages, Paperback
Published August 20, 2018
16 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 27, 2025
The Midnight Run...
APARTMENT:
A Gut Wrenching Tale of Korea
by Crowley Barns
4 stars. Jason arrived at Incheon airport on Korea. He met his new Korean boss with the Americanized name Leonardo Dicaprio...
Jason had always loved Asian culture...
Where everything was quick, quick...
Hurry, hurry, hurry, you're too slow...
Once inside the boss's car...
He was hustled off to teach his first class directly from the airport. No time to see his new apartment first...
There's no time like the present to start...
Finally, at the end of his first day, he was driven to the apartment by driver and coworker Millionaire (also an Americanized name)...
It was well past 10:00 PM...
On the way, Millionaire told Jason that the apartment was haunted. He said that the previous American teachers made the midnight run...
They all ran away at midnight...
Millionaire said in his broken English: it is a ghost building. No one lives there. Only ghosts live there...
At the apartment...
The beautiful lobby had motion sensors to operate the lights, and the doors were coded. Millionaire called the elevator, which arrived rapidly and silently...
Millionaire said: It skips floors 14, 13, and 4. When the elevator stopped on Jason's floor, Millionaire advised: Watch out for ghosts...
Inside his new apartment...
Jason met one of his coworkers. A weird little woman, Rola (Korean pronunciation of Laura), who owns the building, and has her own floor...
And..
She wants to get married...
I'm beginning to have a real preference for short stories and novellas. They can tell a powerful story concisely without all the BS fluff and filler.
This was a great story from start to finish (although I don't think many readers will care for the ending). I loved this author's style of storytelling. It keeps one on their toes at all times. Each scene brought a new shock to the table (and I don't mean in a "shock value" or extreme horror kind way).
Recommend!
APARTMENT:
A Gut Wrenching Tale of Korea
by Crowley Barns
4 stars. Jason arrived at Incheon airport on Korea. He met his new Korean boss with the Americanized name Leonardo Dicaprio...
Jason had always loved Asian culture...
Where everything was quick, quick...
Hurry, hurry, hurry, you're too slow...
Once inside the boss's car...
He was hustled off to teach his first class directly from the airport. No time to see his new apartment first...
There's no time like the present to start...
Finally, at the end of his first day, he was driven to the apartment by driver and coworker Millionaire (also an Americanized name)...
It was well past 10:00 PM...
On the way, Millionaire told Jason that the apartment was haunted. He said that the previous American teachers made the midnight run...
They all ran away at midnight...
Millionaire said in his broken English: it is a ghost building. No one lives there. Only ghosts live there...
At the apartment...
The beautiful lobby had motion sensors to operate the lights, and the doors were coded. Millionaire called the elevator, which arrived rapidly and silently...
Millionaire said: It skips floors 14, 13, and 4. When the elevator stopped on Jason's floor, Millionaire advised: Watch out for ghosts...
Inside his new apartment...
Jason met one of his coworkers. A weird little woman, Rola (Korean pronunciation of Laura), who owns the building, and has her own floor...
And..
She wants to get married...
I'm beginning to have a real preference for short stories and novellas. They can tell a powerful story concisely without all the BS fluff and filler.
This was a great story from start to finish (although I don't think many readers will care for the ending). I loved this author's style of storytelling. It keeps one on their toes at all times. Each scene brought a new shock to the table (and I don't mean in a "shock value" or extreme horror kind way).
Recommend!
October 21, 2025
3.5 stars. This jumped right and made me nervous as a cat from the very first few sentences. A rapid pace, tons of nonsensical dialogue being tossed at our lead character, Jason, and a great uneasy tone set for the story. It’s very nonchalant in its approach towards the more violent portions, in the latter aspect of the book, which just added to the experience. To make more sense of that, imagine is someone calmly walked up and cut your wrist very deeply, but remained totally calm and told you that everything was fine. It’s just a very uncomfortable attitude. Now the story is fairly short and that took away from some of the impact. I wanted to know Jason a bit more to make me care further about what was happening to him. The other characters being these careless, forceful, awkward, and extraordinarily eerie individuals was fantastic. So, not without some minor pacing and development issues, this was a good experience to start off my Hump Day.
April 19, 2021
I love these types of books. You start to read, nice and easy and probably starting to think well maybe this book was miss rated and should be a thriller and then it hits you... nope definitely a horror.
My first introduction to The Barns Brothers was Kink. So I was happy to find this book pretty similar writing style. I would definitely want to see more from these authors.
My first introduction to The Barns Brothers was Kink. So I was happy to find this book pretty similar writing style. I would definitely want to see more from these authors.
September 11, 2025
This book was a fckin trip! It's about a guy who goes to Korea to teach English and meets a lot of weird instructors at a sketchy English conversation school. And his new apartment might be haunted. If you've ever taught English overseas, you"ll love this book. It's so relatable.
My apartment lobby in Japan was haunted by a giant spider. It was there for a week just hanging out and then one day it was gone. A British guy I worked with told me it had taken the lift up to my flat and was waiting for me there.
"She's going to lay eggs inside you, mate."
But anyway, I digress. I thought this was going to be a simple ghost story, but the twist at the end is much more shocking.
3/4s of the book is just pure comedy gold and then BAM! Horror. There are some great pop culture references used in terrifying ways.
I really want to check out Crowley Barns book Vacationers now. I love anything that takes place in Asia.
My apartment lobby in Japan was haunted by a giant spider. It was there for a week just hanging out and then one day it was gone. A British guy I worked with told me it had taken the lift up to my flat and was waiting for me there.
"She's going to lay eggs inside you, mate."
But anyway, I digress. I thought this was going to be a simple ghost story, but the twist at the end is much more shocking.
3/4s of the book is just pure comedy gold and then BAM! Horror. There are some great pop culture references used in terrifying ways.
I really want to check out Crowley Barns book Vacationers now. I love anything that takes place in Asia.
July 5, 2025
You have to read this if you're familiar with Korea and its culture, because it will make you feel like you're there, it's so spot on.
And if you're not, it's worth reading anyway because the storytelling keeps you on edge even in the non-horror parts.
I kept getting stressed out about the number of pages left while reading, because I just didn't want it to end. And when it ended, it was very abrubtly. I didn't feel like I had been robbed of the ending though, because the direction was set, it just put my mind to work about possible ways it could get there. This is a story that left me in the same state of mind as after watching the original French version of Martyrs, not knowing exactly what happened, but with lots of room for imagination and speculation.
And if you're not, it's worth reading anyway because the storytelling keeps you on edge even in the non-horror parts.
I kept getting stressed out about the number of pages left while reading, because I just didn't want it to end. And when it ended, it was very abrubtly. I didn't feel like I had been robbed of the ending though, because the direction was set, it just put my mind to work about possible ways it could get there. This is a story that left me in the same state of mind as after watching the original French version of Martyrs, not knowing exactly what happened, but with lots of room for imagination and speculation.
September 9, 2018
This was a good story, but I wish it had not been so short. The horror was set up well, the characters interesting and unique, and because it was so good, I would like to have seen it developed further.
January 14, 2019
Great story.
In never disappointed by the Barnes Brothers. This was a quick fun read. Made me want to visit Korea and then I changed my mind.
In never disappointed by the Barnes Brothers. This was a quick fun read. Made me want to visit Korea and then I changed my mind.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews