Remember patience is a virtue, give the book its due and wait for the end. I was curious to see how well executed his writing would be on his own without the production team of TMA, but found myself loving every second. But are you ready for their stories Jonathan Sims debut is a darkly twisted, genre. I’ve followed Sims’s work since The Magnus Archives and find his work to be extremely interesting and compelling. His death remains one of the biggest unsolved mysteries - until now. The twist to which I refer is how the characters choose to react in opposition to a deal that seemingly no one could refuse. Sims’ work excels in this very same vein - although with the “modern twist” - in its exploration of the machinations of a billionaire who is apathetic to the world at large as well as the suffering and deaths of those who he has deemed lesser than himself. The reason I find this work to be a modern gothic masterpiece is for the literary purposes through which other gothic/horror writers have exercised the fears prevalent in society at the time of their conceptions (e.g., Frankenstein and the fear of modern science replacing God, Dracula and its overt sexuality and xenophobic tendencies). Thirteen Storeys is an amalgamation of, as the title indicates, thirteen stories (although it is in fact a bon mot regarding the thirteen floors of a building as well) that circle around people who become in various ways roped into the will of something seemingly out of their control. Just know that some parts feel like they drag on for ages. Although towards the very end there's some overlap with the voices that can be distracting. The performances by the narrators were amazing. It's the filler bits that are duller than hell.

The conflict and more supernatural parts of the story are well written and interesting. Great concepts but when it's not on the actual plot parts the work is very slow and boring. That's an unfortunate pattern with Sims' work, in my opinion. The book itself tends to be quite boring for most of it. it's just a brief description like with any other character which was a welcomed surprise. They've got actual substance to them and there's even trans representation that isn't the focal point of the character.

I am a major fan of some of his podcasts. I will start this out by saying I have a bias for Sims' work.

13 stories book jonathan sims