Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram (Hardcover)

Fiction - Horror - Psychological - Visonary & Metaphysical 

RELEASE DATE: 10/1/2024 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE)

A mindbending and visceral experimental horror about a young man trapped in an infinite Montreal subway station, perfect for readers of Mark Z. Danielewski and Susanna Clarke.

Vicken has a plan: throw himself into the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal and end it all for good, believing it to be the only way out for him after a lifetime of depression and pain. But, stepping off the subway, he finds himself in an endless, looping station.

Determined to find a way out again, he starts to explore the rooms and corridors ahead of him. But no matter how many claustrophobic hallways or vast cathedral-esque rooms he passes through, the exit is nowhere in sight.

The more he explores his strange new prison, the more he becomes convinced that he hasn’t been trapped there accidentally, and amongst the shadows and concrete, he comes to realise that he almost certainly is not alone.

A terrifying psychological nightmare from a powerful new voice in horror.

AUTHOR BIO: 

Sofia Ajram (he/she) is a metalsmith and literary horror writer who specializes in feverish stories of anomalous architecture and gay pining. He is the editor of the forthcoming Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror. She has also given lectures on contemporary horror films at Monstrum Montreal and serves as a moderator of r/horror on Reddit. Sofia lives in Montreal with her cat Isa. Find them on Twitter and Instagram @sofiaajram.

Equally haunting and heartbreaking, this complex meditation on belonging announces an exciting new voice in experimental horror.--Publishers Weekly, starred review

A gripping story that is as brutal as it is beautiful...A stellar option for fans of liminal-space horror like The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher, as well as those who enjoy intense tales of an unreliable narrator exploring a terrifying and mysterious landscape, such as The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling.--Booklist, starred review

"Bleak, unrelenting, and surprising at every turn, the torturous inner maze of depression becomes literal in Sofia Ajram's nightmarish vision of an endlessly expanding House of Leaves."--Ally Wilkes, Bram Stoker award-nominated author of All the White Spaces and Where the Dead Wait

"Coup de Grâce is a novella woven with cold elegance like sea breeze drifting from the ocean at night through liminal spaces both seen but felt. It is breaths beckoning from deep within an endless tunnel underground with moments of unexpected humour and absurdity. And it is life, death, and hope's interwoven thoughts in poetry and refreshing experimentalism."--Ai Jiang, Hugo award nominee and Bram Stoker award nominated author of Linghun

"The decision, the ride, the beautiful stranger, the end you always knew would find you - Sofia Ajram's Coup de Grâce is wholly original and totally, despairingly, passionately alive."--Kathe Koja, author of Dark Factory and The Cipher

"Alienating, exquisite, and disturbing; a poem in blood and concrete."--Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt and Cuckoo

"Relentless, terrifying, gorgeous, and perfect; one of the most powerful books I've ever been lost inside. This is a beautiful nightmare built by a genius architect and I'll be shocked if I read anything better all year."--Daniel Kraus, New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall

"Forwarded with the funereal poetics of dream-logic but, wait: awake. And therefore, no dream, but nightmare. Still, despite the horror, Ajram's spirited voice is as self-evident as a solitary bright hue in a wide grey world. What do we look for in books, in stories, if not signs of life? Coup de Grâce is teeming with rare life."--Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box and Incidents Around the House

"A slender, terrifying volume in which to lose yourself completely. Sofia Ajram's remarkable debut Coup de Grâce is a lyrically written yet shockingly raw depiction of its narrator's descent into the depths of suicidal depression. It is rare that surreal horror bites this deep or tears this hard at the reader's emotions. I was floored. Highly recommended."--David Demchuk, Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of The Bone Mother and RED X

"The ultimate bummer of publishing is you're asked to compare books to other, similar books and movies in order to help sell them, and while you can do that with Coup de Grâce ("It's part Cronenberg, part Danielewski, part Greek myth!") those 'comps' don't really get at how vital and new and achingly now the novella is in its story, its melancholy... and its scares. A true achievement."--Adam Cesare, author of Clown in a Cornfield