Apartment 16

By: Adam Nevill

Narrated by: Christopher Weeks, Sarah Borges

Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Apartment 16 is another gripping novel full of suspense and horror from Britain’s ‘master of horror’, Adam Nevill, twice winner of the August Derleth award. 

In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it has been that way for 50 years. A young American woman, Apryl, arrives at Barrington House. She's been left an apartment by her mysterious Great Aunt Lillian, who died in strange circumstances. Rumours claim Lillian was mad. But her diary suggests she was implicated in a horrific and inexplicable event decades ago. Determined to learn something of this eccentric woman, Apryl begins to unravel the hidden story of Barrington House. She discovers that a transforming, evil force still inhabits the building. And the doorway to Apartment 16 is a gateway to something altogether more terrifying.

©2010 Adam Nevill (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd

Critic Reviews

“Nevill proves himself to be a first-rate literary bogeyman [...] a gloriously gruesome fever dream." (SFX)

"A demonstration of what the field of horror is capable of at its very best.” (Black Static)

An excellent listen

I've always enjoyed Adam Nevills writing, Apartment 16 being my favourite. Needless to say I was extremely happy to see it released on Audible.

This is a dark story and both female and male narrator's do an excellent job of portraying each character. Sarah Borges range of accents being particularly noteworthy.

The story itself is fairly scary, but what has always stood out for me is the mounting sense of dread that this story evokes.

An excellent listen for the gloomy Autum and Winter months coming up!

Have never been so glad when a book ended..

This book would have had a better review if it was about two hours shorter. I appreciate this is a horror category but you can have too much of a good thing. The endless descriptions of grime and unpleasantness became too much. Don't read this book if you are on anti-depressants, it may well push you over the edge. And don't get me started on the reader, well the female reader to be precise. It really helps if you ask someone how to pronounce unfamiliar words rather than just guessing and her way of reading really began to get on my nerves after a while. As you might of gathered I really hated this book.

Something a little bit different.

I liked the plot line. It was a little different to the usual, sinister/apartment/horror tale that we normally see in this genre.

There are creepy and often gross moments, it has scary moments and it does raise the pulse at times, 6heres definitely a build up of tension the further the story develops and the final chapters culminate appropriately into a scary/horror/graphic conclusion.

Contrary to other reviews, I enjoy a long horror type story as long as the characters and the story make it worth while. I found the narrator almost soporific, his voice was so velvety that I drifted off at night, but skipped back later because I didnt want to miss anything. The narrators range was impressive and it was easy to forget there was only one person creating all the colourful characters and making them individually abd collectively come to life.

This is my third book by this author in three nights and I would gladly read more.

Worth a credit xx

Good

Was a good listen easy to follow nice to have the characters change voice

Good plot, narrating, shame about the story.

The overall plot was good. However, the writing was seriously overblown. I struggled to see it through to the end.

This was definitely in the style of Stephen King and I've never regarded King as a good writer. Why do horror authors try to copy his awful style of writing?

There are so many better authors out there such as Stephen Leather, Crighton, Dean Koontz and Michael Crichton.

love this

love all Adam neville books, having one read to me is great, listen in dark. well read and intense .

Bleak House

Recent take on the haunted house theme from rising horror star, Adam Nevill. Despite the contemporary setting this makes little concession to modern times and could really have been set at any point in the last century or so; but if it does nothing particularly new it uses the basics well: an innocent abroad stumbles upon a dark secret and invites the malevolent attentions of a supernatural force through her curiosity. Occasionally the tropes tend towards the over-familiar - Aleister Crowley and the Nazis duly make cameos, along with that kid from Flatliners - and some of the plot devices seem a bit sketchy; where Nevill succeeds best is with his compellingly horrible vision of Hell, which puts existential despair and Burroughsian body horror into Dante's ice.
The novel has a split narrative using two narrators, both of whom do good work, only jarring slightly towards the end as the main characters interact and are voiced differently in consecutive chapters.
Minor gripes aside, a solid, spooky yarn.

Enjoyed the book, but ending rushed...

I enjoyed the book overall and gave it a try despite the negative reviews left as I had liked 'Temple of the last days' by Adam Nevill, I actually dident mind the two perspectives being narrated by different people. However, I felt the ending would have benefited from a epilogue, as I don't feel it did the rest of the story much justice.

Yaaawn

I stuck this out to chapter 21. It is more a listing of imaginings and dreams rather than a novel. I was enjoying aprils parts of the story but just couldn't get into seths side. I've given up now, sadly

Oh dear...

Couldn’t listen a moment longer, absolute drivel, the writing is shockingly bad, the narration is pretty wooden, I guess I’ve been spoilt with much better novels, sorry but this is not good.