The Apartment

By: S L Grey

Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith, Fiona Hardingham

From Blumhouse Books, a haunting thriller about a troubled married couple whose vacation to Paris leads them into a nightmare.

"Dark and deeply disturbing. I'm still shuddering."--R.L. Stine

“An impressively compelling chiller… an ideal choice for late nights alone.” -- CultureCrypt

Mark and Steph have a relatively happy family with their young daughter in sunny Cape Town until one day when armed men in balaclavas break in to their home. Left traumatized but physically unharmed, Mark and Steph are unable to return to normal and live in constant fear. When a friend suggests a restorative vacation abroad via a popular house swapping website, it sounds like the perfect plan. They find a genial, artistic couple with a charming apartment in Paris who would love to come to Cape Town. Mark and Steph can’t resist the idyllic, light-strewn pictures, and the promise of a romantic getaway. But once they arrive in Paris, they quickly realize that nothing is as advertised. When their perfect holiday takes a violent turn, the cracks in their marriage grow ever wider and dark secrets from Mark's past begin to emerge.

Deftly weaving together two complex and compelling narrators, S. L. Grey builds an intimate and chilling novel of a disintegrating marriage in the wake of a very real trauma. The Apartment is a terrifying tour-de-force of horror, of psychological thrills, and of haunting suspense.

Critic reviews

"The Apartment defies preconceptions...This book is a slow boil that sinks the hook early with a sense that all is not well while creating an overall air of unpredictability that continues to its chilling conclusion...Grey creates such a state of unease that after reading The Apartment, one may be loathe to ever leave town--or maybe even home--again."
--BookReporter.com

"Gripping, creepy as hell, and the dread will linger for days afterwards."
--Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining Girls and Broken Monsters

"Dark and deeply disturbing. Trust me--this tense and frightening piece of horror is not for kids--or for the faint-of-heart. I'm still shuddering."
--R.L. Stine, New York Times bestselling author of Goosebumps and Fear Street

“The Apartment is a perfectly crafted, deeply unsettling thriller: a portrait of a marriage unraveling, of the haunting and the haunted, and the idea that grief might be a door that can let other horrific things in. This book had me turning on all the lights, checking under the bed and in the closet, and savoring every terrifying page.”
--Jennifer McMahon, New York Times bestselling author of The Night Sister

"There are moments of true scariness that emerge from a sustained, deep-seated sense of discomfort...Chills and thrills enough to attract and please fans of supernatural horror. This one will keep you up all night."
--Kirkus

"Grey, a pseudonym for Sarah Lotz (The Three, 2014) and Louis Greenberg, believably corners the couple in an unwinnable situation eerily familiar to anyone who’s had a vacation go awry. The ante is viscerally upped every new day—a creepy neighbor, an unnerving wax museum, an animal death, and visions of Mark’s dead child from a previous marriage...Bonus: features the scariest haircut scene possibly ever."
--Booklist

"Quiet reflections combined with intelligent frights from two unique perspectives make “The Apartment” an ideal choice for late nights alone or a red eye flight. Particularly if that plane is headed overseas. If the destination is a suspiciously unfamiliar Airbnb? Even better."
--CultureCrypt.com

W onderful reader

This story is built around a common
premise. It brings no surprises, no appealing characters, no real answers
to what that thing hiding with the mol dy dust bunnies is or how it does it's ugly, dirty, smelly nasty job.
Without the female reader, this book would earn only a 2. She does so well, I
hung on through the entire reading - just in case the author created something
better than it is. Save your money.

The Apartment

Good listen, good story, keeps you coming back. narrators are good. kind of strange but still good.

So Perfect.

I am not a fan of audio books as I find the pace too slow. Not the case here. I played it while unpacking and arranging my own new apartment. Simply brilliant. This book is perfection. I can't imagine a person who enjoys psychological crime thrillers being less than thoroughly engaged with this novel. "The Apartment" is gripping, tantalizing, fun, smart...you name it. Enjoy.

Damn.

A paranormal psychological-thriller that reads like an inside-out murder-mystery. I don’t even know what that was, but I’m here for it.

hard to make the back of the head look alive

Good stuff all the way around. Genuinely creepy atmosphere and imagery. It very much did get under my skin. A little slow here and there, but I don't mind a little slow. And I don't need an exploding vehicle every other page. Look elsewhere if you do. But I'm telling you, don't pass this one up. You'll be missing out on a case of the creeps.