No One Gets Out Alive: A Novel

This would have been a 4 star review if the first half of the book hadn't driven me crazy with frustration. From midlife I can look back on my green youth and honestly say that I was never as naive or in denial as the main character in NOGOA and watching her make one stupid mistake after another was maddening.

The second half of the novel was quite fast paced and tied up all the loose ends. The BEST PART is that this actually does turn out to be a story of the supernatural if you can get through all the horrific human behavior. I generally avoid themes of rape and human trafficking so this was a tough read for me. As a fan of horror involving ancient pagan deities the book was quite satisfying. As a pagan I just have to add that any goddess who demands virgin girl sacrifices is a very minor deity and a pathetic loser; powerful goddesses accept only adult males in their prime who volunteer themselves for the role.............just sayin'....

I'm going to say what I wish someone had told me when I picked up this book. Get ready for a lot of violence against women, human trafficking, sex slaves, and women tied to beds raped and beaten. Repeatedly and graphically. There's absolutely no hint of that in the description, no warning, but once you get a couple hundred pages in, that's all you get. Yes, there's ghosts as well, but they're not nearly as disturbing and sickening as the details of the female victims in this book. If I had known what I was in for, I never would have touched it.

In some ways this book has proved a little bit of a disappointment. The first two-thirds is a highly impressive dark tale of a haunted house with a bloody history. Arriving at this seemingly innocuous, red bricked, low rental, house address 82 Edgehill Road Birmingham is Stephanie Booth. She recently split from her boyfriend Ryan and is now and attempting to live cheaply whilst working for a temping agency.

It soon becomes clear there is something evil and wrong within the walls of 82 Edgehill. Stephanie is concerned about voices and sounds she hears, dreams that impinge and bombard her sleep and the lives of fellow residents especially the mysterious and beautiful Margaret and Svetlana.....”she couldn’t be certain that what she had felt around her in that building amounted to more than fear, loneliness, despair and anger. Or cries for help. And those couldn’t harm you. Could they? Who were they? What were they? The idea that the suffering had continued for some time, and would always continue in the wretched building, was unbearable for her to ponder. She dared to wonder what she might be able to do for them – the trapped and the crying, the tormented. “..... Knacker McGuire, the landlord of this dreadful establishment, is an individual who is content to live from immoral earnings with the help of his deranged and somewhat disturbed cousin Fergal Donegal.

So at this point in the novel we have a lovely dark tale within a very haunted house and in the characters of Knacker and Fergal two of the cruellest and most frightening men of evil intent ever committed to paper by the pen of an author. It is genuinely unnerving with the setting and the characters creating an atmosphere that is at times tense and disturbing.....”Hold me, a voice said, I’m cold”. Stephanie closed her eyes tight. Either a young woman had spoken with her mouth a hair’s breath from her ear, or she’d heard the request inside her mind. Cold, invisible fingers remained attached to her wrist. And whatever was beside her slowly reclined upon the bed. The mattress gently gave to support a weight that could not be, and perhaps her eyes deceived her, or maybe the exposed bed sheet really did move. “Hold me. I’m so cold”. Staring at her trembling arm dumbstruck at her own compliance, Stephanie eased herself down to a freezing mattress that she now shared with something she could not see.”......

Now however rather than conclude or continue the strands in this chilling tale, for some unexplained reason the story moves location and the author leads the reader in an entirely different direction. This, in my opinion, makes the book overlong, and destroy the momentum and genuine fright appeal of 82 Edgehill Road.
Nevertheless Adam Nevill has the power to shock, has the power to unnerve and the ability to build and maintain a frighteningly good story and in the characters of Knacker McGuire and Fergal Donegal he has truly created two memorable and evil men. Unfortunately on page 407 when the rhythm is transformed by a shift in time and location the story’s appeal to me is greatly diminished and I find myself hoping the book will conclude soon (never a good sign for any reader!) This is a pity as Nevill is an author of outstanding credentials, his writing both intelligent and impeccably researched and his ideas and thoughts presented in a very readable manner.

This COULD have been a good novel with some extremely judicious editing. As is, though, it is not. The first 200 pages are extremely repetitive, to the point of making the main character seem incredibly stupid and her situation a bit preposterous. 100 pages could have EASILY been cut without any loss. I almost gave up at this point, but decided to soldier on. The pacing picked up considerably at this point, but it was all a bit too predictable to make up for the slow start. Part 1 of the novel ends around page 400, and I'm trying to decide whether it's even worthwhile to finish this, since many of the reviews here say that part 1 is considerably better than part 2. I don't think I'm going to bother finishing, which is something I RARELY do.

What a shame. I REALLY wanted to like this book.

I cannot sit here and just describe the terrors you are about to face reading this book. I will not cheat you of the experience.

Author Adam Nevill keeps readers within claustrophobic proximity of the tormented Stephanie and it's the last place anyone would really want to be. The blackened depths of her character's journey is illuminated with hideous detail and at a pace that at some points left me dizzy and with some paper cuts.

Breathtaking suspense and some of the most effective scares I've read to date. I want to go on but I'm exhausted and simultaneously wary about shutting off the lights. Good night. I think.

Reviewers Note: I was loaned this book, which is why it's not an Amazon Verified purchase, but I promise that I read it, and that this review is unsolicited and genuine. I usually ignore reviews that aren't verified, which is why I'm starting out with this. I know I come across as gushy and over the top, but honestly this book is that amazing. I loved it and intend to read everything else by the author. I may even try to email him and tell him how awesome he is.

I am an avid horror reader and have been for my entire life. I was a huge Stephen King fan growing up (his early work, pre-Gerald's Game), and remember with delicious nostalgia having to sleep with the lights on while reading IT and The Stand. I love Laymon, Little, Ed Lee, etc. Lately I've been enjoying authors like Justin Cronin, Mira Grant and Iain Rob Wright. I stumbled on this book by Adam Nevill when I was over a friend's house last week, and thankfully she was willing to loan me her copy.

Seriously.. this is the best horror novel I've read in as long as I can remember. It kept me up at night. It had (hell, has) me repeatedly shining a light into the dark corners of my bedroom when I'm trying to sleep. I'm not going too far to say that it screwed with my homeostasis. I finished it yesterday and I'm still feeling broken apart and without equilibrium - and I F$#@$*G love it. Apart from placing it firmly in the horror genre, I really can't pin it down. Yes, it's horror. But it's a mystery. And it's violent. And it's vulnerable. It's sort of a ghost story (and usually I don't like ghost stories - don't let that stop you), but so much more - it's also mythological and mind-bending. It's a ghost story rooted in a frightening, claustrophobic and very physical world. I love Steph's (the main character) arc. I love that I learned to love, like and respect her even though I started out kind of disliking her as a person. The book is SO well written, so well paced and so surprising at every page turn. I often criticize newer horror authors, especially with the influx of what I think of as Amazon Amateurs, for having terrible grammar, a pathetic reliance on cliche, and just a lazy writing style. Adam Nevill can WRITE. And he really knows how to change up convention.

I love the way that you're basically dropped into the story. There's no polite introduction to the characters or the world they (mainly she) lives in. It was jarring, like a roller coaster starting up. I actually double checked to make sure pages weren't missing or that I hadn't missed a prologue. This isn't a bad thing, it's just another unusual, original and non-gimmicky element to a book that is just overflowing with creativity and originality. I usually devour books, but I read No One Gets Out Alive in relatively short sessions, wanting to take time to think about the chapters I had read. And honestly to take a break and calm down. I will absolutely be re-reading it.

I'm clearly writing too much. You get the point. This book is incredible and it's a massive understatement to say that it's well worth reading. It's entirely possibly that it's the most enjoyable and well written fiction (and by enjoyable I mean gut-wrenching, nightmarish and dark) that I've read in the 21st century, and I've read hundreds of books since the world didn't end on January 1st 2000.

So buy it, read it, love it. Thanks Nevill.

Stephanie is desperate - she's got very little money, no real job prospects, and nowhere to go. Her latest rental was a place she jokingly called "the cell," so the room for rent at 82 Edgehill Road is a bit of a dream come true. Sure it's a little rundown and the landlord something of a creeper, but it's well within her budget and spacious to boot. And the ad said women only, which sets Stephanie's mind at ease at least a little bit.

But when Stephanie begins to hear and see things that are beyond explanation, she knows she has to get out of the house on Edgehill Road. Even when the landlord refuses to refund her deposit, she gives herself until the end of the weekend to find a friend who will let her crash. But making it through the weekend is a tougher order than she thought it would be.

You can probably tell by my reviews and reading taste that it takes a lot to shake me up reading wise, but Adam Nevill did manage to do so with No One Gets Out Alive. Holy moly did it freak me out! Honestly, I was reading LATE at night and had to force myself to set it aside with just 150 pages to go because I thought it might actually give me nightmares.

Stephanie's story is bleak and dark. She's young and fairly well educated but has had to leave school because of lack of money. Her parents are both gone and her stepmother was a step monster she was glad to leave behind, so there's really no one she can turn to in her time of need. And this is a time of need if ever there was one!

The landlord at Edgehill Road immediately rubs her the wrong way but she takes the room anyway, that's how desperate she is. But even she has her limits - and weird noises in her bedroom, a crying neighbor, and a complete lack of sleep as a result are it. Things only get worse the longer she's in the house, which does turn out to be both haunted and extremely dangerous.

And then the story takes a turn. A really unexpected turn, to be honest. And it's fabulous!

As much as I enjoy horror, haunted houses are by far my favorite but it's usually a lot of same old same old. Any time an author can surprise me they get super major points in my book and Nevill gets LOTS of points for this one. LOTS! Even I was a little concerned, though, that this one was going to end up being just a bit too dark for my taste given what goes on at Edgehill Road, and it very likely will be for some readers, but this beast of a book ended up being an almost one-sitting read for me and even when it was majorly creeping me out I could not put it down. Well, except for my own sleep's sake, as I mentioned above. But I did literally pick it straight up as soon as I woke up. Didn't even shower or start my day until I was done!

I could probably go on and on fangirling over this one but let's recap real quick: No One Gets Out Alive is a unique spin on a haunted house story that kept me up all night and freaked the crap out of me. Yeah, this one's definitely one I happily recommend for horror fans and the 4th entry on my 2015 favorites list!

Wow. One of the few books I've read that made me keep saying "wtf", pardon the language. Serious page turner.

I really liked this book…so why only 3 stars? It was just too long. The story was phenomenal….but just as the tension started rising and the creepy factor intensified, it slowed down. It was kinda like hearing the ding of a microwave and thinking you’re about to eat – only to realize the food’s still cold so you have to cook it longer. Don’t get me wrong, I love the build of a story----I just felt like this one took too many side streets. The story was perfect---the journey was just too long. With that said – I’d still recommend it!!