I have read a lot of horror in my life, I mean a lot, but I honestly don't think I've read a better horror genre book than this one. It has my favourite aspects of the genre – psychological horror and the supernatural (dark, sinister, all encompassing supernatural forces), demons, ghosts or whatever these beings might be, and that is left for the reader to decide, their power is the way they get inside your head and those of their victims.
Seth and Apryl are well drawn and sympathetic characters. Apryl is a young American woman, possibly a rockabilly or retrogirl or even a hipster, who loves the look of the forties and fifties She's beautiful, elegant and charming yet still likeable. She's aware of the effect she has on the opposite sex, but does not appear manipulative or even vain. She's the protagonist a female reader would love to be.
Apryl inherits her great aunt Lillian's London apartment and stays there to arrange its sale and to sort through the contents. Seth is the night porter at the same apartment building and is a painter tormented with self doubt about his talent. But it is the building and the other residents that connect them to the story rather than each other for most of the narrative.
The pace is flawless. Even the frenetic scenes, where so much happens so quickly I had to read some of them twice to understand everything, are written as clearly as is possible while transmitting the quantity of information needed to be true to the story. Themes include madness, life after death, ritual magick, post war London, extreme wealth and poverty and how life in a busy, dirty city changes people over time. It's clever, but not intimidatingly clever. It's frightening, and it's exciting.
This is the third of Nevill's books that I've read and reviewed recently. They have all been strong, but this one is virtually word perfect. 5/5 from me.