Review: An admirable debut
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 14, 2014
This novella is the debut of C. S. Kane, and hints at good things to come.  It's a story of Stacey, a grad student also working part-time to help pay the rent, and her fiancee (who is never really fleshed out much) moving into the city to be close to his new job.  Stacey has a bad reaction to their "new" flat, in a bad part of town, and its sordid past is revealed over the course of the short, quick read.  The atmosphere is set very well, more so than the characters are realized, with many of them being stereotypes, and acting in ways that didn't quite ring true to me.  The imagery of the flat and Stacey's encounters in it were so well-drawn I felt I had a solid mental picture of the place in my mind, and was suitably creeped out by it.There is quite a bit left open to interpretation as far as what's real and what isn't, which I personally enjoy.  I can't really say the ending was a surprise, but I'm not sure it was meant to be anyway.Overall, I was torn between a 3 and a 4, but felt that especially in light of it being a debut work, I ought to round up.  I really did enjoy it, and I think good things can be expected from C S Kane in the future.