No One Gets Out Alive (2014) by Adam Nevill

No One Gets Out Alive (2014) by Adam Nevill: 19-year-old Stephanie has been kicked out of her house by her stepmother after the death of Stephanie's father. She did well on her 'A' levels but can't afford university. So, in a terrible English economy, she works temp jobs, feeling more and more overwhelmed. 

A sign in a convenience store for a cheap apartment at least offers some economic relief, though the apartment is in the run-down Perry Bar portion of Birmingham. The landlord, who calls himself 'Knacker,' is a bit creepy but friendly. So she moves in.

Things go rapidly downhill from there. Very rapidly. The bulk of the novel takes place over ten consecutive days, exhaustively described.

No One Gets Out Alive is easy to spoil, so I won't go into much detail about what happens except to note that Nevill merges supernatural and 'normal' horror effectively in an escalatingly awful series of events. Stephanie is an engaging protagonist whose growth over the course of the novel is believable and often heart-breaking.

This time around, Nevill goes after the media as a sort of sub-plot which also rings true. The dismal house is a character in itself, described in detail so as to maximize its miserable, disintegrating qualities. Claustrophobia is a major player here, along with the narrative's emphasis on bad smells, really bad smells, and really really really bad smells as augurs and indicators of Evil, like the fruits of the Devil or at least the mephitic products of the Devil's bottom.

Knacker and co-landlord Fergal are closely observed creations, terrifying and banal, especially Knacker. One does wish, perhaps, that Nevill didn't so closely link physical appearance to morality: Fergal never seems entirely real, and gets less 'real' as the narrative builds. Sometimes too much is too much. 

Nonetheless, Nevill's description of Stephanie's suffering, and her reactions to that suffering, never cross the line into exploitation. Though it does feel at points as if the reader is being crushed by events, wrung out. One admires the skill, but one does not necessarily want to read about a character who suffers this much for this many pages for awhile after completing No One Gets Out Alive. Like maybe a year or two. Highly recommended.