Book review: 14 by Peter Clines

Whatever else you might have to say about Peter Cline’s novel, ‘14’ you would have to say it’s strange.

You might also say it’s mysterious and you might also say it’s off-beat. Certainly, you would say it’s entertaining. Possibly you would say it’s bonkers.

You could say a lot of things about ‘14’ but what you wouldn’t say is that it’s predictable.

‘14’ is the story of one Nat Tucker, a data entry, penniless, girlfriend-less drone who hates his job, but who may well have landed on his feet when he finds a new, cheap, but very intriguing apartment in Los Angeles.

At first this cheapness is exactly what Nat wants and needs but soon it becomes apparent that all is not what it seems. The cockroaches are weird for a start, as are some of the lightbulbs and then Nat begins to notice strange facets with his neighbours’ apartments.

Everything feels a little out of kilter too, as if he’s being watched. Is all this weirdness in Nat’s head? Or could he be discovering a mystery in plain sight, one which stretches back hundreds of years?

Itself an outlandish mixture of fantasy, mystery, horror and science fiction, ‘14’ is a unique clash of post-apocalyptic and humdrum and at the centre of everything looms this Los Angeles brownstone, an apartment block like no other.

You might say it’s a bit tedious from time to time. And you might say it’s head-shakingly oblique.

But whatever you’d say, you’ll say these things after you finish the book. Because, as strange as it is, it’s difficult to put down.