Rating: 4/5
When a mysterious tower appears in the skies over England, thirteen strangers are pulled from their lives to stand before it as a countdown begins. Above the doorway is one word: ASCEND.
As a grieving teacher, a reclusive artist, and a narcissistic celebrity children’s author lead the others in trying to understand why they’ve been chosen and what the tower is, it soon becomes clear the only way out of this for everyone… is up.
And so begins a race to the top, through sinking ships, haunted houses and other waking nightmares, as the group fights to hold onto its humanity, while the twisted horror of why they’re here grows ever more apparent – and death stalks their every move.
I received a free copy of The Way Up is Death through Angry Robot Books for a book tour. Thank you so much for this opportunity!
From the cover alone, this book caught my eye. Looking at the synopsis, I couldn’t help but be intrigued. And after a few short pages, I was hooked!
The entire opening for this book sucked me in and I had to keep reading to figure out the mystery behind this peculiar tower that floats over the countryside of the UK. I had no idea what to expect as we follow our random mix of strangers navigate the mysteries of the tower.
The mixture of characters and personalities we see in our strangers reminded me of Stephen King’s The Mist. Our characters each needing to learn how to work together and trust one another, while also being wary of each other in order to stay alive.
And the mixture of horrors we meet between the different levels of the tower gave me vibes of the search for the second key in the film adaptation of Ready Player One, where they explore the hotel in the movie, Stephen King’s The Shining. Especially around the idea of there being horrors around every corner, and the concept of how things seem similar but not quite how they remember it should be. Bringing nightmares for each of the individual characters to life. It’s like a demented escape room, except you’re going up “floor” levels of a tower. But the floors don’t quite feel like floors with the horrors we find on each of these levels.
And speaking of Ready Player One, this gives off strong vibes of a horror game feel throughout the entirety of the book. Even our reclusive artist, Nia sees this as our strangers try to make their way up the tower. Treating the different levels like they would in a video game. And often saving their skins to avoid the horrors that await them.
A truly interesting concept. One which I found myself devouring my way through. I highly recommend this if you’re a fan of horror games and science fiction books!
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