Redraw from ten BILLION years ago!!!!!!! I love thirteen storeys jonny sims

Jonny: writes the most fucked up horror shit

Queer and neurodivergent people: well that’s awfully relatable innit

Thirteen Storeys really does pop off, nothin spookier than class divides and death—

just finished thirteen storeys going to go lie down and think about it for a couple hours

“Blood dripped onto his boots. What the hell was that thing? Was that Max? Had it always been Max?”

A 13 storeys thing because this appeared in my brain fully formed while reading chapter 10 👍 finished the book yesterday and it went sooo hard; I really want to draw something for each chapter but also that's. A lot of drawings. I might do my favourite chapters though idk.

Anyway there's the red version because I couldn't decide which was better:

You know that a book is good when it requires you to create a red string board to keep track of connections

Jonny Sims: here’s some spooky sh*t

Me: yes

Jonny: the building is a conduit for malevolent entities

Me: YES

Jonny: meat

Me: YESSS

Jonny: capitalism was the true evil all along

Me: Y E S S S S S S S S

‘He considered himself a good man, and always did his best to avoid passing judgement on others, but deep down he had an unshakable conviction that all rich people were deeply, deeply stupid.”

Fucking based, Janek.

Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims, pub. 2020

This looks very exciting! Here is the whole thread so you can see some of the other very cool-looking stories that will be coming in the podcast https://twitter.com/TheRustyQuill/status/1547249500120526848?s=20&t=VJT97wnKnnTDp2pJbLffSQ.

[Image description: Two images featuring tweets from Twitter user Rusty Quill @/therustyquill. The first reads: ‘Introducing a new anthology podcast: Neon Inkwell, releasing in October 2022. #NeonInkwell is a home for short-form audiodrama, introducing listeners to new and underrepresented creators (as well as a few familiar faces). (1/7)’. Also in the tweet is an image of the show artwork for Neon Inkwell. The background has a frosted glass effect, with many colours ranging from purples to yellows and reds. In the centre is a diamond shape, with two faces. In white, stylised capital letters are the words ‘Neon Inkwell’.

The second tweet reads ‘Firstly, ‘Of That Colossal Wreck’, science fiction with a horror twist, by some familiar names for fans of The Magnus Archives: @SiennaSasha and @/jonnywaistcoat. On a space ship, long after the extinction of humanity, five people awaken - but they may not be alone… (3/7)’ Under the tweet is an image that is a social media card for Neon Inkwell. The background has a frosted glass effect, with colours ranging from purples to greens. On the left-hand side is the Neon Inkwell show artwork. On the right is text with two photographs of Jonny Sims and Sasha Sienna underneath. Text reads: ‘Of That Colossal Wreck’. When five artificially grown people awaken on an abandoned space station long after the extinction of humanity, they must confront their purpose, their future and the carnivorous alien beings which have taken over the facility. Created by Jonathan Sims (he/him) and Sasha Sienna (he/she/they)’. End ID]

ok so we’ve all heard about the headcanon that the mechs was jon’s college band, but i’d like to propose: jon wrote some books during that time as well

Soooo I finished @jonnywaistcoat ‘s Thirteen Storeys today, and I LOVED it. My only qualm with the book was that it had no table of contents. So…I fixed that.

Okay so this October just gone I went to a panel at comicon that Jonathan Sims was speaking at, and it was great! I'm obviously a fan of his work and some other great writers were on it too, so I really enjoyed it. During this panel, Jonathan said something along the lines of 'A really unnerving piece of cover art can go a long way to prime your audience'. So I thought "huh yeah that makes sense!" yknow, however the phrase goes, we all do judge a book by it's cover to some extent and it definitely helps to be in the right mood for what you're about to read. But I don't think I really fully understood until just now exactly how right he was.

I'm a uni student so obviously I'm pretty broke, but I'd been wanting to read Thirteen Storeys for ages, so you can imagine my excitement when I found a second hand copy for £1.50! It wasn't in the great condition, but it was good enough, and I'd take any hardcover for that price!

The arrival of the book happened to coincide with my sleep schedule being even more messed up than usual, but this was kinda welcome in context! I love horror, but I read a lot of it so I'm a little desensitised; this combined with doing ghost hunting for fun means that horror media is the best for me when I'm sleep deprived and on edge.

As expected from the first couple chapters the writing was excellent and the story delightfully engaging, but to my pleasant surprise it was really quite creepy! And made all the more enjoyable by how relatable it is. For some reason though, chapter three really got under my skin. Stuff with kids freaks me out in general, that creeping sense of dread as the story builds up to its climax, and an odd memory from (much hated) church as a child all built together to make it stick in my mind for the entire day, and following night.

I mostly read late at night so when I picked the book up again to carry on, I was still thinking about chapter three, still freaked out, and still sleep deprived as hell. I kept thinking about the woman I bought the book from, I'm not sure why. I guess I was thinking about kids and wondering if she had any that would've messed with the book to get it into that condition, but whatever. I kept reading, enjoying it just as much, if not more for the lingering taste of chapter three.

By the time I put the book down it was around 3am, and i was pleasantly spooked enough to go to sleep. I don't know why but I stopped for a moment to look at the cover, partially examining the marks and scratches, partially admiring the design.

That's when I saw 'PENNY' written messily on the back and when I tell you my heart DROPPED. I don't know what I thought! But my 3am mind was racing, scared as FUCK. Had this random woman's kid read the book? Had they just decided to scribble out the first name they read when they opened it? Why that one!?!? Why could it not be LITERALLY ANY OTHER NAME???

And that is when I realised that it is PART OF THE FUCKING COVER ART. Well played Sims, well fucking played. In one simple design detail I was forced through the entire emotional journey of the story again in SECONDS. I could've dropped dead. (though to be honest, someone found dead clutching a copy of the book would probably be good publicity considering).

So yeah, moral of the story? Good cover art can do ALL MANNERS OF THINGS to your audience. For my sake, use it wisely.

The more I think about it Jonathan Sims (the author) has a pretty fraught relationship with utilitarianism in general. Many of his conclusions with certain characters seem to say, "The end justifies the means, huh? But look where it keeps ending." His writing reminds me of Gen Urobuchi in that way.

For this alone it makes sense he and his stories are queer and if I didn't already know he was bi and his partner trans I wouldn't be the least surprised at the revelation.

So I'm reading Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims and stupidly enough I'm reading it before bed. I'm a really slow reader, so now I'm two thirds into chapter 1 and had to put away the book because I really need to go to sleep, but I just turned off the light and I'm absolutely TERRIFIED. WHY. I'M NEVER SCARED OF THE DARK WHAT IS THIS SHIT. I JUST HAVE A FEELING A DARK FIGURE IS IN MY ROOM WATCHING ME LIKE IN THE STORY. JONNY WHY. I BLAME YOU FOR MY NIGHTMARES TONIGHT

MANCHESTER (and surrounding county and metropolitan areas)! Do you love epic fantasy, with unique magic systems, phenomenal world-building, and rich characters? Do you love horror that is grounded in social issues, representative of the best and worst of society, and haunts the shadows in the corner of your brain? Do you love watching someone with mild-to-moderate social anxiety attempting to host an event?

On 31st May, @jonnywaistcoat - Jonathan Sims himself - and the wonderful Rebecca Zahabi will be chatting about their books at Blackwell's on Oxford Street. These two creative powerhouses will be sharing their wisdom from 6:30pm. Tickets are £3.00, or free with an order of THE HAWKLING or FAMILY BUSINESS.

Rebecca Zahabi's first book in the series, THE COLLARBOUND, is also currently £2.99 on Kindle, so you can be ready and raring for THE HAWKLING and this event.

Jonathan Sim's first novel, THIRTEEN STOREYS, is currently on Kindle at £4.99 as well, for getting your spooky on.

my top books of 2023, in no particular order:

Annihilation - Jeff Vandermeer

Thirteen Storeys - Jonathan Sims

American Gods - Neil Gaiman

I read these through the year and adored them all so much. go read them if you like weird existential horror (which seems to be a major theme in my reading adventures as of late.)

I haven't read nearly as much this year as I would've liked to, but I can forgive myself. I've been busy.