Book Review: "14" by Peter Clines

Padlocked doors. Strange light fixtures. Mutant cockroaches.

There are some odd things about Nate's new apartment. 

Of course, he has other things on his mind. He hates his job. He has no money in the bank. No girlfriend. No plans for the future. So while his new home isn't perfect, it's livable. The rent is low, the property managers are friendly, and the odd little mysteries don't nag at him too much. 

At least, not until he meets Mandy, his neighbor across the hall, and notices something unusual about her apartment. And Xela's apartment. And Tim's. And Veek's. 

Because every room in this old Los Angeles brownstone has a mystery or two. Mysteries that stretch back over a hundred years. Some of them are in plain sight. Some are behind locked doors. And all together these mysteries could mean the end of Nate and his friends. 

Or the end of everything... - from Amazon.com

I like a good 'end of the world' story, and this one sounded like it could be one. I started getting right into it, with the main character, Nate, moving into this apartment building, and finding out some weird things about it.  The story built up, and drew me in, waiting to find out what they were going to find next, or what would happen. As I traveled the small twists and turns the author lead me on, the ending became clear somewhat early on, but still I wanted to find out how they got there.

On technical aspects: the character were not that developed throughout the story. Descriptions were fairly vague, letting the reader make the best of their imagination. Maybe that was planned, but it felt to me like the author just didn't want to waste time trying to fill in a few extra details. With the lack of character development, I felt like some of the supporting characters were nothing more than cardboard cut-outs, expendable at leisure. Though, I won't say how many live/die in this story, I was a bit surprised that one of the "more developed" characters was wiped out.

Overall was a decent story, with a few twists that were cool (ie. H.P. Lovecraft's twist in there, and some 'steampunkish' technology).