Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Coup de Grace introduces us to Vicken in the hours before he plans to end his life by throwing himself into the Saint Lawrence River near his home.
While on the subway that day, he ends up having an intimate encounter with another passenger. Afterwards, through Vicken’s thoughts, we see maybe his plan isn’t as solidified as he once believed. Maybe there is hope for him yet.
He ends up riding the subway to the end of the line and when he steps off, he finds himself in an empty, unfamiliar part of the station. Though he searches and searches, he’s unable to find his way out, or even back to where he started.
We follow along as he explores this new concrete prison, trying to make sense of how and why this is happening.
Let me be clear, this isn’t a fun read. I was fascinated by the concept and wanted to see how Ajram translated it to the page. It is compelling in a very morose sort of way, but considering the topics explored, that shouldn’t be surprising.
I appreciate so much the beautiful writing, and the way that Ajram put to words the thoughts and feelings of someone battling depression in such a believable way. I’m sure a lot of Readers will be able to connect with the visceral feel of that.
I did love the unsettling, claustrophobic atmosphere, as well and the depiction of being trapped in a stark, grey, barren concrete labyrinth. It got under my skin.
I found the symbolism of that, it kept describing the grey of the concrete and made me think, you know, what is the brain, but grey matter. Here we had an individual held captive by their brain and this concrete prison, essentially, was the perfect representation of that.
While I can appreciate how much work and thought went into this novella, I do rate books based upon my personal reading experience with them, and for me, this was a good experience, not great.
One of the aspects that didn’t quite work for me was the fever dream quality. That’s something I tend to not enjoy as much as I would a more standard narrative format.
That is 100% personal choice though, and I do feel like the author made the right choice for the story they were trying to tell, and that’s CERTAINLY more important than pleasing me, or anyone else.
With this being said, I would recommend this for Readers who enjoy Weird Fiction, who think the concept sounds intriguing, or who enjoy more thoughtful, not necessarily happy, reads.