When Jerry moves to Beijing to take up a teaching position, he is unprepared for what awaits him in his new apartment...
When Jerry leaves his old life in London behind and travels to Beijing to take up a teaching position, at first he is enchanted by the brave new world he finds awaiting him. However, things soon take a turn for the worse. Upon his arrival he learns of the mysterious disappearance of his predecessor, and after he moves into his new apartment he is plagued by strange dreams in which he shares the apartment,and his bed, with a ghostly entity. Then things start going bump in the night, and Jerry soon finds himself embroiled in the kind of supernatural drama previously been unthinkable to him. Eventually he is forced into the accepting the realization that something else was waiting for him on the other side of the world, and perhaps even in the next world. His time is quickly running out.
Professional Reviews
Apartment 14F: An Oriental Ghost Story
Apartment 14F is a frightening romp through the cultures of a foreign land which kept me turning the pages until the end. Christian takes you by the hand and drags you deep into a world that most of us will never experience and then thrusts you headlong into a mystery we are never sure will be solved.
The climax is a twisted view of love and needs unsatisfied, which leaves you wanting to keep the light on. The surrealism within this story is something I haven't personally experienced in literature since H.P. Lovecraft and Algernon Blackwood. If you like being frightened by the bump in the night or the monsters that may lie in wait in the darkness then I wouldn't read this story. For this story will only leave you believing they surely exist.
Review by JF Taylor
Apartment 14F: An Oriental Ghost Story
I thoroughly enjoyed Christian Saunders' Apartment 14F. It was a much more melancholy tale than I had expected going in, considering it was a ghost story. But this is not a bad thing.
You won't find any horrific slice'n dice special effects in this graceful and intelligently told tale; instead you will experience a story dripping with atmosphere, loaded with tension and just enough foreshadowing to shock you with its surprise ending.
To me the best horror is about separation and loneliness, and Saunders drives these points home with stunning clarity as his story of a stranger in a strange land unfolds; its cultural and language barriers, its feelings of separation and alienation, and finally, the very real possibility that what's wrong in your life might be worse than all those cultural divides combined.
This story is about the shape under the sheet, the boogeyman in the closet, the monster hiding under the bed. And when it comes to ghost stories, what more could one ask for?
Pray for the light. Pray that you last that long. The Long Hour Before Light is a classic collection of Horror tales, re-mastered by Champagne Book Group
