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supikarolcia1's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
cat_brewsandreviews's review against another edition
3.0
I'm so confused... and I can't tell if that's a good or a bad thing.
divinesprout's review
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
thomaswjoyce's review against another edition
4.0
Two men and two women find themselves in a strange underground bunker, and no-one can agree on the reason for them being there. We can always rely on Mike Griffin to deliver a weird and unsettling tale. Told from the point of view of one character, Mark, things soon unravel as tensions and weirdness continue to ramp up the action. The characters all have complex and relatable characteristics (some more relatable than others!) and the unique setting/conflict makes for a very original story.
joecam79's review
3.0
If I hadn’t pre-ordered Armageddon House in early March, before the Covid pandemic escalated, I would have easily believed that this novella was inspired by the lockdown. It starts in medias res, presenting us with two couples of sorts – Mark and Jenna, Greyson and Polly – living in a hi-tech underground bunker. Their subterranean world has all the necessities they require. There’s a well-equipped kitchen, a gym and swimming pool, a tavern and even a sort of museum. There’s food to last many a lifetime and unspecified “medication” which they need to take on a daily basis. Away from the outside world, these characters try to hold on to their sanity by sticking to well-established routines.
Are these four characters the last survivors of some apocalyptic disaster? Are they human guinea pigs in a strange experiment? They don’t know and we don’t know either. Mark – from whose perspective we seem to see things – suffers from strange memory gaps, perhaps induced by the medication. There are glimpses of hazy memories, hints suggesting a very different past. The quartet explore the levels of the bunker, trying to understand their situation and to possibly find a means of escape. We look on, as lost and perplexed as they are.
At first, this book reads like a literary equivalent of the “Big Brother” reality show. In close, enforced confinement, tempers fray, tensions simmer, occasionally overstepping into violence. Friendships are made and unmade, desire waxes and wanes. As the novella progresses, however, we realise that the claustrophobic horror portrayed does not exist merely an individual level, but also on a cosmic one. Tellingly, Griffin slips in references to Norse sagas. Whilst these mythical undertones initially seem out of place in a sci-fi scenario, they suggest that Armageddon House should be read as an existential fable, possibly representing our constant struggle to understand the human predicament – Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
Whether the book works for you or not depends, of course, on what scale of “weird” you like your “fiction” to be. In some ways, Griffin’s novella reminded me of I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. I feel that, like Harpman’s book, Armageddon House is a “novel(la) as thought experiment”. Narratively, it leaves too many questions unanswered. I find this frustrating but other readers, of course, might not – some might even delight in the ambiguities. Beyond the bare bones of the plot, however, the novella raises haunting, philosophical questions which cannot be easily dismissed and this is where its strength lies.
3.5*
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2020/05/armageddon-house-by-michael-griffin.html
Are these four characters the last survivors of some apocalyptic disaster? Are they human guinea pigs in a strange experiment? They don’t know and we don’t know either. Mark – from whose perspective we seem to see things – suffers from strange memory gaps, perhaps induced by the medication. There are glimpses of hazy memories, hints suggesting a very different past. The quartet explore the levels of the bunker, trying to understand their situation and to possibly find a means of escape. We look on, as lost and perplexed as they are.
At first, this book reads like a literary equivalent of the “Big Brother” reality show. In close, enforced confinement, tempers fray, tensions simmer, occasionally overstepping into violence. Friendships are made and unmade, desire waxes and wanes. As the novella progresses, however, we realise that the claustrophobic horror portrayed does not exist merely an individual level, but also on a cosmic one. Tellingly, Griffin slips in references to Norse sagas. Whilst these mythical undertones initially seem out of place in a sci-fi scenario, they suggest that Armageddon House should be read as an existential fable, possibly representing our constant struggle to understand the human predicament – Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
Whether the book works for you or not depends, of course, on what scale of “weird” you like your “fiction” to be. In some ways, Griffin’s novella reminded me of I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. I feel that, like Harpman’s book, Armageddon House is a “novel(la) as thought experiment”. Narratively, it leaves too many questions unanswered. I find this frustrating but other readers, of course, might not – some might even delight in the ambiguities. Beyond the bare bones of the plot, however, the novella raises haunting, philosophical questions which cannot be easily dismissed and this is where its strength lies.
3.5*
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2020/05/armageddon-house-by-michael-griffin.html
micahcastle's review
4.0
Armageddon House is a fast-paced, evocatively written, psychological weird fiction novella about four people living, seemingly willingly, in a bomb shelter or an underground bunker in an unknown location somewhere in the world.
Griffin just drops you into the protagonist mind, and doesn't really explain what's going on in the world that drove them to the bomb shelter/bunker initially, or why they chose to go, or why were they the ones to go and not other people, or—
There's just a lot of questions not easily answered, or answered at all. Which might be intentional.
It's one of the books that really goes over your head if you're not paying attention to the subtle cues and descriptions. It's like he's writing a story behind the story. It reminds me of House of Leaves in a way, but not as complex and puzzling, and it definitely deserves a re-read for me to fully grasp the entirety of the story.
But, the story that you do understand is one about life, the routine of day-to-day actions, of what it all means, if anything at all, and what will happen once it's over; about friendships and relationships, past, present, and future; about yourself changing through the years, no longer being the person you were in the past and no longer being the person you're now in the future, and your own ticks, your own idiosyncrasies... It's amazing that Griffin could touch on so many things in such a small book.
Overall, I enjoyed it a lot, despite the ever present feeling of missing something throughout my read. I recommend picking this up if you're a fan of Griffin's previous work, or you're just a fan of weird fiction.
Griffin just drops you into the protagonist mind, and doesn't really explain what's going on in the world that drove them to the bomb shelter/bunker initially, or why they chose to go, or why were they the ones to go and not other people, or—
There's just a lot of questions not easily answered, or answered at all. Which might be intentional.
It's one of the books that really goes over your head if you're not paying attention to the subtle cues and descriptions. It's like he's writing a story behind the story. It reminds me of House of Leaves in a way, but not as complex and puzzling, and it definitely deserves a re-read for me to fully grasp the entirety of the story.
But, the story that you do understand is one about life, the routine of day-to-day actions, of what it all means, if anything at all, and what will happen once it's over; about friendships and relationships, past, present, and future; about yourself changing through the years, no longer being the person you were in the past and no longer being the person you're now in the future, and your own ticks, your own idiosyncrasies... It's amazing that Griffin could touch on so many things in such a small book.
Overall, I enjoyed it a lot, despite the ever present feeling of missing something throughout my read. I recommend picking this up if you're a fan of Griffin's previous work, or you're just a fan of weird fiction.
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