Brutalist horror novels?
June 13, 2023 11:00 AM Subscribe
Are there any horror novels / short stories that happen in brutalist buildings? A lot of the examples that I can think of are coloured by subsequent film/tv adaptations. My possibles are High Rise, Clive Barker's The Forbidden, maybe 1984 if we stretch to include dystopia. Any language or country of origin is fine.
Not exactly what you asked for, but Control has a fantastic brutalist setting inspired by the AT&T Long Lines Building.
posted by pullayup at 11:49 AM on June 13, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by pullayup at 11:49 AM on June 13, 2023 [6 favorites]
It might be stretching the definition of "horror" too far, but I can think of a couple of urban fantasy novels: Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch and Thicker than Water by Mike Carey. The Wikipedia entry for the Heygate Estate namechecks both.
I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a brutalist building somewhere in Christopher Fowler's short stories or novels. The Bryant and May series are detective novels, but I'd class pretty much everything else (including the pre-series books featuring Bryant and May) as horror.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 12:05 PM on June 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a brutalist building somewhere in Christopher Fowler's short stories or novels. The Bryant and May series are detective novels, but I'd class pretty much everything else (including the pre-series books featuring Bryant and May) as horror.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 12:05 PM on June 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
This forthcoming one, apparently—don't be fooled by the house on the cover! The protagonist lives in a brutalist fortress.
It's a huge stretch but I also thought of the "outrageous angles" in "The Hounds of Tindalos." The protagonist there very explicitly makes his house less angular, though.
posted by babelfish at 12:41 PM on June 13, 2023
It's a huge stretch but I also thought of the "outrageous angles" in "The Hounds of Tindalos." The protagonist there very explicitly makes his house less angular, though.
posted by babelfish at 12:41 PM on June 13, 2023
Not in a single building but against something of a brutalist backdrop: Let the Right One In.
posted by misteraitch at 2:46 PM on June 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by misteraitch at 2:46 PM on June 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is a stretch too, but the parts of House of Leaves that take place beyond the “Five and a Half Minute Hallway” seemed Brutalist in nature to me, albeit completely unlit. Just me?
posted by ejs at 6:13 PM on June 13, 2023
posted by ejs at 6:13 PM on June 13, 2023
"Village on the Hill" by John Ajvide Lindqvist.
posted by abraxasaxarba at 7:29 PM on June 13, 2023
posted by abraxasaxarba at 7:29 PM on June 13, 2023
I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a brutalist building somewhere in Christopher Fowler's short stories or novels.
... for example, his short story collection Personal Demons contains one called 'Wage Slaves' - 'a man starts working at a completely computerized, self regulated company and office building where all the workers behave strangely. ' As I recall, this is set in Canary Wharf (and could easily be brutalist).
posted by plep at 1:26 AM on June 14, 2023
... for example, his short story collection Personal Demons contains one called 'Wage Slaves' - 'a man starts working at a completely computerized, self regulated company and office building where all the workers behave strangely. ' As I recall, this is set in Canary Wharf (and could easily be brutalist).
posted by plep at 1:26 AM on June 14, 2023
Silo might fit your description. I'm watching the TV show based on the series of books, which I have not read. The silo is definitely brutalist, if not outright hostile.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 5:14 AM on June 14, 2023
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 5:14 AM on June 14, 2023
Benefits by Zoë Fairbairns is a 1979 feminist dystopic novel set mainly in a UK council estate high rise tower.
posted by goo at 10:07 AM on June 14, 2023
posted by goo at 10:07 AM on June 14, 2023
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Interested in answers too!
posted by cobaltnine at 11:37 AM on June 13, 2023 [1 favorite]