Bloody Brilliant!This book starts off relatively reminiscent of stories depicting dystopian rule and a lot of isolation. Four characters (Mark, Jenna, Polly, and Greyson) are indeed isolated in what is assumed to be an underground bunker or some deep government secret testing facility. Tension between characters are high. There’s a bully, a mentally ill person, a leader, and what could very well be a passive aggressive psychopath. At about the half way mark, the story becomes weird and just gets...

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.

For some reason, probably due to still being in Lockdown Level 3 in South Africa, I found this book super unsettling and weirdly relatable. Armageddon House was a great story and the writing was excellent. Definitely one for the bookshelf.

At the beginning of this book, it felt like something of a departure from Michael Griffin's previous work, the ethereal dreamlike quality of his settings replaced with something all the more grounded, physical. Four individuals, our POV character being Mark are in an underground bunker. None of them seems to know why, for how long, or how they got there. The novella is character driven, with the settings deliberately quite sterile, and the story advances on the back of the relationships between

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 l...

I blazed through this book, it’s hard to put down. The writing is gripping and easy to follow at first, but as it gets farther along, I found myself re-reading sections to confirm I’m tracking with what-the-HELL is going on. This book left me with a lot of questions, but it’s a helluva fun ride. I’d be curious to hear the author give his take on the ending in a podcast or interview.Dystopia-drenched weird fiction. Dig it.

Maybe if I’d read this at another point in my life and not when I’d just woken up, I’d have got more out of it. As it is, I don’t get it and I’m too tired to question why. I’m very vocally not a fan of dreamy narratives and metaphysics and to be honest I just wanted some explanation of what was happening. Sure there’s a whole spiel on life and death (though nobody acknowledges the word) and maybe some stuff about the world as a whole ending but I was very confused.

Underground bunker settings form a small sub-genre of horror, though I am only up to three. Though this is enjoyable and suitably puzzling, it is not quite as weird or disturbing as the other two I have read; The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks (actually a young adult book), and the excellent Wretch by Ansgar Allen. This, as do the others, may possibly be dystopian, but it depends on how the reader sees it. Four people, apparently two couples, live in this particular underground bunker. Memories of...

Jenna and Mark, Polly and Greyson.Four somewhere in time, in isolation.They have memories vague, and thoughts, imagined things, with secrets and questions arising as things unfold on their past and future down in their dwelling place and their very essence and meaning of being there.The author has you following along their dilemma, rituals, days in cycles, almost like Truman Show same time same witnessing of repeated actions and routines, almost programmed, and then you find this is not Truman s...

Four residents of a strange underground habitat Michael Griffin’s novella called “Armageddon House” is the story of Mark, one of a quartet of people living in a kind of multi-level bunker. They are experiencing something like a time loop, repeating a daily pattern without any certainty of why they are there or what is happening to them. As the novella’s plot progresses, events become more and more surreal. Griffin has built a unique and fascinating setting for this book, and reading it is like s...

3.5/5Not what I expected, but surprisingly good.Four adults, two men, two women, live together, sealed in an underground bunker. They have no idea how long they have been there, why they are locked away, or when they will get out. Their memories of their past lack clarity and raise a lot of questions. They assume they're participating in a test, but of what kind precisely? No one knows.Their life revolves around daily routines: cleaning, eating, speaking. When one of them goes missing, the rest

So not my kind of book. Sorry for the rating but ugh.

Full review coming soon to horrorbound.net but quick thoughts. This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Haunting and weird and tremendously impressive.

This little novella is just...bizarre. Dystopia by way of Dickian questioning of reality. Kafka-esque resolution to the situation. Questions left unanswered, plots left unwritten, and just...bizarre. Some of that may sound negative, but on the contrary, I quite liked it.

Welcome to a day in the life of Mark, Jenna, Greyson and Polly. Although, perhaps it’s night. It’s kind of hard to tell when you’re entirely cut off from the outside world. Everything they could possibly need is provided for them. There’s more than enough food to last a lifetime and alcohol is plentiful. They can laze around the pool, exercise in the gym or explore countless rooms. It sounds like paradise but is it really a prison? “We all forget things, more and more every day.” Their memorie...

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...

I was enthralled, rapt, held by this novella. The mystery, what are we doing here? how did we get here? and the style that it is written with are absolutely attention capturing. Clear your schedule, don't start this thing when you have other shit to do. It's not happening. There is a bit of Howey's Wool, maybe some David Lynch, a slice of Lost? I am trying to come to terms with the influences I felt. What I can tell you is that I like these types of stories. Stories where the locale is vast and

An amazing, I refuse to put it down because I absolutely MUST find out what the hell is going on here, almost read it in one sitting but I started it too late last night, fuck with your head on a multitude of levels, this is why I read small press, book. It's a wicked noodler of a dystopian/utopian/post apocalyptic novel in which the author drops us smack dab in front of Mark as he awakens, as he always does, at precisely 6:20am in his tiny room. Mark is one of four people who appear to have wil...

** Edited as review is now live on Kendall Reviews! **‘Armageddon House‘ by Michael Griffin is one of those books that came onto my radar via a Twitter suggestion. I believe it was Shane from Ink Heist’s tweet I saw saying that Griffin was looking to connect with reviewers for reviews and so I reached out and bingo bango, a digital copy was kindly sent over by the great folks at Undertow Publications.Not since ‘At the End of the Day I Burst Into Flames‘ and ‘All Hail the House Gods‘ have I been

Groundhog day-but dark, twisted and in an doomsday bunker. 4 people find themselves sealed in an underground bunker. None of them seem to know much about themselves nor how/why they ended up there in the first place nor when/if they are going to get out. All days start the same way and they’re trapped in a seemingly never ending loop of routines. They seem to agree that they’re in a test of some kind, but nothing else. It is at its core an existential horror story and very well written. Who am I...