Book Review: The Adleparmeun by Kelvin V. A. Allison and Megan Stockton
Title: The Adleparmeun
Authors: Kelvin V.A. Allison and Megan Stockton
Release date: January 31st, 2024
When Kelvin and Megan announced this co-authored project, I was very intrigued. The gist of the novella is that there’s an apartment building in remote Alaska where all of the monsters of the world reside. Away from mankind, they live in ‘peace’ and to make things even more intriguing for the reader, each ‘chapter’ is a short story, based on each of the individual apartments. I’ve previously read ‘The Trouble with Rabbits’ from Allison, which I enjoyed quite a lot, but I think I’ve only read a few short stories from Stockton, but possibly not? I looked through the various anthologies listed on Goodreads she’s appeared in, but it didn’t appear as though I’d read them. Saying that, I could swear I’ve read some of her stories! Oh well! I have read something from her now!
What I liked: Now, the word Adleparmeun had my ears pick up. I’d heard it somewhere before, and couldn’t remember where. Then it dinged somewhere in my massive head. While researching locations, stories and myths for my own novel, ‘Churn the Soil,’ I remembered reading something about it. I found the link (https://ethicsofsuicide.lib.utah.edu/tradition/indigenous-cultures/arctic-cultures/eskimo-of-baffin-island/) which had this description;
“My people think this way: Kood-le-par-mi-ung (heaven) is upward. Every body happy there. All the time light; no snow, no ice, no storms; always pleasant; no trouble; never tried; sing and play all the time—all this continue with out end.
“Ad-le-par-me-un (hell) is downward. Always dark there. No sun; trouble there continually; snow flying all the time; terrible storms; cold, very cold; and a great deal of ice there. All who go there must always remain.
“All Innuits who have been good go to Koodleparmiung; that is, who have been kind to the poor and hungry—all who have been happy while living on this earth. Any one who has been killed by accident, or who has committed suicide, certainly goes to the happy place.
“All Innuits who have been bad—that is, unkind one to another—all who have been unhappy while on this earth, will go to Adleparmeun. If an Innuit kill another because he is mad at him, he certainly will go to Adleparmeun.” This was taken from Captain Charles Francis Hall, ‘Life with the Eskimaux,’ (Expedition 1860-1862) (London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston, 1865). I’d thought it intriguing, because at one point, I’d considered ‘Churn the Soil’ as an allegorical tale of good versus evil, but ultimately switched it to a story about the people versus the land and new versus old.
But, getting back to this release, once that clicked together I was very intrigued and when taken as a shallow read, each story is just that – a fun little slab of horror. But when you dive into it deeper, each story is a revelatory discussion on where each of these monsters fit.
The story itself is held together by an over-arching premise of a few guards kind of keeping the creatures within, though as expected things don’t always go to plan.
Stockton and Allison write sublimely together. I honestly couldn’t tell you if they each wrote X number of stories or if they wrote them together as there’s no jarring shift between room stories and nothing stood out saying ‘AH HA! THAT WAS CLEARLY STOCKTON!’ which was wonderful to find. There isn’t an afterword or author’s note at the end either, so they kept the workload close to their hearts.
Throughout, we get a variety of characters who are all instantly characters you gravitate towards. I’m actually not going to single any of them out, purely because if you’re reading this, I want you to discover the joy of each as well as the layered complexities these two have so proficiently created here.
There is an ‘ending’ but honestly, with the way this one is structured and the narrative that started on page one and ended on page 125ish, there is ample room to expand, continue on or move to a different site.
What I didn’t like: As with any ‘collection’ (and I’m using this term VERY loosely simply for my observation here) some of the stories within each rooms, readers may or may not enjoy. I personally really dug each one and there seems to be a number of subtle Easter eggs throughout, which you’d expect based on a singular release revolving around a singular building.
Additionally, I did wish we got a tiny bit more info on the ‘why’ of this building etc. etc. But maybe we will in the future?
Why you should buy this: The complete package and completion of this work together is top notch. These two authors worked so cohesively together on a truly compulsive story idea that I raced through this. The characters within all could be pulled out and expanded upon, as could the location and the lore of the why and how.
Allison and Stockton hit this one out of the park and I truly hope they decide to return to this world again, no matter what ‘this world’ means to that new story.
5/5
