The Cipher

A very dark turn in my list, indeed. A hole opens up in their apartment, who knows who or why? It doesn’t matter. They dub it the funhole, and would do what any of us would do, and start sticking things inside of it. Things get dark, fast.

If you want to be up all night, unable to sleep, give this book a whirl.

A dark hole appears in the floor of an apartment storage room. But where does it lead?

There’s nothing about this book I don’t love. Koja’s scrambling punk-rock prose and wholly unlikable/lovable characters straight out of my backyard are completely relatable and tear to the heart of this central mystery as they seek to explore the Funhole, a physical anomaly that leaves anyone who’s entered its orbit fundamentally changed. A story about toxic relationships, sick obsession, and transformation, the two frenemies are upsettingly relatable, and once they enwrapped me in their sickness, I can never let them go. Brutally short… show more.

The Cipher will always remain my top-fave book of all time. A multiple award winner (I’m forgetting just how many it did win!), Koja’s novel came out of nowhere at a time when horror was bubbling up as a popular trend among trade publishing in the mid-90s. It’s about an impossible discovery—a mysterious hole in an apartment building that seemingly mutates and destroys all it comes across—as well as an inspection of how our own personal space can often become our own worst enemy. It’s a masterpiece and a must-read.

Kathe Koja’s The Cipher dares to ask, “What if House of Leaves was actually good?” 

(Look. I wouldn’t be writing this on a screen at ergonomically optimized eye level were it not for my beloved monitor riser House of Leaves. The idea is interesting enough to stick in my craw beyond the gimmicky brick of the book itself, which just so happens to be annoying and a drag in practice.)

To properly capture the ambiance of the novel, the best time to read The Cipher is on the floor of your bathroom in between your second and third rounds… show more.