A very unusual and original story about an Apartment that loves Halloween and Its tenants. 

• Scare factor: ★★★☆☆
• Originality factor: ★★★★★
• Psychological factor: ★★★★★
• Halloween factor: ★★★★★

Apartment Five is Alive is a very creative story about an Apartment that absolutely loves Halloween but doesn’t like many of its tenants. While it all revolves around the Apparent and it all plays out in one place, the people change and thereby the narrative making it a very intriguing story about loneliness and the small joys in live.

It consists of 144 pages.

More Halloween horror books? Check out this list.

Plot

The house was first built in 1922. In that house there was a special room where birthday parties were thrown, where piano lessons were given and where people were merry and were having fun. It was the favorite room of the family and the room felt it. It was a four story row house between First and Second in Lower Manhattan. But then the family members died or moved away and in 1961 the house was sold and was turned into an apartment building. The room was now split in half and became the last apartment to be rebuild with no money left. 

The first tenants arrived in 1963 and the Apartment felt different, it felt something and it discovered it could “do” some things. It could do something about the awful smelly disgusting tenants. 

Until in 1978 Jerome Schwartz rented the Apartment and he was a window dresser and made all kinds of props. He threw the best Halloween Parties with the whole Apartment decorated and all dressed up. He invited people who were also dressed up and the Apartment loved it. Once a year it really came alive. 

But nothing lasts forever. Other tenants came and went and the Apartment had strong feelings about that. Some said the house was haunted, but if something is alive can it haunt you?

Continue reading below this announcement.

Short Review

The story’s main character is the Apartment. It’s the place where the story mostly takes place. It’s the Apartment’s actions that are key to the story. It’s a very original take on a haunted house story. Because there have to be ghosts to haunt a house. But this house or Apartment is alive and has feelings. 

The point of view is very interesting. If houses could really feel, with us living inside of them what would they think of us. At best we take care of the place, keeping it clean and do some work around the house. In worst cases it’s neglected, with us filthy beings making it dirty. As a room it was used to seeing the best of people. Now as an Apartment it also sees the worst of people. A house has to put up with us, if it likes it or not. Unless the Apartment can do something about that. And in tis story it definitely can.

It’s also a story about it’s tenants. We meet many tenants, some live there for a short time and some for a longer period. The one who really made the Apartment happy was Jerome. He created the Apartment’s love for Halloween, a holiday the Apartment will build it’s identity on. 

Another tenant is Gerard Baldyga, a middle-aged man who has a new job in New York but doesn’t fit in. It’s a sad story about an outcast, a man who is ridiculed and very lonely. And although he tries and even tries to throw a Halloween Party, it all goes awry.

The last tenant is Martha, or Marty Stuart a drug addict who was sent to live in New York by her parents to get rid of her. It’s also a sad story, but with a silver lining. She’s eccentric and the Apartment rather likes that. 

All these tenants have a different relationship with the Apartment and with people and they each have their own story to tell. A story that soon will be intertwined with the Apartment. 

The themes are loneliness, wanting to be a part of something, and small silver linings that make life a little bit better. But there’s also room for some horror. The Apartment isn’t vindictive, it just reacts on it’s feelings, but that leads to some frightening scenes, especially at the end. 

It’s a psychological novella about an Apartment and the people who live in it. People with all very different lives, giving us the opportunity to not only walk by but actually get a good look inside instead of a glimpse and even walk inside like a fly on the wall. What do people do inside their own home when they are alone? It gives us a unique inside peek also written from the point of view of the Apartment itself, that has been given a voice of its own. 

Apartment Five is Alive is a well written story that is very interesting, unique and authentic with a big heart that can be scary sometimes.