Lit Commentary: Apartment, Number 2 - I See You

 

 Literary Commentary:

Apartment - Chapter 2

Please note that literary commentaries can include spoilers. If you haven't read Apartment yet but would like to, proceed at your own caution 😄 If you'd like to grab a copy and read it before continuing with the lit commentary segment, you can find it here.

EDIT 21/05/2021: How do you like my first ever animation? I made it for this lit commentary tonight and decided to add it! 😁

Number 2: I See You

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In that short, infinite moment, her apartment building was a ship, battered against the ocean waves, alone in the open sea.

 

Once again, isolation is highlighted in the book. The characters are truly alone in this place - each of them distanced from the other, distrustful of one another, and completely and utterly alone. 

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Wallstone Avenue was a beacon of hope for her, once. Now, however, she felt stuck. Caged as much within these walls as she had been before. 

 

One of the things that I wanted to really stress about the characters in this book is that they're not in this huge apartment building because they want to be. Rather, they're here because they needed to escape from a situation or a person, and this place was the perfect remote location. But when you're trying to get away from something, you're trying to acquire freedom. Here we find that, in fact, Angela feels that she's simply escaped out from one cage and landed herself in another, and it grates on her.

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For a moment, he had been completely intoxicated with the realization that he had the power in this situation - that he could do whatever he wished, and who would ever know, really? A shudder ran down his spine at the thought, an insidious snake that had crept into the forefront of his mind, whispering evil.

James in particular has a very insidious downward spiral that makes him even more dangerous than the reader would have expected going into the story. And I think what's interesting about his character is that later on it is revealed that he was always much more dangerous than he appeared - more than just someone who watches, who stalks. But there are many hints that give that away before the reveal. 

 

In terms of tone, I wrote the book in a very monotonous everyday kind of way so that the disturbing parts of a character's thought process would hopefully stick out to the reader while also blurring into the background noise, in a way. You'll be reading and reading and reading and -- wait, go back a moment, what did he just say?!

 

Also in this quote we get to see again how there's some kind of evil whispering in their ears, something that urges the characters to do what they shouldn't...

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And Alex was eager to part from the money in the duffel bags. It was a constant reminder of things best left behind and forgotten.

 

Right away we get to see that Alex is running away from something. Unlike with the other characters, this part of Alex's backstory is made crystal clear to the reader as soon as the character is introduced in this chapter. The money in the duffel bags is explained later on, as is the sleek black car, and it's important to note that Alex wants nothing more than to part with it right away. This points towards the fact that the money was probably acquired in an illegal manner.

But of course, that's the least of this character's problems...

[Chapter 1 Lit Commentary]

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