“This book changed me.

What’s so great about it? Well, it left me in tears, and kept me entranced for several hours while I greedily plowed through it. It’s the most unique thing I’ve ever read, and calling it a novel somehow seems wrong. It’s not structured like a novel, it doesn’t start or end like a novel. It starts rather slowly, actually, and when I went to pass on my tattered and tearstained copy to my partner, I almost wanted to tell him not to read the Prologue. Not because it’s poorly written or anything like that, but because it’s ‘normal’, and unlike the rest of the book. It’s written with a voice that’s simple and gentle, just a man talking about a girl he used to know.

Once you’re through the Prologue and start your journey through The Plight House, there’s no turning back. Don’t read this if you have to be somewhere, if you don’t have time to just give it the undivided attention it deserves. It’s like a guided meditation, it’s like a lucid dream primer, and it’s like a nightmare.

And it’s wonderful. Hrivnak has such a beautiful command of the language, and is undeterred in his creation of The Plight House. Some passages cause you to sink, like entering the ocean with your clothes on. Others are hopeful and uplifting, carrying the reader to heights of imagination and love. This book requires your cerebral and spiritual participation. Once you’ve read it, you will want to give it to anyone you love. Simply flawless.”

— THE ONELINE REVIEWS

the Oneline Reviews >

“The writing unlikely & unique, bizarre with soft exposure strangeness, a zenith of literary bliss; Can-Lit is changed.”

— THE ONELINE REVIEWS

the Oneline Reviews >

— CARRIE CARM

carriecarm >

theweaklings >

“With this novel, Jason Hrivnak will reach inside you and pull your heart out. The unnamed narrator takes us on a deeply personal journey after learning of the suicide of his childhood best friend. This doesn’t read like a typical novel and therein lies its strength — Hrivnak doesn’t follow conventions of style or narrative and this allows him to reach new depths and heights of despair, hope, passion and pain.”

— MARY-ANN

Blackberry Books >

“Hrivnak succinctly posits a triple-barrelled theme: grief bound tightly with innocence and guilt … [He] is an elegant and often incisive prose stylist, skilled at image-making and intent on exploring difficult questions of personal and societal responsibility.”

— JIM BARTLEY

“Heartbreak, horror, and impossibly brutal choices may all be yours in The Plight House. This first novel by Jason Hrivnak is like nothing I’ve ever read, and still troubles me.”

— CREFFIELD

deadclothessing >

“First Rule of The Plight House: everyone talk about The Plight House. Hrivnak writes like a crazy angel in this addictive, astonishing debut.”

— LYNN CROSBIE