Sliver: A Novel

by Ira Levin, Rockne S. O'Bannon (Foreword by)

Overview

Sliver, Ira Levin’s chilling tale of psychological suspense, takes readers on a twisted journey of obsession and seduction inside a glittering New York City high-rise. This edition includes a brand-new foreword by award-winning screenwriter and producer Rockne S. O’Bannon.

When successful book editor Kay Norris moves into a high-end “sliver” building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, little does she realize her every move is being monitored by an intricate system of surveillance cameras watched by a mysterious voyeur. As she delves deeper into the unsettling truth behind this surveillance, Kay becomes entangled in an extremely dangerous game—where nothing is as it seems, and one false move could spell disaster.

A sinuously erotic thriller, Sliver’s atmospheric setting, “Fabergé egg” construction (Peter Straub), and characters drawn with “a texture and a reality that’s almost eerie” (Stephen King) evoke Levin’s signature bestsellers Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives and showcase his unparalleled ability to captivate readers and leave them questioning their sense of security and reality.

Adapted into a major motion picture starring Sharon Stone, Sliver will grip you with its exploration of the darkest depths of human behavior and the inescapable lure of voyeurism in the digital age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798212642620
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	07/02/2024
Sales rank:	621,837
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The genre-defining works of novelist-playwright Ira Levin (1929–2007) include such indelible titles as Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, The Boys from Brazil, and Deathtrap—the fifth longest-running play in Broadway history. At home in nearly every genre—horror (Rosemary’s Baby), crime (Edgar-winning A Kiss Before Dying), science fiction (This Perfect Day), comedy (No Time For Sergeants), even a Broadway musical (Drat! The Cat!)—Levin’s enduring works continue to resonate with readers and audiences, serving as iconic cultural and creative touchstones. Learn more at Levin’s official website, IraLevin.org.

Rockne S. O’Bannon began his screenwriting career as story editor on CBS’s 1980s revival of The Twilight Zone and writer on NBC’s Amazing Stories. Since then he has created/showrun five highly regarded speculative-fiction series: Alien Nation (based on his 1988 film), Farscape, SeaQuest DSV (with Steven Spielberg), Defiance, and Cult. He has served as executive producer on the NBC series Revolution and Constantine, and is currently in his fourth year as an executive producer on the Paramount+ series Evil. For his work in film and TV, he has won an unprecedented nine Saturn Awards, presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. His work has also received nominations for the Hugo Award, for the cable Ace Award, and from the Writers Guild of America.

Editorial Reviews

[Sliver] is assembled like a Fabergé egg.”

award-winning author of Ghost Story and The Talism Peter Straub

Levin’s latest thriller, Sliver, is as successful a page-turner as his first…Ira Levin…just gets better.”

Entertainment Weekly

[Levin] was one of the most inventive and satisfying novelists I’ve ever read.”

Chicago Tribune

Proves, once again, that the author of Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives is a master builder of psychological thrillers.”

New York Times

The premise is even more timely today than ever.”

award-winning screenwriter and producer Rockne S. O’Bannon

It will scare you witless.”

Daily Express (London)

Sliver is the ultimate fin de siècle horror novel, a fiendish goodbye wave to trendy urban living in the last decade of the twentieth century. Mr. Levin has in Sliver created the apartment dweller’s worst nightmare. As always his characters have a texture and a reality that’s almost eerie, and the narrative is as stripped-down and efficient as an automatic weapon.”

Stephen King

Levin really knows how to touch the nerve ends.”

Evening Standard (London)

``Horror High-Rise,'' screams a New York City tabloid's headline in Levin's ( Rosemary's Baby ) new fast-moving, made-for-TV-style thriller. A fashionable Upper East Side apartment building is the site of the fifth unlikely death in recent years, but new tenant Kay Norris, a divorced, chichi book editor originally from Wichita, Kan., is not overly worried. Nor is she fazed when her hot new boyfriend Pete Henderson confides that he is the building's low-profile owner, and that he has been spying on all the tenants for years using video cameras hidden in their apartments. ``Petey, it's wrong . . . it's something you have to put behind you,'' head-over-heels Kay implores this seductively charming psychopath. Dorothy, another displaced Kansan, showed more common sense in Oz than does this hapless heroine in the Big Apple. Kay physically resembles Pete's deceased mother, a famous old-time actress, a coincidence that links residents of the high-rise to a dark past. In a slam-bang finale, Kay is rescued by her cat, who has more vitality than this lame, formulaic tale. Literary Guild main selection. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Short, slick, and not up to snuff is the latest suspense thriller by the author of The Boys from Brazil ( LJ 4/15/76). Levin draws on his experience as a screen playwright during the Golden Age of Television to create hero Sam Yale, a down-and-out veteran TV director who lives in a ``sliver'' high rise in Manhattan's Carnegie Hill district. The novel's central character is Yale's neighbor, Kay Norris, an editor at a major publishing house. The young son of a famous soap actress owns their building and seems to know everything about his tenants, past and present--including several who met grisly deaths. When it's almost too late, Norris and Yale discover their demonic landlord's secret--that he watches real-life daytime (and nighttime) dramas with TV monitors he has placed in each apartment. It's contrived, but there are some surprising moments. Literary Guild main selection.-- Joyce Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J.

Library Journal