Locked behind a Door

The Fifth Floor: Room No. 512 is psychological drama, short novel written by Foziya Fatima. This story leads you behind locked doors in one's mind. It goes into great detail about how sometimes our mind will block out memories or create things in our mind to protect us. 

The Fifth Floor's main character, a young 19 year old woman named Ania, goes through major trauma which causes her to end up in a medical facility. She is a brave and strong character and it was interesting and eye opening to follow her healing journey. I also really loved how Foziya Fatima wrote the nurse and psychologist, cause often in psychological dramas and thrillers they are often not understanding or don't treat their patients like people. I feel this added a lot of realism to the story. In addition I loved that Foziya Fatima did not show or write Ania as someone crazy. She wrote Ania as someone going through something impossibly difficult and going through it. 

This Short Novel is an excellent story for readers who are beginning their path into reading psychological fiction, drama and thrillers as it's a little of all 3. It is also not a too hectic read as it does not really have horror in it but it still keeps you wanting to read more, this is a book that one can easily read in one sitting.Fatima also wrote that one of her challenges with the type of horror she wanted to show was, “The biggest challenge was ensuring that the horror wasn’t limited to jump scares or ghosts, but reflected real-life struggles.” 

The emotions expressed through the symbols like the rooms, locked doors, the mirrors and the hair brush is incredibly written. Fatima does an excellent job of pulling her audience in with metaphors, symbols and her direct and to the point but not over powering lines. One of the powerful lines I loved is, “Not as a ghost or a hallucination, but as the part of her that stayed when she couldn't.”

One of my favourite parts about this book is its title, it sets the scene and made me intrigued to learn more about Room No.512. My heart loved how this story does not make it seem like an awful thing to struggle with depression, overwhelming thoughts, suppressed memories and trauma. It's not something to be ashamed of and it just reminds a person that everyone's story is different and sometimes one needs to take a pause and to heal. And that's okay. I feel everyone can relate to this aspect of this book. The Fifth Room is a well written book and I look forward to more work by Fatima Foziya.