THE HOUSE ON UTOPIA WAY by Stefan Mohamed – Review

I received this book for free from the Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The House on Utopia Way by Stefan Mohamed
Published by Self Published on June 25 2025
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 381
Format: eARC
Source: Author
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The nitty-gritty: The House on Utopia Way is a weird cabinet of wonders, set in a mind-bending, mystery-filled landscape.

“It was a drawn breath of a day, sky the colour of a computer error screen, low wind.”

The author told me this book was “too weird” for traditional publishing, but I read and review a lot of weird on this blog, so for me, it wasn’t too far out of the box. Stefan Mohamed is a very talented writer who deserves more attention, and I had a lot of fun with The House On Utopia Way. I did have a few issues, all of which could probably be cleared up with more editing, but overall this imaginative fantasy/sci-fi mash-up brings some unique elements to the table, along with a healthy dose of the aforementioned weird and the occasional WTF moment.

Johnny Orange is a detective, and his specialty is finding lost people. His cigarettes are delivered by a talking magpie named Sorrow. He lives in a broken city where goods can be purchased with joy or favors, and moving around the city can be dangerous and even deadly. When he looks in the mirror, he never sees his own face, but often he sees the face of a woman named Lucy, who he swears used to be his wife (even when his friends tell him she never existed). Life is…pretty normal, until a woman named Penelope Page walks into his office, asking him to find her missing friend Carly Rain. The problem is, no one has ever heard of Carly Rain, as Johnny is about to discover.

Johnny is also experiencing weird flashes and dreams of a life that may or may not be real. And when a robot couple ask him to find their missing son Arthur, the mystery deepens. What is the old country? How are Arthur’s and Carly’s disappearances linked? There’s a woman named Bloody Mary who might have all the answers, but it’s a dangerous journey to find her. And really, does Johnny even want to know the truth, which might change everything?

The House on Utopia Way has a sort of Alice in Wonderland vibe, with all sorts of wacky world-building elements, including a city that is constantly changing. A street that leads you to a certain building one day might change direction the next. And sometimes houses and buildings disappear altogether. Even Johnny, who is very familiar with the city streets and the “patches” (the various suburbs in the city) gets lost occasionally. On the first page we meet a talking magpie named Sorrow who not only brings Johnny his “strawberry” fix (cigarettes or flavored vape pens), but in exchange for food will deliver something even more valuable: information. The world is so weird and crazy that the reader starts to wonder whether the whole thing is real or not, and that’s exactly what Johnny sets out to prove, one way or the other.

There is a learning curve, though, since Mohamed dumps the reader head first into his story with no explanations at all. And while I was confused at first, I much prefer this style of storytelling to the dreaded info dump. And for a tale heavy on “weird,” I was surprised how grounded it felt, which is mostly due to Johnny. Johnny is relatable and smart, and while not your cliched world weary gumshoe type, his overall upbeat personality and curiosity made for an even more interesting main character. Despite the upheaval of the city and his unreliable memories, Johnny’s life is fairly normal: he has a job he’s good at, friends he can count on, and a mission. We also meet a handful of quirky side characters, including the aforementioned Carly; Arthur, a young robot who ran away from home and is in love with a boy named Toby; Octavia, a non binary bookshop employee who joins Johnny on his quest; and Misty, who is almost more driven than Johnny to uncover the truth. And Sorrow the magpie was one of my favorite characters, a smart-mouthed bird who seems to turn up just when Johnny needs him most. And speaking of Sorrow—whose lines I loved—the dialog is hysterically funny at times. Mohamed has a perfect sense of comedic timing, which made many of the interactions between the characters laugh-out-loud funny.

Lots of the tension comes from the unpredictability of the city and the people that Johnny meets along the way. Several shady groups are after him and trying to prevent him from uncovering too much, and these roadblocks added some excitement to the story.

Mohamed’s imagination is off the charts, and I loved all the descriptions of the different patches that make up the city. However, he does use the “kitchen sink” approach to world-building, meaning the story is stuffed full of quirky people and locations, making it almost too much to process. Nazis, robots, evil corporations and more populate the story at various times, and I have to admit it teetered on the brink of “goofy” at times.

I also thought the story was a bit long and could have used more editing. I wouldn’t call this a fast-paced story at all, which may be one reason it dragged in places. Still, I did love following Johnny’s journey and his drive to discover the truth, even if the ending was a bit vague and open ended.

Readers who appreciate stellar writing and inventive world-building won’t want to miss this book.

Big thanks to the author for providing a review copy.