The Exception
Read. Listen. Live it.
You choose.
At the close of every issue, the story stops and turns to you.
TwistRead the first chapter freeStay in the tension.
The build sustained, the pressure kept. Nothing resolves — and you feel every degree of it.
BurnRead the first chapter freeMove toward the heat.
Something arriving now — unhidden, immediate, impossible to contain.
One choice per issue · Saved forever · Endings unlocked by who you've become
Read. Listen. Live it.
One issue, three ways in. Not an ebook — a world you can read on the page, hear on the commute, and watch at the moments that matter.
I — Read
The prose.
The full chapter, set like a novel — Cormorant on near-black, paced for the slow burn. Withhold before you give.
II — Listen
The narration.
The same prose in your ear, voiced to hold the tension. For the commute, the dark, the in-between — download and take it offline.
III — Watch
The cinema.
Cinematic video for the moments that matter — and for the forks themselves. The look is exact, the lighting cool, the want loud.
Up close.
He wants his boss. He wants to be his boss. He's about to learn they're the same hunger — and that the man he's watched for four years has been watching back. A psychological MM slow burn where the power runs both ways and you choose how far it goes. Submit, or seize. Twist, or Burn.
An office that runs warm.
Converted Victorian printworks · ClerkenwellCast-iron columns in graphite. Reclaimed oak herringbone. Clerestory light. Sebastian Marsh is the previs artist who makes imagined things look real — which is also what he does with everything he feels.
Richard Calloway is the co-founding partner: cold emotionally, overwhelming physically. The shirt change. The smell — cedar, skin, warmth. Sebastian wanted him. He wanted to be him. He never knew they were the same hunger.
Sebastian Marsh
32 · Previs Artist
The reader's vehicle. Precise, controlled, quietly funny. Spine erect, heart racing.
Richard Calloway
52 · Co-Founding Partner
Cold emotionally, overwhelming physically. Silver-grey, full. A man who runs warm constitutionally.
Jake Thorne
29 · Swimming Instructor
Sunshine in a grey t-shirt. The opposite of Richard in every register — and the same problem.
Not one story. A house of them.
The Exception is the front door. Behind it: a growing catalogue of worlds, new issues twice a month, and the entire back catalogue always open.
Issue I · LiveNow readingThe ExceptionForthcomingIssue IIUntitledForthcomingIssue IIIUntitledForthcomingIssue IVUntitledPlainly.
01
Read free
Start with Chapter One of The Exception. No card, no wall — just the story and one choice.
02
Subscribe
Unlock the full issue, both branches, the audio and the video — and your save.
03
New issues, twice monthly
Twice a month a new issue drops. The men keep living in the spaces between.
04
Choose at every cliff
Twist or Burn at the close of each issue — read it, hear it, or watch it across the library.
Three doors. One world.
Each tier deepens proximity. You choose how close you stand.
I — Free
The Story.
£0 · Entry
- Chapter One, in full
- Prose, cinematic video & audio
- The Twist / Burn choice
- Outcome paywalled — online only
II — Standard
The World.
£9.99 / Month
- Full issues, twice monthly
- Both Twist & Burn branches
- Character profiles & canon
- Download to read & listen offline (coming soon)
- One save slot, auto-saved
The Full Proximity
III — Inner
The Voyeur.
£14.99 / Month
- Everything in The World
- Character Hub vignettes, 1–2× weekly
- Personalised by your Twist / Burn score
- Three save slots — nothing overwritten
- Early issue access & Creator Q&A (coming soon)
Before you begin.
The short answers. Everything else, you will find inside the world.
A subscription house of serial fiction. Every couple of weeks a new issue lands, and you can read it on the page, listen to it, or watch the cinema clips woven through the prose. It is a world you live in, not just a book you finish.
Each issue ends on an emotional fork. You make one choice — Twist or Burn — and it is permanent. That single pick branches the story into a Twist chapter or a Burn chapter, and over time it shapes how the world reads to you.
Free gives you Chapter One of every issue with an account, no card needed. Standard is £9.99 a month for full issues and both branches. Voyeur is £14.99 a month and adds Character Hubs, early access, creator Q&A, and extra save slots.
Yes. Chapter One of every issue is free to read. You just need a free account so we can save where you are and remember your choice. There is no card and no trial clock.
They are three ways into the same issue. Read is the prose on a calm, near-black page. Listen is narrated audio for the commute. Watch brings in short cinema clips at the moments that matter. Switch between them whenever you like.
Phone, tablet, and desktop. The reader adapts to each, and offline read and listen mean you can take an issue with you when the signal drops.
Read. Listen. Live it.
Be there when Issue I drops.
New issues twice a month. We will tell you the moment the first one lands, with Chapter One free.