SilverThistle
Written on Sep 5, 2020
It's a classic old-fashioned haunted house story - set in a big box Swedish furniture superstore. Designed like a retail catalogue, Horrorstor offers a creepy read with mass appeal-perfect for Halloween tables! Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring wardrobes, shattered Bracken glassware, and vandalized Liripip sofabeds-clearly, someone or something is up to no good. To unravel the mystery, five young employees volunteer for a long dusk-til-dawn shift-and they encounter horrors that defy imagination. Along the way, author Grady Hendrix infuses sly social commentary on the nature of work in the new 21st century economy. A traditional haunted house story in a contemporary setting (and full of contemporary fears), Horrorstor comes conveniently packaged in the form of a retail catalogue, complete with illustrations of ready-to-assemble furniture and other, more sinister accessories.
- ISBN10 1594745269
- ISBN13 9781594745263
- Publish Date 23 September 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Quirk Books
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 240
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781594745263
Reviews
Chelsea
Written on Jan 31, 2018
This book was quite the adventure! While marketed as a horror novel I didn't actually find it that scary, BUT I don't get scared very easily so keep that in mind.
First of all, I loved the design of the book. The chapter headings are set up like an actual store catalogue and just to make things more fun there were maps and all sorts of goodies added in. It made the book less scary to me but also a ton of fun to read.
I found the first little bit to be kind of slow while the characters and settings were being introduced. I would have liked some more of the scary stuff early on because it ended up feeling just a little bit short. I did really enjoy all the references to working in retail and LOVED how the story ended. It's a book I''d easily recommend over and over.
Hillary
Written on Aug 13, 2015
This book is a parody of those big ass superstores you see. I had to admit it was spot on in the description. I laughed out loud more than once when reading this book. I also loved the underlying premise of the ghost story that this book was supposedly based on. It has this prison thing where the inmates are stuck and have to do stuff like turning the crank until they are cured. I have no idea if the prison is a true story or if the author made it up, but it was fascinating to read.
The plot was really engrossing. I read this in one sitting. I loved the pictures of the torture machines. I kinda wished I read this in hardback instead of an ebook. I felt like I missed out by reading it in ebook format.
This would be a good read for the Halloween season. I have to admit when I read a horror story I get nervous that I will have bad dreams and such. This book was JUST scary enough to get that thrill but not so scary that you lay awake at night wondering if the monsters are out to get you.This review was originally posted on Adventures in Never Never Land
pamela
Written on Apr 8, 2015
The design and concept for this book are flawless. The cover looks exactly like a faux-kea catalogue, and the chapter design presents as a catalogue, complete with product descriptions, that get increasingly bleaker as the story progresses.
The opening chapters perfectly encapsulate the soul crushing reality of retail life; a theme that develops throughout the narrative. The characters are trapped in the treadmill of retail capitalism, all of them trying to stay afloat in their own way, and get out at the same time. The first few hours the characters spend alone in the deserted Orsk had some genuinely spine-chilling moments. The skewing of their reality was beautifully written, and felt absolutely believable. As the plot became more convoluted in later chapters however it lost a lot of the tension which had built up so beautifully up until then.
The characters were interesting, however I felt that they were under-developed. Our protagonist is Amy, and her story arc was the strongest, and yet felt somehow unsatisfactory as we got to the end. The pacing was a little off in the heavy horror parts, as Amy seemed to come to terms with her mental torture a little too quickly and easily. The remaining secondary characters were rather two dimensional, and the antagonist wasn't as threatening or as scary as he should have been.
This book had loads of potential, and I think with a slight re-write to keep the pace and satire of the opening this could have been a five star book. It was fun to read, but just didn't deliver on the promise of its opening. For the concept alone it is definitely worth picking up, and despite it's weak ending I thoroughly enjoyed it.
lovelybookshelf
Written on Aug 24, 2014