Horrorstor: A Novel

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Horrostör is one of those books that’s just “fine.” It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t spectacular. It was just fine. The sorts of things people do, the way they act, and the messes they leave for someone else to clean up when they enter stores are really a sight to behold. Dante himself couldn't have come up with a better punishment for past sins than having to deal with the general public on a daily basis for peasant wages. After the first part,everything changes,the sense of humor vanishes,the novel gets darker and darker,and that's where the scary begins.And I am not talking about the fluffy scary,but as creepy nightmary scary. this book is set up like an IKEA catalog, and walks that line between humor and horror without ever putting a ring on either one.

Outside, Amy and Basil are treated by emergency teams, who inform them that they are the only ones who made it out of the store. ORSK's corporate people offer them cushy corporate jobs in exchange for their silence, which Amy refuses out of disgust. Months pass; during this time, a new store, Planet Baby, is built out from the remains of ORSK. Amy gets a job there and, on the first day, encounters Basil. The two vow to rescue Matt and Trinity, a task Basil says will be difficult because the penitents are less organized now that Worth is gone. The book ends with an advertisement stating that Planet Baby will hold a 24-hour sale, allowing patrons to remain in the store overnight. The Story presented in the very same style of Orsk catalog, which is , again , a clone of IKEA's One. Hendrix’s darkest novel yet will leave readers begging for an encore.”— Booklist, starred review, on We Sold Our Souls Initially I was put off by the writing style, but then I realized that the whole book is written in IKEA language – short words, short sentences, to the point.So the first half of the book is a big piss take of IKEA or any other ‘big box’ store which is quite amusing but then suddenly things gets scary as the creepy stuff starts to happen and the monsters come out 😱. You see there is a reason this particular ORSK store is haunted... No, no, no I’m not going there. You’ll have to read the book for yourselves. Go on - I dare you! There isn’t an IKEA in the country where I live. Like the town whore, I only know it by reputation from what I’ve heard from others. I use that analogy because I heard that (like the town whore) their merchandise is cheap but of low quality. If you see me in the wild and I'm reading a book that was written by Grady Hendrix, interrupt me at your own peril.” Mistry, Anupa (October 11, 2014). "Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix: Review". The Star . Retrieved January 29, 2020.

The humor was also spot on for me. The satirical nature of the entire story, plus the witty banter between the characters, made this an absolute delight from beginning to end.

The story starts slowly as we get to know our unremarkable cast and set up the main story: characters walking around a dark store. I was ready to fall asleep every time a chapter started and they were still stumbling around in the dark. Is this the “scary” part? What am I supposed to be feeling besides boredom?

Twenty-something Amy works at a cheap furniture store called Orsk. She gets roped into doing a dusk-til-dawn shift with her middle-aged co-worker Ruth Anne and highly motivated manager Basil (who’s also younger than she is). They’re on the lookout for whoever’s been wiping the display furniture with poo and scrawling graffiti across the walls after-hours. Also, someone is texting “help” to everyone with a store mobile. But they gotta catch whoever’s doing it soon because corporate’s coming down for an inspection, first thing in the morning!

Buy Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

The more Amy struggled, the faster she sank. Every month she shuffled around less and less money to cover the same number of bills. The hamster wheel kept spinning and spinning and spinning. Sometimes she wanted to let go and find out exactly how far she’d fall if she just stopped fighting. She didn’t expect life to be fair, but did it have to be so relentless?” Things begin innocently enough, though, with this uncomfortable looking couch. Not cozy, but not exactly a torture device…yet. I enjoyed all the characters, especially Amy, as she was totally relatable. I’ve met countless people working in retail and have known co-workers dealing with everything she does which made it feel so authentic. I had a lot of empathy with her and this made me connect with her character and why she did the things that she did. Town whore" needs to be changed to "high class prostitute" - sadly, I can still use by reputation only. when you can't say if it's day or night .. the store is time still with all the light and no windows or skylights.

Let me gush about this book to you for like three or five minutes. Give me five, tops! First of all, let me just explain how much fun this book is. Starting with the cover, have you ever seen a more eye catching, hilarious cover? Orsk was so big it needed a certain number of people on the premises to keep it under control. Three of them weren’t enough. The store was stirring, restless, growing slowly. Emptied of people, Orsk felt dangerous. A delight...its incisive social commentary and meaningful character development make The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires not just a palatable read for non-horror fans, but a winning one.”

The metaphor and connection between Retail and Terrible Nazi-like Prison and beehive was more than perfect.. Hendrix did a great job with lots of little references that made me smile from mentioning Best Buy, Lorraine Warren (I’m a huge fan of The Conjuring series), and capturing the essence of an IKEA store. LoL I’ve only shopped there twice in my life and let me tell you, that place has to be terrifying late at night in complete darkness. Ask me about the torture of retail and I will tell you it's all true. I lived this horror for the last six years of my retail career. Pure big-box horror! It wasn't the customers or the employees that gave me the creeps. I was a master of both service and HR by then. No! It was the company culture that gave me nightmares! Still does... I love the haunted house subgenre of horror, I’m a big fan of Douglas Coupland (the overall design aesthetic of the book reminded me of novels like Microserfs and jPod), so I really thought Grady Hendrix’s Horrorstor was going to be a good read. My expectation was that it was going to be satirical/funny with a little bit of drama to balance things out. Wrong! It’s all written completely straight - Hendrix is actually trying to be scary. And, unfortunately, he does a terrible job!