Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
This book came onto my radar several years ago, but I couldn’t get myself to commit to it. However, I was recently in an amazing mystery-centric indie bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin and picked up his newest book (The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires) and remembered this book. I bought it and I’m glad I did.
For starters, the book is formatted to be reminiscent of an Ikea catalog. It’s an odd sized book for that reason, but somehow that makes it all the more charming. Each chapter features a different Scandinavian named piece of furniture, many of which are hilarious innuendos.
The story centers on Amy, a disgruntled Orsk employee who gets chosen along with another unwitting coworker to spend the night in the store. Her manager, Basil, has noticed that things have been going on after close and he wants to get to the bottom of it. A pair of renegade Orsk employees have also snuck into the building to perform an amateur ghost hunt while the store is closed.
Unfortunately for all of them, the store was built on the ruins of a prison run by a megalomaniacal warden who isn’t quite done with his prisoners. Power outages, creeping crud, and fowl smelling zombies are all that stand between Amy and the front door.
I will say this book did not terrify me as I had hoped it would. There were definitely some suspenseful moments but I finished it and immediately rolled over and went to sleep. However, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good book or I didn’t enjoy it. It was humorous and had heart to it. I truly enjoyed it.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars. It was a fun ride, the design of the book was superb, and I had a good time with it, even though zombies aren’t really my thing.
