Horrorstor: A Novel
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires comes a hilarious and terrifying haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting: a furniture superstore.
Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.
To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.
Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.
To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.
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Readers say *Horrorstor* cleverly blends horror and humor with a unique IKEA-themed catalog format, making it a fun and visually engaging read. Many p...
“And as her mind closed up shop and went dark, Amy wondered dully if she would be stuck on the hamster wheel forever, stuck in retail forever, stuck at Orsk forever. But she didn't have to worry. Tonight would be her final shift.”
Minor spoilers ahead!
This was a super fun book. Interesting and relevant to anybody who has worked in retail before. However the ending- though it was good- I need more! I feel like every book review I write, I'm always unsatisfied with the ending. But this one leaves it too open. Are Matt and Trinity ever found? All in all, it was a great book, but I wish we knew what happened after Amy and Basil go back in after hours!
This was a super fun book. Interesting and relevant to anybody who has worked in retail before. However the ending- though it was good- I need more! I feel like every book review I write, I'm always unsatisfied with the ending. But this one leaves it too open. Are Matt and Trinity ever found? All in all, it was a great book, but I wish we knew what happened after Amy and Basil go back in after hours!
very clever. work is a hellish prison that you just keep coming back to.
the opening line to the book was very good. at first, I actually thought the setting of the book was a zombie apocalypse.
the opening line to the book was very good. at first, I actually thought the setting of the book was a zombie apocalypse.
I found this HALF OFF at Barnes & Noble soon after watching one of Christine Riccio's book hauls. The storyline was DEFINITELY not what I expected. The last quarter of the book was a little weird for me personally, especially the furniture-turned-torturing devices. Sure, there were amusing references to retail life and IKEA, but the so-called "horror" in this book was just off-putting for me. However, I choose to finish any book I start (no matter how terrible or boring). In so doing, I found that the author at least has a talent for writing--which can be inferred by the organization of the storyline and minor character development, in addition to some of the names he has published articles under--and as stated previously, does incorporate some comical illusions to IKEA, the famous mass marketing corporation. I've read it once and will give it away to someone who may be able to appreciate Hendrix's style of writing more than I did.
We never stop.
We never sleep.
And now we're in your home.
This is the story of a group of employees working at an Ikea-wannabe-store who spend the night trying to chase who they think is a homeless person out of the store, only to find that the store is fertile ground for things scarier than assembly-required furniture. The horror takes a zero-to-a-hundred turn in no time flat.
Anyone who has been on the Ikea hamster wheel can appreciate the catalog-style format of the book, with it's product diagrams that go from typical furniture to increasingly disturbing contraptions as the story unfolds. And in his typical form, Hendrix injects some biting wit along to journey.
"I got nowhere else to go," Carl said. "I tried hiding out in Lowe's and Ikea but they've got much better security. Can't you guys show a little sympathy?"
As with any of the other of the Hendrix books that I have read, it's a wacky fun time, taking a not-so-subtle jab at the cult of consumerism from both the customer and big-box-employee sides of the coin.
“We’re getting out of here,” she said. “The store will try to stop us. It’ll disorient you, get inside your head, try to confuse you and control you. But if you stay focused, you can block it out. You have to fight, do you understand?”
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