Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix - Review

Title: Horrorstor
Author: Grady Hendrix
Pages: 240
Publication Date: September 2nd 2014 by Quirk Books
Source: ARC from Edelweiss
Link: Official Site, Goodreads

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Columbus, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring wardrobes, shattered Brooka glassware, and vandalized Liripip sofa beds clearly, someone or something is up to no good. To unravel the mystery, five young employees volunteer for a long dusk-till-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 twenty-firstcentury economy. A traditional haunted house story in a contemporary setting (and full of current fears), Horrorstör comes conveniently packaged in the form of a retail catalog, complete with illustrations of ready-to-assemble furniture and other, more sinister accessories. We promise you’ve never seen anything quite like it!

This book! I love it. I knew when I read that this book was a horror story taking place in a store similar to IKEA I was in. I mean.. just look at that cover!

I would like to thank Edelweiss for providing me with the ARC copy.  I received it for free for an honest review.  I downloaded this copy onto the Kindle app because I have a Nexus 7 tablet and that's how you have to read review copies on it.  It was a little disappointing to read it on there though.  The images and graphics do not transfer over.  I was on a roadtrip reading it too so I didn't have access to the internet to look at my other file of it on my laptop.  So when I got home from the road trip after reading it, I then went back and looked at all the images that go with the story.  I do think it took away from the experience because the images make the story more fun and spooky.  Though I am sure you will not have this problem if you chose to buy a copy of the book as an ebook.  It just didn't transfer over right as an ARC.  Though after looking through the copy on Adobe Reader I think this is a book that should be purchased as a physical copy to get the full effect.

Now let's talk about this epic story. The books begins with a few employees who are working at Orsk.  As you read along in the book you are meant to feel as if you are reading an Orsk catalog.  There are designs for the furniture for sale as well as diagrams of the store, applications and more.  When you get farther and farther into the book these things morph into types of devices rather then furniture that is used in the novel.  It adds a little bit of creepiness as you read.  I think one of the reasons I requested this ARC is because I love IKEA but it always has had a bit of a scary factor to it when I go in.  Everything set up so neat... fake windows and doors. What if those windows and doors actually went somewhere? Somewhere like a creepy dungeon or hell.

Back cover/Variant front cover

The characters think that someone is breaking in the store during the day, so one night the boss has a few employees spend the night in the store to discover who these people are and report them to the police. Three employees spend the night and split up to do a search of the store.  While searching they discover two more employees who were hiding with some equipment to do some ghost hunting. Which brings some humor in the novel since from the start these two employees have believed that there are ghosts haunting the store rather then vandals breaking in. After that.. the crazy night of ghouls begins.

I enjoyed this book.  It is a short fast read. The whole concept of reading an IKEA catalog, or in this case a Orsk catalog is amazing.  I have seen a few pictures of the physical copy and it really looks like a nice book.  When the book comes out.. be sure to go and read it .. in bed... at night... with a flashlight.

The crystal ball says:

Clouds are covering! A read that lets me down every now and then but peaks out of the clouds!