I just finished this book, so you’re getting sort of a review.

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix (kindle edition) is a horror story in the guise of a knock-off IKEA-type store catalogue.  It’s also fucking creepy.  And great.

Focusing on and following the employees of Orsk–“Have a question?  Just Orsk!”–as they try to uncover the mysterious happenings overnight in the labyrinthine store, the story shifts from mildly unnerving to full-on terror in a matter of pages.  Each chapter begins with a piece of furniture from the Orsk catalogue, each one important to the story.  There’s always a cheerful Orsk slogan or two within the chapters to remind you that, yes, Orsk may be a cheap knock-off of IKEA, but dammit, you will love Orsk!

You will love Orsk.

Warnings

I won’t lie, the story gets a little bit gore-tastic with some finger trauma and eye-horror, so go in prepared, but don’t let that stop you.  The gore, thankfully, isn’t the focus of the story; it’s more the bloody frosting on a horrifying maze of sheet cake.

General Thoughts

This is definitely something you sit down and read all at once.  I read in it about three/four hours, but if you’re not a word-sifter like me, you could finish it quicker.  Not too quick, though; that’d spoil the fun of it.

This really reminded me of House of Leaves (albeit way fucking shorter, thank god) and in a very good way.  Although the nameless, faceless horror gets both a name and a face, he isn’t the main horror, which is horrifying in itself when you think about it.  There’s a good variety of characters and they all feel real, which is nice for modern horror; usually there’s so much focus on the gore and the scare, authors forget the characters are the point.

Also, it ends with my favorite horror ending ever, so A+, very good.

Final Thoughts

Fucking

Fucking

Fucking

buy it

buy it

buy it

And I heartily recommend the paperback version so you get the full catalogue feel.