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A review by terrym10
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
2.0
I did not like this book. I believe it's the first two star I've ever given out as I usually DNF if I dislike it enough. It's a fairly short book, so as I was only bored with the first half, by the time I really couldn't stand it anymore it only had an hour left and I fought my way through.
The first half of the book is mostly taken up with describing a knock-off IKEA store, where the main character works, in great detail. So that was boring, but it was written so that I didn't hate it. Then I reached the halfway point of the book and it's like I was reading something completely different. The characters hold a "seance" at the store which is built over a prison from the 1800's. They end up summoning the spirit of the evil prison warden, who then possesses the body of a homeless man who was living in the store (strange storyline that just seems to peter out). The store itself is haunted & you can't easily find a way out. Then the spirit tortures them & kills three. It's just a strange mix of writing styles to me. It's pretty mellow and then there's just random descriptions of torture that don't "fit".
If I had read this book first, I wouldn't want to read anything else by this author. But I started with We Sold Our Souls and thought it was pretty good, so I'm willing to give him one more chance after this. It wasn't a bad idea, just a bad execution.
The first half of the book is mostly taken up with describing a knock-off IKEA store, where the main character works, in great detail. So that was boring, but it was written so that I didn't hate it. Then I reached the halfway point of the book and it's like I was reading something completely different. The characters hold a "seance" at the store which is built over a prison from the 1800's. They end up summoning the spirit of the evil prison warden, who then possesses the body of a homeless man who was living in the store (strange storyline that just seems to peter out). The store itself is haunted & you can't easily find a way out. Then the spirit tortures them & kills three. It's just a strange mix of writing styles to me. It's pretty mellow and then there's just random descriptions of torture that don't "fit".
If I had read this book first, I wouldn't want to read anything else by this author. But I started with We Sold Our Souls and thought it was pretty good, so I'm willing to give him one more chance after this. It wasn't a bad idea, just a bad execution.