This is a guest review by Danny Brown.
When it comes to reviewing Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix, I’ll have to admit – I’m torn. Because, essentially, it’s a book of two halves, and each half deserves its own review.
However… this is a book review, so I’m going to approach this review from the complete book angle – but I may have a disclaimer at the end. 😉
What I Liked About Horrorstor
I’m a huge horror book fan. If you ask me who my two favourite authors are, I’m going to reply with Stephen King and James Herbert.
If you’ve never read The Fog by Herbert, do yourself a favour and read it right now. Seriously.
The reason I mention this is that the second half of Horrorstor reads like a James Herbert novel. It’s dark, grim, and very graphic.
Because of this, it drags you in and you really care about the characters, and whether they’ll make it out alive.
Oh, sorry – I didn’t give you the synopsis. Basically, Horrorstor is set in a furniture store (that’s not IKEA!) that’s been experiencing weird behaviours overnight.
A store deputy manager and some employees decide to stay overnight to catch the culprits, and get a whole load more than they imagined…
So, back to the second half of the book. You get to find out who’s inside the store, why they’re there, and what happens to interlopers.
As I mentioned, this is very graphic and really pulls you into the story. You don’t know which characters are going to survive, and which ones are going to meet the thing that’s terrorizing the store.
And this leads to the problem with the first half of the book.
IKEA is More Exciting
I get character development. I get setting the scene for what’s about to happen. But if it’s at the expense of the reader feeling like they’re slogging through mud, it’s not good.
There were a few times when my wife asked how I was doing, and I wanted to say I was giving up.
It’s not that the writing in the first half of the book is bad – it’s just so pedestrian.
Nothing happens – and when you’ve been sold on the premise of a horror story, you need something to happen.
It’s almost like a movie shoot changing directors halfway through – the producers saw it wasn’t working, so changed things up to save their investment.
If Horrorstor was a movie, I can’t help but feel the studio would have gotten a new director halfway through to liven things up.
Anyhoo… if you like horror stories and a play on your beliefs on who should live and who should die, check Horrorstor out.
Just expect a long buy-in…
Disclaimer: the second half is much better than the first, and if I was reviewing just that it’d get a much higher rating/review!
About the reviewer: Danny Brown is a podcaster, author, and family man. When you don’t see him writing or podcasting, you can find him relaxing in the Muskoka region of Ontario, Canada, where winters are cold but summers are spent by the lake.
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