Review: Horrorstör

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was actually pretty funny!  

I didn't know what to expect after reading [book:The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires|44074800], and not really enjoying it.  This was highly recommended and I really enjoyed it.  It was dark, while also bringing a unique sense of comedy.  I loved the whole Orsk concept of the store being a knock off of Ikea.  Having been to and gotten lost in Ikea many times myself, he really got the whole Scandinavian furniture store down in his fictional version in Cleveland.  I think he also did a really good job capturing the "culture" of the Orsk company.

This follows Amy, an employee aka partner, at Orsk.  She kind of hates her job in retail, really doesn't like her boss Basil, but she suffers through it for the paycheck.  Unfortunately, Orsk has lots of corporate sayings about how their employees should behave and act if they want to be successful and part of the Orsk family and culture.  Amy hates all of it and things it is all BS.  She feels beaten down by life so she pretends and goes through the motions so Basil puts through her transfer to a different store.  When Basil approaches her with an opportunity to put through her transfer, catch a potential vandal, and make some extra cash under the table, Amy agrees to work an overnight shift with Basil and coworker Ruth Anne.  During the night the unofficial security team finds 3 unauthorized visitors in the store, and then things start to get weird.  This plays on your emotions and definitely hits all the right chords with the creepy factor.

If you are looking for a horror read with some comic relief during the spooky season this year I highly recommend this!  It has some creepy parts, some weird parts, and I really liked the dark humor and setting.

I received an ARC of this book via Edelweiss+, but opted to listen to the final copy of the audiobook.  The opinions stated in this review are my own.

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Review: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm torn between a 2 and a 3 star for this one.  I really liked parts of it and other parts were either over the top or repetitive.  Parts of this were really funny, and parts were really grotesque and gruesome.   Another reviewer said this was a mashup of the Stepford Wives and True Blood and I think that is a good way of describing this book.

There is definitely an overarching theme of southern ladies being kept in their place and minding their business.   This theme was exaggerated through the whole book to the point where I think it was supposed to be comical, but it just made the main character seem really dumb.  It was like watching old horror movies where the main female character is so stupid and has zero common sense, but she goes into the room where you know Jason or Michael Meyer is waiting.  I feel like that was what the author was going for, and he achieved that.  The male characters were not exactly likeable either, they were kind of ridiculous.  

While there is a paranormal aspect to the book, I wanted more of that.  Most of the book is centered around the coming and goings of the book club ladies and their daily chores.  Anything that doesn't fit in their nice, neat daily routine is brushed off and ignored.  The paranormal aspect takes a long time to develop and when we finally get to the horror part of the book it reads more like the true crime books the ladies of the book club like to read, again I feel like this was deliberate on the authors part.  In the end I thought the writing was good, but I wanted more of the paranormal and horror element, while this had more social commentary and the stuff I wanted took a long time to develop. 

The narration of the audio was excellent.  Bahni Turpin as always is amazing!

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