Number 16- Horrorstor - Grady Hendrix

It has taken me far too long to get around to reading this.  The only other Hendrix I'd read was My Best Friend's Exorcism, which was a highlight of the year I read it. I ran out and bought this one, only to let it languish on my shelves.

The design of the book is pure genius and really adds to the experience. Obviously it's designed to look like an IKEA style catalogue. What's not immediately obvious until you start reading is the level of detail they've gone to. 

If you look close you can see the sofa is labeled "Brooka - see page 8", and the shelves behind "Kjerring see page 78". If you turn to those pages, you'll see the catalogue listings for that piece of furniture (as per the second picture below).
 

Each chapter starts with a picture of this type, but as the book moves on, these become more disturbing and funny.

Those two words- disturbing and funny are a pretty good guide to the whole book.

Amy works for Orsk- a down-market ripoff version of Ikea. She hates her job and her manager and has applied for a transfer to another store, as much to get away from her Orsk obsessed boss Basil as anything else. Strange acts of vandalism have been happening overnight in their store, and with a corporate inspection due, Basil recruits Amy and another member of staff, Ruth-Anne, to assist with an overnight watch in the store to get to the bottom of it.  Two other members of staff have decided to hold an unauthorised ghost hunt in the store the same night. The stage is set for a night of terror.

The early part of the book takes its leisurely time to set up the situation and the characters.  The corporate hellscape that is Orsk is a nightmare incarnate before any of the supernatural kicks in properly. Once the ghostly stuff really starts (with one of the most original and vile séance scenes I can remember reading) the pace never lets up for a second and we're treated to a rollercoaster of terror as the nightly inhabitants start on the offensive.

I loved every page of this book.  The gimmick of the catalogue and corporate forms inserted into proceedings just add to the whole sense of surrealism and fun

Amy is a totally relatable and sympathetic lead character.  One of the other characters undergoes one of the best asshole to hero arcs I can think of.

This book is funny, scary, exciting, often all at the same time. It's beautifully paced and a very quick and easy read. An easy 9/10 from me for this one.