Reviews with content warning for Excrement - Horrorstor

This was sooo good. For the first half it felt more fun, almost lighthearted and had kinda an Edgar Wright feel. Around the half way mark it took a very dark turn and I loved it! A little bit of spook, a lottle bit of creepiness and some intensely high stakes. I loved the last 100 pages or so in particular, just full of twisted action and fear for the characters lives.

My only criticism really is I think the character of Trinity could have been done better, she felt a little gimmicky and surface level and could have been a really cool character we cared about if she was done a little better.

Content Warnings

ladyfrecklles's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

okay i have soooo many feelings about this book!! i know this is one of grady hendrix's older books but like ??? gurl. this is not it. it's a short read and if that's a compliment that's definitely where my compliments end for this book. after like page 120 it's just a straight gore (i'm squeamish over everything okay so i'm calling it gore when they litcherally describe finger nails being ripped off like a wet stamp) and action-fest book. character's had no development, no depth, no spice. and to top it all off there are so! many! plot! holes! what the fuck is the white milky fluid that comes out of trinity and into carl? who the fuck is carl? why couldn't the cops find the address? but then the cops do show up at the end? what , and i cannot stress this enough, the fuck did i just read. hendrix, you owe me one.

Content Warnings

kwarnimont's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is amazing. I absolutely love the attention to detail that went into making it look like a catalogue, including the furniture chapter titles that slowly devolved into

torture devices

. The characters were funny, the spooks were spooky, and the story kept me hooked. Even if the plot is a little weaker relying on the novelty of the book itself, I still highly recommend this book for a spooky creepy satire that you get through fast. Definitely check content warnings because it gets a little graphic.

Content Warnings

davidrb's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

You can tell this was one of his earlier works, but even then, he's still such a talented horror writer. His character writing suffers a little here, and that's my main complaint. Amy is still fantastic, though! Great, creative book.

Content Warnings

hayleyw's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

theidlereader's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Content Warnings

writtenontheflyleaves's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix 🛋️
🌟🌟🌟🌟

🛋️ The plot: Amy hates her job at Orsk, an Ikea rip-off whose disorientating layout lulls shoppers into handing over handfuls of cash for cheap furniture. She hates it even more when strange things start happening at the store and her manager asks her and a few others to stay inside overnight to catch the culprit. Little do they suspect that there is a more sinister - and less human - reason for the disturbance...

After also loving My Best Friend's Exorcism, this book has really sealed Grady Hendrix as an auto-buy author for me. This was such a quick and compulsive read and much less gimmicky than I expected - especially as the book itself is designed to look like an Ikea catalogue. Even though the final third was a bit of a letdown (a lot of tension is built up that then kind of peters out anticlimactically) and it could have done with being a bit longer, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I love the horror genre because it's a study in what we fear, and what we fear greatly depends on what we believe. Hendrix is fascinated by where we find meaning in our lives outside of the structure of religion and he uses horror to explore the double edge of that belief, the fact that it can put us in danger as well as rescue us from it. In MBFE, he looked at friendship and the emotional danger that trust can put us in - and how necessary that is. In Horrorstör, he looks at work: why we do it, and whether cynical corporate slogans about "home" and "responsibility" can have sincere meaning in the lives of workers. Both of these books offer genuinely interesting questions about the nature of modern life - as well as some honestly sickening horror scenes 💀

🛋️ Read it if you like horror comedy films, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, or any novel that looks at modern work through a skewed lens.

🚫 Avoid it if you hate horror (obviously), or if you're feeling depressed about your job as it probably won't help. There's also more gore in this than in MBFE so tread lightly if you have a weak stomach!

Content Warnings

More...