Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

15 reviews

cartermon4's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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madladhatter's review

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challenging dark funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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tifftastic87's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

Amy works for a soulless beige big box furniture retailer and she really dislikes it. Her goal was not to be here, but to go to college. However, coming from a low income family that's not always so easy. Crushed with student debt and bills she can never seem to catch up, she dreams of the "sit down job." She's determined to put in minimal effort and Orsk and just go along to get along. Until the day she gets offered roughly $800 in cash to put in an overnight shift to figure out what is causing some weird things to be happening. Amy agrees and shows up for the overnight with her supervisor and a lovely sweet cashier. They're surprised by two other employees who have snuck in to do their own research. What is in store is worse than a casual haunting, this runs deep. 

Another great take on capitalism by setting a tense story inside an Ikea knock-off. I only wish I read this closer to Finna. Hendrix did a really good job of using the exact types of people that I have found at every retail job I have ever had and perfectly expressing how soul crushing retail is. The way corporations treat their employees and how society views productivity in general. I really appreciated this one. It was also gory and made me squirm in just the right amount.  
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e11en's review

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dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.5

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vaguely_pink's review

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dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

Damn, maybe the horror really was capitalism all along.

I found it a bit hard to get into in the beginning. Hendrix's character exposition for our main narrator Amy is giving "I read a book about poor people once," or maybe I'm just jaded. However, once you get into the spooky stuff, I found it incredibly difficult to put down. I love the way Horrorstör flips the haunted house and
indigenous burial ground
tropes on their heads into an anti-capitalist "good for her" story. Truly grotesque. We love to see it.
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mightyjenn's review

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

2.0

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librarymouse's review

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

4.5

I'm glad I got this book in print to read, but now, I'm unsettled by it.

Ruth Anne's snoopy😭. Twice, when he came up, first in Amy's thoughts right after Ruth Anne succumbing to the pennetants, and again at Ruth Anne's memorial, I nearly cried. Grady Hendrix has a neat trick of characterizing his characters with little, branded quirks, like Ruth Anne's religious attachment to Blistex and Amy specifically stopping at the Speedway for coffee that somewhat break the suspension disbelief while making them a bit more interesting. Ruth Anne's Snoopy waiting for her on the couch at a home she'll never return to takes that almost comical brand name dropping and turns it on it's head. Making the thought of a mass produced toy waiting for it's loving owner to return home such a deeply gut wrenching thing in the slog of gore and terror in this book makes upsetting and gorgeous space for grief. Ruth Anne gouging out her own eyes to avoid seeing the things that terrified her, with the childlike belief that if she can't see them, they can't see her is equally upsetting.

Matt and Trinity are interesting characters, but they don't get as much space in the book to be known. The focus is on Amy, Basil, and Ruth Anne. Ruth Anne does a great job personalizing Basil to Amy, beyond the archetype of ineffective middle manager. He believes in her as a person. It just takes a while for the two of them to understand each other.

This book really takes the concept of the real evil being capitalism to the furthest degree possible beg it would fall into a spoof/satire category. Orsk is a corporate, bureaucratic nightmare.

The gradual shifting of the images from possible furniture pieces to torture equipment is honestly funny. I like how each item is showcased in the chapter. In some scenes, this book reads a bit like a fanfiction, which isn't a bad thing. It provides much needed moments of levity.
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lovelylilelle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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melliedm's review

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adventurous dark 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

A campy, disgusting trip through a haunted Ikea-like store. Fun, easy read that’s a little clunky and perhaps overwritten in parts, but overall a great time with a hokey ghost-infused take on capitalism, the labour myth, and the prison industrial complex.

Oh and the book design has to be mentioned. Styled after an IKEA catalog and filled throughout with product designs like you would expect in a manual, as well as some other surprises, it absolutely adds to the campy delight of this book. Kudos to the designers!
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jaimee_reads's review

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

3.0

This is a book that definitely benefits from reading a hard copy. The graphic design is awesome! Unfortunately I wasn't a fan of the actual story. Too much is revealed too early, which is a big turnoff for me in horror.
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