Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

24 reviews

melliedm's review against another edition

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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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dokushoka's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • 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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kevi_wan's review against another edition

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dark tense 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

4.0

Creepy and haunting with a good epilogue. The concept for the book is (chef’s kiss). 
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odrib's review against another edition

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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? Yes

3.0

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hayleyw's review against another edition

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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

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sophiareadswaytoomuch's review against another edition

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

3.5

Honestly, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I’ve read a couple of other books by this author and they didn’t really hit the mark for me, where this one did. I really loved the commitment to the book format- the similarity to an IKEA catalogue is maintained all the way through, up to and including the authors note. I thought it was a nice touch, and it helped to keep the tongue-in-cheek aspect as the book got a bit darker in places.

 This book also succeeded in making me feel both scared and uncomfortable, which is a first for this author. Definitely check the content warnings: I went into this blind and damn. There ended up being a few things I would have appreciated a heads up about. 

I ended up really enjoying the development of the Amy and Basil, two of the main characters. While not super likeable at times, they were definitely fun to read about, and I appreciated their character arcs. 
Overall a fun, fast paced story with a solid cast of characters, decent amount of spook factor, and generally an interesting take on the haunted house genre.
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devynvictoria's review against another edition

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

3.75

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writtenontheflyleaves's review against another edition

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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! 
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georgiemay7's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Not a huge fan of horror, but it was pretty good.
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teashirts's review against another edition

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

1.25

Stilted writing style and lack of tension make this read like a creepypasta. 
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