Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Horrorstör

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

234 reviews

theizzyfrost's review against another edition

dark funny 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

Bit of a damp squid of an ending if I’m honest but give Grady Hendrix his flowers for innovative physical book design that is relevant to and legitimately enhanced the experience of the story

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madladhatter's review against another edition

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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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whatthegayle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

“Everything always comes down to those two choices: stay down or stand up.”

I listened to this book on audible and honestly I think I enjoyed it more listening to it than if I read it.

I loved the journey the main character went through and how it changed her. The horror elements were very well done and I loved the idea behind this book.

There’s always something creepy about seeing places that are usually so full be empty and dark.

I love how in the end, Amy is offered the one thing she wanted and turned it down. It shows how she changed. Also love how Basil and her both came back at the end to try and free their lost coworkers

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katlam_24's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-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

I just finished this, and it’s the first horror book I’ve read in a while. I really really hated and loved this book so much. I don’t ever want to read it again, but I will talk about it for years to come. It was so unique right off the bat. I expected this to be a dumb and silly little haunted IKEA, which it was initially and drew me in. The characters felt real but I didn’t realize how much I liked them until I wasn’t sure they’d make it out. Once it got ugly, it got UGLY. There were a handful of times I physically squirmed and had to put the book down because I could FEEL the disgusting gory bits in my mind. I usually read romance and fantasy books and they tend to feel repetitive after a while so I like to throw in a book like this to shake things up. This one for sure did the trick. I want to crawl under the covers and read sweet books until the urge to shake things up grips me again. I highly recommend reading this book if you want suspense, gore, disgust, humor, and just overall a terrifying good bad time

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astrangewind's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

As an avid IKEA fan, I found the premise of Horrorstor to be captivating. Orsk is a perfect reflection of the home-goods-paradise-slash-capitalistic-hellscape that does resemble a panopticon, in some ways.

There's a lot of subtle horror in this kind of labyrinthine store that Hendrix explores. For example,

Matt and Amy getting turned around in the showrooms, the fake doors opening impossibly into long concrete hallways, and the general eerieness of being in an empty store at night

. However, I wish the book remained this subtle. I wish I came out of it with a quiet, haunted feeling that follows me when I go to an IKEA-like store. Instead...

I got ghosts

. To his credit, Hendrix tried to humanize the more boring parts

such as the bit with the ectoplasm pouring out of Trinity's mouth

, but the whole trope of "structure is on top of a place where a bunch of people died" is a little bit lame.

I did like the ending, though. Good character development, good creep factor.

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artificialducc's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I've never read a book thats kept me so interested while also making me wanna vomit constanly.

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jacob_dion's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

3.25

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e11en's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.5

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pkc's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

4.0

I stuck this one in just before Halloween came to a reluctant end and it was TERRIFYING. Definitely the most out and out scary of Hendrix’s books that I’ve read and so tense. I tore through it all the same. This has the Hendrix balance of scary monster plot mixed with more human elements and I ate it up. Amy was a great protagonist whose journey from reluctant participant to leader (both in life and in her situation) was fully realised in the relatively short story. Also, kudos to the ingenious design of this book. It’s very much a play on Ikea and capitalistic/homemaker philosophies but Hendrix (and I’m sure, the publishers) want you to know that Orsk is DEFINITELY NOT Ikea in any way.

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saskia6's review against another edition

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3.25

what i liked: fun horror read, deffo scary at times, characters that (although not super developed) you can root for
what i disliked: it tried to provide some sort of satire commentary on capitalism, but it couldn’t really pull it off

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