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Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix: I am never going to an IKEA at night

There's been a lot of chatter about Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix, mainly because it looks like an IKEA catalog and that is SO COOL. Not to lick Quirk Books's boots, but I keep being completely charmed by them and their publishing decisions (also they look especially lovely today). 

They sent me a copy of this to review because I asked one of their staff members if I would like it and she was basically like "TOTES."

I mean, look at that. you bring that on the train
and you are a super-cool and interesting
person that the other riders only WISH
they could know

After being burned by things like the book Night Film and countless episodes of Scooby-Doo, I worried there'd be some "It wasn't really haunted after all!" tomfoolery happening, but REST ASSURED, the faux-IKEA in this book is haunted as shit. It just takes some time to get there.

So the main character, Amy, has a dead-end life and works at America's version of IKEA, which is called Orsk. But weeeeird stuff's been happening at Orsk overnight, so the Totally Into His Job manager makes her and another employee stay overnight to try to find out what is going on, and Amy does it because she needs money to make rent because down-on-their-luck protagonists always need to make rent at the beginning of the story. Also did you know that no McFly ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley?

Also Bill and Ted need to get an A on their history report, but HOW.

WILL Amy find hidden reserves of strength within herself? Will she discover a purpose for her life inside the possibly (definitely) haunted, basically-IKEA store? Will Alice be terrified by MULTIPLE scenes, but mostly one involving lots of water because sometimes when you're a kid you're coming up in the pool and you find you're under a damn inflatable raft and AIR you need AIR? ("probably" to all of these)

It's fast-paced, it's fun, and it's scary but not too scary (unlike that rat-faced librarian in The Historian who I was convinced was going to climb in my college apartment windows). It also incorporates some 19th century stuff, which every book should do. Well done, book.

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