Full marks to Grady Hendrix. Not only is the story itself sinister and unnerving the design of the book immerses you fully in the story.

Hendrix is an expert at setting that eerie, suspenseful tone, and this book is no exception. It is fast paced, weirdly realistic, and walks the line between psychological manipulations and paranormal horror, with a masterful stroke. The design of the book is fantastic, set up very much like an IKEA catalogue, complete with product listings, floorplans, you can tell a lot of thought was put into it, and it all helps to set the scene. I am not sure I ever want to step into an IKEA ever again after reading this, as now it feels so sinister and creepy. It is set in an Orsk, a fictional, all-American, IKEA knock-off store, where the company employee slogan is “The hard work makes Orsk your family, and the hard work is free.” It is a brilliant read, perfect for anyone who has ever worked retail.

Entices you in and then gets scarier chapter by chapter. You will become so concerned about the characters that even though you are frightened you will be unable to put this book down, and you will want to read to the end. You’ll also want to leave your lights on at night too.

Usually a sci-fi and fantasy reader, a horror books slow burn usually fails to capture my attention(looking at you Stephen King.) I am delighted to say this was not the case with Horrorstör. Fantastically paced with a great blend of humour and spooks makes this book a chilling gateway in to the horror genre. With only 240ish pages you can dip in and out as you please or (what I did) binge the entire thing in a day. I also want to give the presentation of this book a special mention. Made to look and feel like a catalogue from a certain Swedish furniture store that shall not be named, the extra attention to detail from the map of the store inside to the pages illustrating the latest home storage solutions and even coupons(!) Gave this book an extra layer of immersion that I really appreciated. Upon finishing I have immediately started looking for other books by this author and can't wait to dive back in to Grade Hendrix's relatable style. Would (and definitely will) recommend.

To start off this review, this book isn’t for the light heated. It gets pretty dark and disturbing so just keep that in mind if you don’t handle graphic descriptions well.Horrorstör I first thought was just going to be a satire on retail work, horror and generally just a comedy parody book. I was wrong, but I was wrong in the best way. As I read through this book, I had no idea what the next page would be about, the pacing well reflected the anxiety, the claustrophobia and panic that the characters were feeling. The descriptions made my body tense up, my toes curl, my heart race.Is the base concept for this book unique? Not quite, as the description itself says it’s just a “traditional haunted house”. What is unique however is Grady Hendrix’ use of the world around the characters, descriptive language and making me scared to go into an IKEA now. Even just the cover alone is super unique and interesting, heck, it’s what grabbed my attention on a shelf in the shop.I thought I’d hate all the characters at the start, but by the end I was rooting them on. So much so that I’d adore a sequel, even if this story doesn’t really need one (plus this was written in 2014 and to my knowledge, I don’t think there’s ever been a follow up!). The character development felt really good and natural to me, the story felt realistic to me in a way which I did enjoy. Amongst all the chaos, they were still human.I don’t fully know how to put this book into words without spoiling it all, I can just recommend that you read it for yourself. Once everything hits the fan and it just keeps on going until the final page.