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Friday, October 12, 2018

Haunted October- Horrostor by Grady Hendrix






Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.

To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour, dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

I picked up Horrostor because my husband bought it on a whim. It is written in the style of an Ikea catalog. It is about five employees at Orsk, a box furniture store, who wind up spending the night in the store not realizing it is haunted by mad inmates and a sadist warden from the prison that used to reside on the property that has been all but forgotten.

This book is an easy read, and I thought it would be a silly little book fun for near the Halloween holidays. I was wrong; this is a great haunted horror story! There is depravity, death, ghosts, torture and peril throughout this book, as well as some dry humor, great character building and decent story telling. The creep factor was high and I couldn’t put it down.

The chapters have pictures of furniture that steadily get more and more disturbing. Earlier chapters start out with items like the WANWEIRD a do it yourself kitchen counter that a stove and sink can be attached to. Later chapters are darker including items like INGALUTT which is essentially a chair that allows you to experience drowning.

Now it wasn’t the best book ever, the pace is fast because it’s not a long book, but for what it is, a story inside a catalog, it is successful.

This was a good book that I enjoyed reading and highly recommend, especially if you want an easy to read weird ghost story.


Haunted October- Recommended Reads!



Need something spooky to read for this Halloween season?
Here are this week's Halloween Reading Month Recommends!
Have a suggestion? Leave it in the comments!





When Silla and Nori arrive at their aunt’s home, it’s immediately clear that the manor is cursed. The endless creaking of the house at night and the eerie stillness of the woods surrounding them would be enough of a sign, but there are secrets too—questions that Silla can’t ignore: Why does it seem that, ever since they arrived, the trees have been creeping closer? Who is the beautiful boy who’s appeared from the woods? And who is the tall man with no eyes who Nori plays with in the basement at night… a man no one else can see?



Vermont, 1950. There's a place for the girls whom no one wants--the troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good. It's called Idlewild Hall. And in the small town where it's located, there are rumors that the boarding school is haunted. Four roommates bond over their whispered fears, their budding friendship blossoming--until one of them mysteriously disappears. . . .

Vermont, 2014. As much as she's tried, journalist Fiona Sheridan cannot stop revisiting the events surrounding her older sister's death. Twenty years ago, her body was found lying in the overgrown fields near the ruins of Idlewild Hall. And though her sister's boyfriend was tried and convicted of murder, Fiona can't shake the suspicion that something was never right about the case.

When Fiona discovers that Idlewild Hall is being restored by an anonymous benefactor, she decides to write a story about it. But a shocking discovery during the renovations will link the loss of her sister to secrets that were meant to stay hidden in the past--and a voice that won't be silenced.



There is a right way and a wrong way to summon her.

Jess had done the research. Success requires precision: a dark room, a mirror, a candle, salt, and four teenage girls. Each of them--Jess, Shauna, Kitty, and Anna--must link hands, follow the rules . . . and never let go.

A thrilling fear spins around the room the first time Jess calls her name: "Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. BLOODY MARY." A ripple of terror follows when a shadowy silhouette emerges through the fog, a specter trapped behind the mirror.

Once is not enough, though--at least not for Jess. Mary is called again. And again. But when their summoning circle is broken, Bloody Mary slips through the glass with a taste for revenge on her lips. As the girls struggle to escape Mary's wrath, loyalties are questioned, friendships are torn apart, and lives are forever altered.

A haunting trail of clues leads Shauna on a desperate search to uncover the legacy of Mary Worth. What she finds will change everything, but will it be enough to stop Mary--and Jess--before it's too late?


Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Haunted October -NOS4A2 by Joe Hill










Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country.

Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.”

Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble—and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx’s unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He’s on the road again and he’s picked up a new passenger: Vic’s own son.







So my husband recommended NOS4A2 to me after reading it and really enjoying it. I am always on the lookout for a book that will grab my attention, hold it and scare or disturb me in the process.

That is exactly what this novel does. It twists your mind and throws you into the uncanny valley where things like Christmas and children’s picture books become a dark scary place full of children with needle teeth and moons that talk.

This book was basically about a guy who kidnaps children, takes them to a place called Christmasland where he turns them into monsters and siphons off their life force to keep himself alive. However, it was really so much more than that as well.


The heroine of the novel is not the traditional kind, beautiful, sure…But she screws up a lot; drugs, alcohol, craziness. The author writes her in a way that no matter how she behaves you still root for Vic, you still like her. She is certainly different from the Mary Sues I am used to reading about. Her love interest Lou, is also not the normal kind, he’s an obese dork madly in love with his hot tattooed baby mama. The characters were so refreshing I couldn’t help but smile, laugh and cry with them, I worried alongside them and didn’t want the book to end.


The villains were the kind I enjoy as well, ones you can almost feel sorry for and a whisper inside you doesn’t want them to get caught.

Charlie Manx, the kidnapper, is a creepy old dude who is basically a psychic vampire and drives a Rolls Royce Wraith that is magical and sinister all on its own. He loves children and wants to take them away from parents he thinks will screw them up. He loves Christmas and is a disturbing Santa-like figure. He drives the thin line between pervert, kind old gentlemen and madman.


Bing is Charlie’s helper. A weird guy who never quite grew up. He helps Charlie by taking care of the moms of the kids. He wears a gas mask which is scary for me already, can we say “Are you my mummy?” He takes the moms, rapes and kills them. At times he acts like a child and Charlie keeps him under his thumb with promises of taking him to Christmasland.


This book starts out with action and it never stops. The chapters are written in a way I have never read before and really helped with the storytelling. The writing is just damn good and the plot is excellent.


Not gonna lie, there is some gore, disturbing content and foul language. All things I enjoyed and thought enhanced the novel, but others might not appreciate. I actually do not have anything to complain about.


With that said…On to the next!