February 21 2026, 17:26
HORRORSTÖR
Author: Grady Hendrix
First published: 2014
Sucked into a purchase by the ingenious cover design and the way it’s laid out like an IKEA catalogue, even though I’ve tried two other Grady Hendrix novels and not liked either of them, I was hopeful this one would be different. Tonally, his voice is the same, which is light, snarky and unafraid of a joke, but in HORRORSTÖR I’m more forgiving of it. I think it’s because of his likeable/relatable protagonist, Amy, and his heartfelt criticism of corporate consumer culture.
Amy works at ORSK, an American version of IKEA, but she isn’t earning enough money to pay her way in the world. She thinks her officious manager, Basil, is looking to fire her, but one night he asks her, along with older co-worker Anne-Marie, to stay overnight to catch someone who is making a mess of the store. Two other co-workers, Matt and Trinity, sneak in with camera equipment because they think the store is haunted. They discover a sixth person, Alan, who is homeless and sleeps there, and think they’ve found the culprit, but this ORSK outlet was built on the same location as the destroyed Cuyahoga Panopticon, a controversial nineteenth century prison that tortured its inmates to death in the name of salvation.
The warden of the prison, Josiah Worth, built a basement with an array of truly awful torture devices, and when his “penitents” surface at night, the past and present merge into a disorientating new reality. Each chapter is opened with an illustration of a piece of ORSK furniture, and by the time the torture starts, the chairs and beds match the gruesome designs of the Warden who thinks working (to death) is the only way to cleanse the soul.
It’s cleverly done, and there are plenty of amusing comparisons with modern working conditions spelled out, but I don’t think I’ll ever be a fan of Hendrix’s voice, even if I thought HORRORSTÖR was pretty good. The torture descriptions are nasty. Sometimes the scenes of characters moving through the store at night feel like the Silent Hill video game. The true horror seems to the temptation Amy feels to give in to the cult of corporate work and become a zombie worker. I think most people can relate to that.