Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

I've been having fun, but not really reading this, but not really actively reading this.   I thought of it as my bathroom reading.   While I was waiting for showers, brushing my teeth, that kind of thing. 

But I found that the best place to read this was on a sailboat.   So much fun!   And not just because sailing.   This has a lot going for it.   Honesty time: I don't like reading small font.   It's not that I can't, or that I need reading glasses, I just don't find it enjoyable.   This has a large enough font that I found it more comfortable.   (Although, don't get me started on how much my friends and family mock me for how large my font on the Kindle is.   Yes, people, I can read it when it's smaller, but isn't the point of the Kindle that I can make the font large enough to be comfortable?)   I know it's kinda a small thing, but it made me appreciate this book much more.   Because this book has more to offer. 

Smartly illustrated, the chapter headers come off as an ORSK catalogue.   ORSK is a fake IKEA, a way for people to connect with that chain, without using them, or their items, and therefore allowing the author some flexibility.   And it could have been faux Walmart, or faux Barnes and Nobles, but faux IKEA gives it some nice twists: the illustrations, and the setup of the stores for example.   It also is more about skewing retail and satirizing that whole sell, sell, sell attitude that so many employees buy into completely.    It's a horror story in itself, and then Horrorstör tacks on the actual ghost story. 

It's bitingly funny at times, and it's chillingly creepy at times.   It also manages to balance those two elements, the plots, and the characters deftly.   Every time I've picked this up to start reading, I've found myself swept along, shocked at how quickly I read this.   It's a mixture of things.   It's compelling, the writing is smooth in a way that makes it seem like this was an effortless endeavor, and again, the text size made it just that much easier to read, at least for me. 

Highly suggested, although for anyone who doesn't like horror or is squeamish, I wouldn't suggest it.   There's not much gore, and a lot of the injuries are more like hitting heads on doorways, but there is enough blood to make it a painful read if you're not into that at all. (No judgement.   I know enough people who want little to no blood in their books, and these are people near and dear to me.  I'm trying to be more considerate of this, since I haven't been in the past and I respect them too much to be negligent anymore.)

That being said, I usually like my horror more hardcore if there's any real blood involved, so it might not be a bad book if you're looking to get into horror.  The creepy factor wasn't at the 'scream my brains out and I can't sleep' level and the gore factor was fairly light.