Shuttered stores hold dark secrets
Lisa loves her retail manager’s job in the local mall. She’s been there for years and has worked her way up to manager and with her husband Hank working part time at a cookie store nearby, it makes for nice lunch hour walks. With Hank recovering from a recent stroke, Lisa worries about him, so having him near during work hours eases her mind. The mall has seen better days, and even though their daughter keeps trying to convince them to retire completely and come live with her and her grandchild in DC, Lisa does not want to become a burden. On one lunchtime walk, Lisa and Hank find themselves wandering in one of the abandoned wings, where they discover what appears to be a bunch of mannequins stored in the shuttered area. Something feels off as with every glance it seems as if the mannequins, already posed in weird and disturbing ways, appear to be changing positions or even moving closer to the duo. If that weren’t creepy enough, Lisa swears she hears that voice of her coworker Saswin, but that is impossible – Saswin retired. Not able to let the feeling go that her friend is in danger, Lisa ventures back into the shuttered wing of the mall without Hank. After following the voice of her dear friend inside the abandoned anchor store, all is not what she expects. Lisa finds herself in an area of the mall that is impossible to exist. An area that is there, but shouldn’t be with all manner of detritus and clutter of years past in the mall’s history. Among the abandoned items Lisa does not find her friend but an entity older than the mall itself.
I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall is the Fourth in the “I Found Horror” series of novellas by author Ben Farthing. Set in a failing mall, with more stores closed than open and entire wings shuttered due to the decline, Farthing’s backdrop for the story resembles many malls around the country. As such, it was easy for me to picture the empty wing with the closed anchor store that once housed a major, but now bankrupt, retailer. The setting itself is not unnerving, but what Farthing does with the setting is where the real creep factor comes in. Employing an army of eerie mannequins with twisted arms and weird deformities that not only stalk those who wander into this section of the mall, but also in a way lead them into the abandoned store and up the impossible escalators to the entity waiting on the impossible second floor. The existence of this in between world that was not there until it was reminded me very much of It Waits on the Top Floor with very similar concepts and made me wonder if possibly this book was initially conceptualized around the time he other book was written.
While it did take me a bit to get into this title even with the familiar setting once I settled into the narrative this was a hard book to put down. I don’t feel that this Farthing’s best work, but it is still worth a read and had a few creepy elements that are nice touches.
Full disclosure – I was provided an advanced reader’s copy of this book by the author or their representative but have voluntarily provided a review. All opinions are my own
Jennly Reads 