Horrorstor

Yes, it's a gimmick - a haunted house novel (though more inspired by the likes of The Amityville Horror and Paranormal Activity than, say, Shirley Jackson) set in an IKEA ORSK furniture megastore, and the low-wage employees (sorry, "partners") forced to investigate it at the risk of their lives or lose their jobs. Cue a bunch of fairly obvious jokes about silly product names (often actually Norwegian insults) and corporate doublespeak - designing the whole thing as an almost perfect knockoff of an IKEA catalogue is just the tip of the iceberg.

But here's what Hendrix gets right, apart from actually being funny: He does what a good horror story should do and finds a pain point, the bit where he's not just trying to scare readers by going "BOO!" but actually taps into a real-life fear that anyone who's ever worked the so-called service industry can relate to. Where hard work is praised and demanded, but not actually valued in the currency we use to measure everything; where companies use words like "family" and "values" (and in some cases even "family values") until their employees aspire to furnish their own homes with their company's products (if they can afford them); where dreams of stardom and success are dangled carrot-like over a treadmill that just speeds up the faster you move. Basically, this is Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed left to rot in an Indian burial ground.

The hard work makes Orsk your family, and the hard work is free.

I put down the book, I look about my largely IKEA-furnished home, and a chill creeps up my spine. Not only did they make me want to buy it, they made me put it together myself. As if my time (and the occasional cut) cost nothing. How did they do that?

But, y'know, then you get our heroine triumphantly wielding an Allen key too. So 'sall good.