Title: I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall
Author: Ben Farthing
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: June 18, 2024
Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: 162 pages
Source: I borrowed it from the library.
Rating: 3 Stars
Blurb:
Somewhere among the shuttered stores…
Lisa hears a call for help.
She finds her senile old coworker, Saswin, lost in an abandoned hallway. He’s talking to a circle of mannequins, their limbs twisted and fused in unnatural ways.
When Lisa looks away, she swears the mannequins have moved…
And that this abandoned hallway has grown longer.
After Saswin disappears down the impossible hallway, Lisa goes to find him, but she’s unprepared for the horrors that await her in the mall’s forgotten depths.
I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall has been compared to creepypastas like NoSleep stories or SCP entries. It’s a chilling tale of identity, liminal spaces, and the horror of leaving the past behind, from Ben Farthing, “The King of Creepy” (MJ Mars, author of The Suffering).
Each book in the I Found Horror series is a STANDALONE. They can be read in any order.
Content Warning: Disability from a stroke. Dementia. Emotional abuse. Mannequins.
Review:
Everything declines eventually.
This was a good example of how the horror genre doesn’t have to include a single drop of blood in it in order to scare its audience. Dying malls are eerie enough on their own if you ask me, and adding in mannequins that are anything but the inanimate objects they’re supposed to be only added an additional layer of dread to the setting. The explanation for why such innocuous things could suddenly become terrifying was well done, too, and made me wish for a prequel or a sequel as there was still plenty of space to explore how this dying mall transformed into something so unlike its formerly cheerful self.
Lisa’s illogical decisions were the only thing holding me back from giving this book a higher rating. My first impression of her was of an intelligent woman who used her wisdom to try to make the world a better place if or when she had the opportunity to nudge it in that direction, so it was confusing for me later on when she began making choices that put her and those around her in danger. This didn’t seem to match the dependable Lisa I’d already met and grown to like, and there was never quite enough character development for me to reconcile these different aspects of her personality.
With that being said, I loved the exploration of disability and aging in this piece. Lisa and Hank had reached a point in life where their physical health was beginning to slow them down in ways they could no longer explain away as a bad day. Adjusting to that wasn’t easy for them, especially when they began to face the small moments in life that would have been effortless a few years ago but not required some planning and energy management in order to accomplish.
I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall was thought provoking and makes me hope that Mr. Farthing will release some more stories soon.
The Woods 
Jana wants us to talk about cozy stories this week.
Title: Horsefly
Therefore, I don’t always remember who recommended specific books to me. In order to participate this week, I ended up needing to work on this post a little at a time over the last month or so as folks mentioned books they’re reading that they think I may also enjoy.
As this week’s topic is a freebie post that can be about anything other than books, here are some of my favourite songs with Halloween themes or vibes.
Title: The Hunger We Pass Down
Everyone has different tastes, of course, but none of these famous books have ever piqued my interest:
The original theme for this week was “
Title: October Omen