The Mall by S L Grey

You should never judge a book by its cover, but on this occasion you can go ahead and assume that S L Grey’s The Mall is as stunning and original on the inside as it is on the out, because your assumption would be correct.

The Mall is the collaborative début novel from South African writers Sarah Lotz and Louis Greenberg, and takes a hellish peek at what might be lurking within the underbellies of our shopping centres had the architects been on some blood-crazed, retail acid trip.  Think the Cube series of movies, but without the cube – and that’s not to say The Mall is derivative in any way – far from it – but it’s twisted, in a ‘Cube does loyalty points’ kind of way.

When druggie-delinquent, Rhoda, loses her friend’s kid in Highgate Mall, she has no choice but to bully malcontented bookseller, Dan, into helping her find the kid.  As an employee at the mall, Dan must know his way around because Rhoda certainly can’t go to the security guards for help, at least not while she’s packing a pocketful of cocaine.  Once Dan begrudgingly gets them into the restricted access areas and service corridors of the mall, things begin to get weird.  They both start receiving bizarre text messages for one, and then there’s the guttural howling that seems to be getting closer, and when it becomes apparent that they can’t go back the way they came, there’s no other option but to go deeper into the bowels of the mall, and that’s just what the mysterious ‘Management’ wants.

The writing is fresh and energetic, as are the characters Rhoda and Dan. Their odd-couple relationship is both abrasive and touching and provides the much-needed humanity to what is at times a cold, satirical and cynical look at consumer culture.  But The Mall never falls into the axe-grinding trap, and although it holds a mirror up to what we already know and hate about ourselves and our lives, it never forgets that it’s a horror story, and along with some superb imagery, a galloping pace and a cracking cocktail of tension and suspense, The Mall delivers the chills and thrills.  What more can you ask of a horror story?

So you guys have yourselves one week to go out and grab a copy of this fine novel because next week Sarah and Louis will be stopping by to answer a few questions about it, but if you’re feeling lucky, my review copy will be up for grabs as one of the many prizes on offer next week in Dark Central Station’s Summer Vacation.  Yes, I know – we're too good to you over at DCS.