2.8 "frenetic surreal existential absurdities" stars !!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Knopf Canada for an e-copy. This was released Feb 2021. I am providing an honest review.

First of all this author has mega-doses of talent and writing chops. In small doses his prose is vivid, spectacular, brilliant, hilarious and weird. I am positive this would work amazingly in short fiction.
In this novel, however, I was oversaturated and sometimes annoyed. Too glaring and too clever despite an amazingly genius depiction of suburban existential decay.

A mixed reading experience and I hope the author is able to moderate and temper his hypomanic brilliance for something a bit more enjoyable which I feel would get his vision across more meaningfully.

KILL THE MALL by Pasha Malla is an unusual story. The main character is offered a residency at the mall after sending a letter of praise. During his stay at the mall the narrator is required to “make work” and interact with the mall customers. The narrator quickly discovers the mall has few customers to interact with. His make work project is writing a daily progress report. With time on his hands the narrator starts to explore the mall. Strange events begin to happen taking the narrator on a rather bizarre journey.
I find it difficult to decide whether or not I liked KILL THE MALL. The events that happened in the novel were out of the ordinary. I did wonder at times where the story was going and if it was making any sense at all. In some ways it reminded me of THE SUPERMARKET by Bobby Hall.
Readers that like bizarre and quirky stories would probably enjoy KILL THE MALL. Fans of more conventional stories lines probably wouldn’t enjoy this book.
Thank you Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an e e-edition of this book.

I really don’t know what I just read… Kill the Mall started strong – our unnamed narrator has just been offered a “residency” at a mall, during which he will live in an unused storefront and will spend his time “making work” and “engaging the public.” For the self-proclaimed lover of malls, the residency seems like a dream come true, but soon enough it becomes clear that this mall is not what it seems as strange things start happening around him and to him. I enjoyed the way the mall became a character and the first hints of horror, but the story quickly became too absurd for my liking. I had no idea what was happening for most of it and could not figure out if the mall was actually evil or if the narrator was just spiraling into insanity. Perhaps both is true. By the end, I was just glad it was done. I’m sure there is an audience for this book, but unfortunately, I am not part of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada (Knopf Canada) for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Happy to feature this eerie and bizarre horror satire of late-capitalism in February’s edition of Novel Encounters, my monthly column rounding up the top new fiction titles for Zoomer magazine’s Books section.
To read the feature, click on the link.

Have you ever seen photos of the interiors of abandoned shopping malls? It is equal parts sad and creepy. There is something disturbing about places of such joy left to decay. If you take those photos, turn up the dial on the ominous atmosphere, throw in some potentially murderous hairballs and amputated ponytails, and mix it all up with bizarre characters and a heroic mall pony and you begin to have a glimmer of an idea about the substance of this book. All this weirdness is set in the surreal landscape of a declining and dying shopping mall which renders it even more bizarre and spooky.

There are layers of mystery beginning with the unexplained position of “mall resident”, continuing through mysterious disappearances, possible murders, and a building layout that seems to change and expand at will. None of this is explained and the story doesn’t spend any time catering to your need for resolution or to make sense of things. This is a really weird story and I imagine it won’t be for everyone. If you have trichophobia or are squeamish about body horror you are advised to leave this one off your reading list.

If you can handle the grossness and are accepting of abandoning your inherent need for logic, answers, and explanations you will be rewarded with a story unlike anything you have ever encountered. It was unpredictable and impossible to summarize in a way that does justice to its peculiar nature. I laughed, I squirmed, I gagged a little, and most importantly of all, I was entertained. The ending had me laughing and cheering. True to form for “Kill the Mall” it was an impossible end and made little sense, but I don’t think that it could have ended any other way. I am left happy and satisfied. My mind is boggled but my heart is full.

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada and Knopf Canada for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

I tried and tried to get into this book but I guess it wasn't for me. It just didn't keep my attention.

I found this hard to get into but once I hit the middle of the book it took off and ended up being pretty good.

I hate when authors try to be secretive of what's going on in their book; few authors can do it well. In this case, the lack of answers for the who, what, when, and why drove me crazy more than it drove my interest.

The main character's scattered thoughts and crushing anxiety from moment to moment made it feel as though they were going to collapse in on themselves. It was as if the main character was schizophrenic or in a dissociative state without the author ever actually indicating clearly what the character's idiosyncrasies were.

Also, the progress report chapters felt needless. Much of this book felt needless and weird for weird's sake... And I usually like weird!

The "villain" or source of evil in this book is beyond absurd. Honestly, why? Just why?

DNF - The file was somehow corrupted and I couldn't get through the whole book. I wasn't too sad because I wasn't really into it anyways. I hate not finishing books, but it made my device crash a few times when I tried to flip the page.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at page 32. It’s unlikely that I don’t finish a book, but I simply couldn’t muster the courage to continue with this one.

By no means is this a bad book (from what little I read), but it most definitely wasn’t something for me. I found the writing style a bit bland, and those first few pages were not enough to reel me in, to make me want to know what would happen next.

1 STAR

Douglas Adams meets David Lynch in this witty yet horror-tinged fable about one of North America's scariest inventions--the local mall.

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I will keep this short, as I really don't think I was the correct target audience for this book. I SO wanted to love it (it sounded super weird and cult classic-y) but I really struggled to get into the writing style. Although there were many parts that I enjoyed, it never quite took off for me.

Fabulous cover though! Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for my ARC copy.

I started out intrigued but quickly got tired of the book. Maybe I’m missing something but this was just not my cup of tea at all. There are things I liked but they were buried deep within the pages and too few to hold my attention for very long.