24/7 Demon Mart: The Graveyard Shift
by D.M. Guay
by D.M. Guay
Imagine yourself thrown into a world where things go bump in the night, the supernatural is real, and what's surreal for anyone else is just a normal day at the office for those in the know.
The story includes absurdist and gross out humor for which YMMV. The book reminded me of 80s era straight to video B horror movies that are best watched late night or on Saturday afternoons.
This is an acquired taste. I liked it but I won't claim that this was deep reading. It's not. I never thought that the author was aiming for that. The story is written in first person from the viewpoint of a young male slacker/loser.
The author is a female (Denise Marie Guay) non-loser who also writes young adult paranormal romance books. It was interesting to see how well the author wrote men. With some notable exceptions the male characters' motivations and emotions were believable.
Lloyd lives with his parents after his former girlfriend dumped him. Lloyd is overweight and zooming towards obesity.
Lloyd's three primary interests are online video games, self-abuse, and slushies. The last Lloyd purchases from the local 24/7 Dairy Mart. Lloyd patronizes that particular Dairy Mart because the graveyard shift head clerk (and a major inspiration for Lloyd's second hobby) is a beautiful woman named DeeDee.
One night when Lloyd visits to purchase slushies (and leer at DeeDee when he thinks she's not looking) the store's other clerk flees. Lloyd sees Dee trying to prevent some sort of tentacled creature from exiting the beer cave. Leaping to her defense when DeeDee is almost eaten, Lloyd distracts the monster long enough for DeeDee to kill it.
Afterwards Lloyd, not believing what he saw, is hired as new trainee clerk by the store's handsome "owner", one Mr. Asmodius Faust, who urges Lloyd to read his employee manual and never lose his name tag.
This job leads to various encounters with supernatural events and creatures, talking cockroaches, DeeDee's jealous ex, and the possible end of the world. This was a quick read at just over 200 pages. Guay once worked the graveyard shift at a convenience store.
