The Mall – Corvus Books – June 2011 – Title Information
Keynote
A terrifying descent into the dark side of shopping. Think Saw crossed with Fight Club, with an extra shot of adrenaline
Sales Points
• Contemporary horror at its scariest and most gripping. Don’t expect any sleep once you’ve turned the page
• A deliciously twisted mash-up of horror, fantasy, thriller, satire and macabre humour
• Cinematic in scope, dialogue and imagination, The Mall will appeal to a cool young audience who like films such as 28 Days Later, The Cube, or Trainspotting.
• Published as a tall-format trade paperback with a cutting-edge cover
• Guerrilla marketing plan: abandon proofs in shopping malls; host underground social game experience; involve key bloggers and opinion formers; release viral teaser ad online
Description
Dan works at a bookstore in a deadly dull shopping mall where nothing ever happens. He’s an angsty emo-kid who sells mid-list books to mid-list people for the minimum wage. He hates his job.
Rhoda has dragged her babysitting charge to the mall so she can meet her dealer and score some coke. Now the kid’s run off, and she has two hours to find him. She hates her life.
Rhoda bullies Dan into helping her search, but as they explore the neon-lit corridors behind the mall, disturbing text messages lure them into the bowels of the building, where old mannequins are stored in grave-like piles and raw sewage drips off the ceiling. The only escape is down, and before long Dan and Rhoda are trapped in a service lift listening to head-splitting musak. Worst of all, the lift’s not stopping at the bottom floor.
Plummeting into the earth, Dan and Rhoda enter a sinister underworld that mirrors their worst fears. Forced to complete a series of twisted tasks to find their way out, they finally emerge into the brightly lit food court, sick with relief at the banal sight of people shopping and eating. But something feels different. Why are the shoppers all pumped full of silicone? Why are the shop assistants chained to their counters? And why is McDonald’s selling lumps of bleeding meat?
Just when they think they’ve made it back to the mall, they realise their nightmare has only just begun…
Author Biography
SL Grey is a pseudonym, rumoured to be more than one person.
Market
Perfect for fans of cool cult films like Fight Club, The Cube, Trainspotting or 28 Days Later, as well as fans of gory horror films like Saw and Hostel. Also for readers of contemporary horror novels like Let the Right One In, or The Graveyard Book, or cutting edge genre-bending fiction like The End of Mr Y or The Raw Shark Texts
