I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall – Ben Farthing

4/5 stars

‘Dying Mall’ was one of the creepier books I’ve read! It was also inordinately sad. I live somewhat close to a dying mall, and this book made me wonder if that mall could talk, what would it say? Would it be upset and manic that people weren’t coming to the mall anymore? Would it take that mania and loneliness a step too far?

That being said, I’m a little confused about the motivations of certain characters. Instead of drawing many people to the lost hallway to try and re-populate the mall, only Lisa feels the pull. I’m not overly certain what the expectation was for what Lisa could do to assuage the loneliness as opposed to luring in loads of people.

Lisa was also probably one of my least favourite characters. She kept making some extremely questionable decisions that I just couldn’t get behind. Even after she started figuring things out, she still made decisions that put her and her loved ones in a lot of danger. It seemed like she couldn’t decide whether to protect her family or help other people, and most times, her family lost out in that indecision. For someone who based her life and decisions around what was best for her family, some of her choices just didn’t make sense. She made the comment a few times that maybe she was being enchanted, which would’ve helped to explain away her behaviour, but then she completely discounted that and explained it as that’s just how she was.

The mannequins, though, were the star of this book. I’ve had a very healthy suspicion of mannequins since the Autons, then you give them Weeping Angel mechanics, and I hate them even more! Thinking about their extra abilities and being stuck in that scenario (poor Jeremy) would be absolutely horrible! Time to give every mannequin I see the side eye with extreme prejudice!