The Mall

From South Africa comes a truly creepy horror debut, widely praised for its originality, social commentary, and roller coaster twists

Dan works at a mall bookstore where nothing ever happens. An angsty emo-kid selling mid-list books to mid-list people for minimum wage, he hates his job. Rhoda has dragged her babysitting charge to the mall so she can meet her coke dealer. Now the kid's run off, and she has two hours to find him. She hates her life. Rhoda bullies Dan into helping her, 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 elevator—and it's not stopping at the bottom floor. Plummeting into the earth, Dan and Rhoda enter a sinister underworld that mirrors their worst fears.

S. L. Grey is the pseudonym of Sarah Lotz, a crime novelist and screenwriter, and Louis Greenberg, a literary writer, editor, and bookseller. When they decided to write the first mainstream South African horror novel together, S. L. Grey was born.