Dead End

by Robbie Dorman

The dead need nothing. Joe Amery is broke. He's sleeping on his ex's couch, and the bills for his mom's retirement home won't pay themselves. He doesn't want to work in Nile's fulfillment center, but it's the only place hiring. Nile is the largest company on Earth, selling everything, and their warehouse is infamous for its shoddy treatment of employees, but Joe grits his teeth and takes the job. But there's something suspicious happening at Nile. Joe learns of a new opportunity, in research and development. A promotion, that pays double his current salary. A chance to dig himself out of debt. One that seems too good to be true. Joe doesn't trust it, and discovers Nile is conducting horrific experiments on their workforce, to create the perfect employee. A worker that doesn't need to eat, or drink, or sleep. The undead. Now, Joe must stop Nile's gruesome science before they deliver this monstrous technology into the world.

Genres: Horror

242 pages, Paperback

Published October 2, 2023

About the author

Robbie Dorman believes in horror. Words of Christ in Red is his seventeenth and newest novel. When he's not writing, he's making cocktails, walking his dog, or playing video games. He lives in Florida with his partner Kim, their three cats, and the best dog in the world.

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dead End by Robbie Dorman hits home! Anyone who’s ever worked in a factory or some other job that completely takes advantage of your time and health will know exactly what I mean. Joe is the our blue collar hero. He has trouble keeping a job because he can’t stomach working for billionaires who use their employees as stepping stones to rake in more. But he has his sickly mother he wants to be able to take better care of, and an ex who’s fed up with him sleeping on her couch. So he’s decided to work for one of the most evil corporations around. Nile, which, let’s face is, is technically Amazon . He has a lot of problems with his new bosses, but this only gets worse when he applies for a new inside job that pays double. No one’s willing to talk about what this new job will entail, and for good reason.

As a fan of zombie fiction, I feel that Dead End does exactly what great zombie fiction does. It’s a strong social commentary on our messed up modern world. It’s bound to become a favourite book of mine, and if it were up to me, it’d become a classic within the sub genre. Highly recommended.

[Mickey Tompkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe has a hard time keeping a job, he lives in his ex's couch because he can't afford a place in his own, because he had to put his mother in a nursing home which he hates himself for.

He finds a good job at a place called NILE, which is basically like an Amazon warehouse, it is a mind numbing job, but the pay is good so he can pay for the nursing home.

He meets a co-worker named Wally who has been there 3 yrs and enjoys the job, he invites Joe out for some beers.

During their outing Joe bitches about the job and how boring it is, Wally tells him to pretty much suck it up because the pay is good. Then Wally informs Joe that he is up for an interview for a promotion in R&D Dept.

Wally tells Joe that it's double in pay with all the OT he could want. Joe thinks about this and thinks this could really help him, he'd be able to get his own place plus be able to hire home health care so his mother can live with him.

Wally tells him he will tell him more about the job after his interview. Wally ends up getting the job, but then he disappears from Joe's sight.

Days go by and still no Wally and Joe is concerned. He sees a person who works in the Lab area that Wally works in named Anna, Joe asks if she's seen Wally.....she hasn't.

Joe ends up interviewing for the same job as Wally, but it just doesn't sit right with him so he asks if he could think about it, they tell him he has a few days and then the offer is gone.

Joe does find Wally, but he's just not the same.

Now I'm not including any spoilers believe it or not, but I AM going to include some things.

Joe takes it upon his self to find out what happened to Wally, and he discovers that Nile kill people then bring them back to life to be the perfect employee. They come back to life and are basically doing the same movements that they were doing at their job. The way Nile sees it is that they never have to eat , sleep, go to the bathroom or have time off......The perfect employee.

When Joe discovers this, shit hits the fan and a whole bunch of shit goes down (again no spoilers).

This was a fantastic book! I loved the dialogue between the characters and the story itself. Nile reminds me of Elon Musk and Bill Gates wrapped into one. I highly recommend reading this book.

This is a straight up horror novel, no trigger warnings needed, it's not splatterpunk, or extreme horror really, just damn good horror story. Go and read it.

[HorrorAddictCris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe starts a new warehouse job for the company Nile, and meets an older, friendly coworker named Willy.
Joe is sinking in a pit financially, and desperately needs a good paying job for himself and his mother, so when he finds out about a “hushed promotion hiring” he jumps for it.
The promotion sounds too good to be true. 6 figures.
But for that kind of money … what does the promotion hold? What does “research and development” mean? Joe is gonna find out soon enough.
What happens after Joe finds out comes from a place of wanting to stop something unethical, selfish, and wrong. But what if in an attempt to stop evil, he only creates a problem bigger than he could have imagined?
This book isn’t a jump scare horror . It’s a sad, fucked up horror. If you’re looking for a happy ending - it isn’t this one.
I read through this book in 2 half days. Work and sleep being in the way of being able to smash through this book in a single day.
It’s not excruciatingly graphic. I wouldn’t say it’s extreme horror, or splatterpunk. It’s story based horror, and I enjoyed the story and the twists.

[Scott Roche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any good horror story finds the really horrific stuff, not in the zombies or the chainsaw-wielding maniac, but in the subtext. This is absolutely true in this newest book by Robbie Dorman. Joe's new job at Nile is a "dead end" as is most of his life. He lives with his ex. He wasn't able to finish college. And he can't seem to keep a job for more than a few days. The only problem with working for Nile is this new project R&D is in charge of. They want to make workers more efficient and in the process, they seem to disappear. Robbie and a friend look into where these people are going and the answer is horrifying. Robbie explores the depths a megacorporations will go to in order to save money, and honestly, I find it a little too believable.

[Chelsea McCrady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super relatable, I loved every second of this book literally have no complaints.

[Nichole · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite thing to do with books of the horror genre is to go in completely blind. Going off of the cover alone, I had an idea about what the story was about, but I was not expecting the events that transpired.
Dead End is not your quick to the punch horror, it is more story driven. It's sad, messed up, and mirrors how devastatingly cruel the real world truly can be.

[Stephanie Vicente · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dead end was everything I love messed up and i enjoyed getting to read this story. It’s a good horror story and the cover looks amazing as well.

[Thomas Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorman's Dead End is Romero-esque in its execution, as it displays the droning working class versus an evil corporation. His writing style is reminiscent of 90's era Bentley Little, as it switches gears from everyday monotony and then submerges your head in a pool of blood. To quote Boxer the Horse from Orwell's Animal Farm "I will work harder," would be an (un)death sentence in this story.

4 and 1/2 severed fingers.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this take on zombies although I felt it to be a little bit of a literal take. I connected with some of the characters and hoped for good turnouts.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with Dorman's other books, he has a clear love for the different horror genres. He also adds his own personal take on each genre to deliver a message. Dead End is no different.

The concept is unique and interesting and I love the cover art. It's striking and deserves to hang in a frame on a wall, to be honest

Though I couldn't tell if Dorman has past experience in corporate settings.

At one point, the main character gets through doors based on lazy guards and the lack of a key swipe at a location meant to be hidden from the public. Companies always lock their secrets away with strict security, multiple swipe locks, and limited access for very few individuals. I would've expected it to be harder for the main character as he worked through his company's mystery.

Also, corporate IT regularly backs up critical data to recover from accidental development and vindictive employees on their last day.

I did thoroughly enjoy the final chapter. It got a laugh out of me and I would have loved for that tongue-in-cheek humor to have been present throughout the book.

All in all, it was a fast read and a great way to spend a Sunday during a power outage.

[Sally Darling · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Dead End’ by Robbie Dorman is an excellent, and well-paced novel that keeps you voraciously turning page after page.

Both a haunting concept that not only makes for a phenomenal plot for a horror novel, but also serves as a cautionary tale of what might happen when corporate behemoths grow to monstrous proportions.

I loved every minute of this book, and highly recommend it!