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Dead Malls
Sometimes, you can take retail therapy too far...
You work the night shift as a security guard in a dying mall. You're living out of your car. Suffice to say, you're looking for an escape. One night in the mall, you happen upon an intruder dressed as if she’s an extra from a Mad Max movie.
You discover the mall is a gateway to another world.
But it's not a world anyone wants to escape to. Diane's world ended in 1983 in a nuclear holocaust. Ever since, she's clawed out a broken existence in a scorched wasteland, clinging to a ragged department store Christmas catalog from her youth. You have more questions than answers, but you do have choices, and the first presents itself when an armored knight riding a radioactive snake arrives in search of Diane and her book.
Make your choice.
Protect Diane, fight her strange pursuer, flee the mall as it becomes a surreal trap deformed by his unusual powers, but always go back to the start: what is the secret of the catalog? Why does Diane's pursuer want it, and why is Diane so determined not to let him have it? Can you find out before your world ends, too?
You work the night shift as a security guard in a dying mall. You're living out of your car. Suffice to say, you're looking for an escape. One night in the mall, you happen upon an intruder dressed as if she’s an extra from a Mad Max movie.
You discover the mall is a gateway to another world.
But it's not a world anyone wants to escape to. Diane's world ended in 1983 in a nuclear holocaust. Ever since, she's clawed out a broken existence in a scorched wasteland, clinging to a ragged department store Christmas catalog from her youth. You have more questions than answers, but you do have choices, and the first presents itself when an armored knight riding a radioactive snake arrives in search of Diane and her book.
Make your choice.
Protect Diane, fight her strange pursuer, flee the mall as it becomes a surreal trap deformed by his unusual powers, but always go back to the start: what is the secret of the catalog? Why does Diane's pursuer want it, and why is Diane so determined not to let him have it? Can you find out before your world ends, too?
272 pages, Paperback
First published May 30, 2025
About the author
Darby Harn
17 books191 followersDarby Harn is the author of the SPSFC quarterfinalist Ever The Hero, which Publisher's Weekly called "an entertaining debut uses superpowers as a metaphor to delve into class politics in an alternate America." His short fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Interzone, Shimmer, and other venues.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 11, 2026
I discovered this book when searching through contestants of the SPFBO XI contest by Mark Lawrence. I used the "free sample" feature on Amazon to skim several titles in the contest and this one leaped out at me.
The Story:
I'm going to keep the details limited here or it will spoil one of the story's many twists and turns.
Sam and Roger are two security guards in a dying mall with only a few stores remaining. They stumble across a mysterious stranger named Diane who appears from nowhere, out of the shuttered recesses of an abandoned toy store. Then, all hell breaks loose. Reality-shattering type of stuff. Buckle up for a wild ride.
It's a blinding homage to 80s nostalgia and Choose Your Own Adventure books. To be clear: this is not a choose your own adventure story itself. Not really. But sorta. You have to read it to experience it. It's wild, and mind-bending and you never know what's coming next. Flipping the script is the name of the game with this story. And the 80s references are everywhere. Think Stranger Things and Adventures in Babysitting, all stuck in a mall with crazy glitchy stuff going on.
Literal photos of department store catalog pages are interspersed throughout the chapters, sometimes along with captions taken from a particular product. Some chapters even have links where you can jump to an earlier chapter (like The Basement or The Index) and on an ereader they actually work, just like a choose your own adventure.
My Review:
I've never read a book anything like this. The prose comes at you quick and fast, like jabs in a boxing match. Punchy. Little. Fragments. All of it, practically the whole book, even the dialogue. And it works remarkably well, lending the novel a fresh and unique voice. The dialogue ping-pongs between the characters, lickety-split, and it feels real.
The blending of the Choose Your Own Adventure style is simply brilliant. The way some pages were actually linked (when I read it on a Kindle) was a clever touch I've never seen done before. Yet at the same time, this is NOT a choose your own adventure. The plot continues just like a regular novel, which I'm thankful for. That reminds me: Make sure you keep reading after the final acknowledgements at the end. I almost stopped and would have tragically missed some huge stuff.
I only have two minor gripes: First, a scene where Sam is chased into an arcade and he escapes via some very creative thinking. It seemed downright silly to me, to the point where I was disappointed. Second, the dialogue's strength is also it's weakness: There are places where it's so bouncy, I lost track of who said what. A few more strategically placed contextual clues, action beats, etc would have been helpful. Not a lot! Just a few.
Even so, I'm extremely impressed. The author has created something very special with this work—not a novel, but a true experience. The catalog imagery along with the frequent "Be Kind, Rewind" stickers create a clever juxtaposition against Diane's apocalyptic flashbacks. It's a feeling you get when reading it.
I particularly enjoyed the punchy dialogue, especially at the beginning. My favorite scene is one of the very first where Roger is defending his penchant for hoarding guns. I strongly suspect my own writing will be better having read it.
Not everyone will like this book or understand it. I feel like it's the kind of thing only a self-published author can get away with.
If you enjoy the 80s nostalgia from Stranger Things and can roll with some second person POV, you should give it a shot. You won't ever forget this book.
5 stars.
The Story:
I'm going to keep the details limited here or it will spoil one of the story's many twists and turns.
Sam and Roger are two security guards in a dying mall with only a few stores remaining. They stumble across a mysterious stranger named Diane who appears from nowhere, out of the shuttered recesses of an abandoned toy store. Then, all hell breaks loose. Reality-shattering type of stuff. Buckle up for a wild ride.
It's a blinding homage to 80s nostalgia and Choose Your Own Adventure books. To be clear: this is not a choose your own adventure story itself. Not really. But sorta. You have to read it to experience it. It's wild, and mind-bending and you never know what's coming next. Flipping the script is the name of the game with this story. And the 80s references are everywhere. Think Stranger Things and Adventures in Babysitting, all stuck in a mall with crazy glitchy stuff going on.
Literal photos of department store catalog pages are interspersed throughout the chapters, sometimes along with captions taken from a particular product. Some chapters even have links where you can jump to an earlier chapter (like The Basement or The Index) and on an ereader they actually work, just like a choose your own adventure.
My Review:
I've never read a book anything like this. The prose comes at you quick and fast, like jabs in a boxing match. Punchy. Little. Fragments. All of it, practically the whole book, even the dialogue. And it works remarkably well, lending the novel a fresh and unique voice. The dialogue ping-pongs between the characters, lickety-split, and it feels real.
The blending of the Choose Your Own Adventure style is simply brilliant. The way some pages were actually linked (when I read it on a Kindle) was a clever touch I've never seen done before. Yet at the same time, this is NOT a choose your own adventure. The plot continues just like a regular novel, which I'm thankful for. That reminds me: Make sure you keep reading after the final acknowledgements at the end. I almost stopped and would have tragically missed some huge stuff.
I only have two minor gripes: First, a scene where Sam is chased into an arcade and he escapes via some very creative thinking. It seemed downright silly to me, to the point where I was disappointed. Second, the dialogue's strength is also it's weakness: There are places where it's so bouncy, I lost track of who said what. A few more strategically placed contextual clues, action beats, etc would have been helpful. Not a lot! Just a few.
Even so, I'm extremely impressed. The author has created something very special with this work—not a novel, but a true experience. The catalog imagery along with the frequent "Be Kind, Rewind" stickers create a clever juxtaposition against Diane's apocalyptic flashbacks. It's a feeling you get when reading it.
I particularly enjoyed the punchy dialogue, especially at the beginning. My favorite scene is one of the very first where Roger is defending his penchant for hoarding guns. I strongly suspect my own writing will be better having read it.
Not everyone will like this book or understand it. I feel like it's the kind of thing only a self-published author can get away with.
If you enjoy the 80s nostalgia from Stranger Things and can roll with some second person POV, you should give it a shot. You won't ever forget this book.
5 stars.
June 23, 2025
What a fun homage to the past. The days of the malls we all used to know. Allowing you the reader to pick a path for the story. Part sci fi. Part campy 80s. All fun to read and experience!
October 13, 2025
Darby Harn takes what could be a gimmick - re-creating the structure of a Choose Your Own Adventure book - and turns it into something thematically richer, using the CYOA format to think about the loops we find ourselves in during our lives, the way we end up in ruts, and the way we so often want to retreat and try it all over again. It’s rich, compelling stuff, complete with a doozy of a twist that caught me completely unawares. There are a couple of small things that I wish were a touch clearer, but those are minor touches, given what a great experience the book as a whole is. Moving, thoughtful, imaginative, and thematically compelling - as ever, more people should be reading Harn’s work, and this one is no exception.
June 8, 2026
Dead Malls by Darby Harn is a strikingly original science fiction adventure that combines multiversal speculation, post apocalyptic survival, surreal fantasy, and dark humor into a narrative that transforms one of modern society’s most recognizable symbols of decline the dying shopping mall into a gateway between worlds. Through this inventive premise, the novel explores themes of nostalgia, escapism, consumer culture, and the enduring human desire to preserve meaning in the face of collapse.
What makes this novel particularly compelling is its use of the dead mall itself as both setting and metaphor. The protagonist begins as a night-shift security guard trapped in economic hardship, living out of his car and searching for an escape from an increasingly stagnant life. The abandoned retail environment reflects that personal stagnation, making the discovery of an interdimensional gateway feel less like an adventure and more like an irresistible temptation. The novel cleverly subverts this desire by revealing that escape may lead to circumstances far worse than those left behind.
Another major strength lies in the construction of Diane’s world. Rather than presenting a conventional post-apocalyptic landscape, the novel filters societal collapse through the lens of consumer nostalgia. Diane’s attachment to a department store Christmas catalog creates a fascinating emotional anchor within the wasteland, transforming an ordinary commercial artifact into a symbol of memory, identity, and cultural preservation. This allows the novel to explore how people cling to fragments of the past when everything else has been stripped away.
The book also excels in its imaginative world-building. The appearance of an armored knight riding a radioactive snake immediately signals that the narrative operates according to surreal and unpredictable rules. Yet these elements never feel random; instead, they contribute to a mythology that blends fantasy, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic storytelling into a cohesive and compelling framework. The result is a world that feels simultaneously bizarre and internally consistent.
A further strength is the novel’s use of mystery as its central narrative engine. The Christmas catalog functions as a classic speculative fiction artifact an object whose significance extends far beyond its apparent value. The questions surrounding its importance, Diane’s determination to protect it, and the knight’s obsession with obtaining it create sustained narrative momentum while gradually expanding the story’s scope from personal survival to potentially world altering consequences.
Thematically, Dead Malls succeeds because it examines escapism from multiple angles. The protagonist seeks escape from economic hardship, Diane seeks escape from the devastation of her world, and the novel itself explores how societies use nostalgia, fantasy, and memory as forms of psychological refuge. Yet it consistently asks whether escape is truly possible or whether confronting reality is ultimately unavoidable.
Dead Malls will strongly appeal to readers of speculative fiction who enjoy genre bending narratives, multiverse storytelling, post apocalyptic adventures, and surreal science fiction. Fans of Blake Crouch, Jeff VanderMeer, Jason Pargin, and imaginative portal fantasies with strong emotional undercurrents will likely find much to admire here. Its unique combination of decaying Americana, alternate realities, dark humor, and existential mystery gives it a distinctive identity within contemporary speculative fiction.
What makes this novel particularly compelling is its use of the dead mall itself as both setting and metaphor. The protagonist begins as a night-shift security guard trapped in economic hardship, living out of his car and searching for an escape from an increasingly stagnant life. The abandoned retail environment reflects that personal stagnation, making the discovery of an interdimensional gateway feel less like an adventure and more like an irresistible temptation. The novel cleverly subverts this desire by revealing that escape may lead to circumstances far worse than those left behind.
Another major strength lies in the construction of Diane’s world. Rather than presenting a conventional post-apocalyptic landscape, the novel filters societal collapse through the lens of consumer nostalgia. Diane’s attachment to a department store Christmas catalog creates a fascinating emotional anchor within the wasteland, transforming an ordinary commercial artifact into a symbol of memory, identity, and cultural preservation. This allows the novel to explore how people cling to fragments of the past when everything else has been stripped away.
The book also excels in its imaginative world-building. The appearance of an armored knight riding a radioactive snake immediately signals that the narrative operates according to surreal and unpredictable rules. Yet these elements never feel random; instead, they contribute to a mythology that blends fantasy, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic storytelling into a cohesive and compelling framework. The result is a world that feels simultaneously bizarre and internally consistent.
A further strength is the novel’s use of mystery as its central narrative engine. The Christmas catalog functions as a classic speculative fiction artifact an object whose significance extends far beyond its apparent value. The questions surrounding its importance, Diane’s determination to protect it, and the knight’s obsession with obtaining it create sustained narrative momentum while gradually expanding the story’s scope from personal survival to potentially world altering consequences.
Thematically, Dead Malls succeeds because it examines escapism from multiple angles. The protagonist seeks escape from economic hardship, Diane seeks escape from the devastation of her world, and the novel itself explores how societies use nostalgia, fantasy, and memory as forms of psychological refuge. Yet it consistently asks whether escape is truly possible or whether confronting reality is ultimately unavoidable.
Dead Malls will strongly appeal to readers of speculative fiction who enjoy genre bending narratives, multiverse storytelling, post apocalyptic adventures, and surreal science fiction. Fans of Blake Crouch, Jeff VanderMeer, Jason Pargin, and imaginative portal fantasies with strong emotional undercurrents will likely find much to admire here. Its unique combination of decaying Americana, alternate realities, dark humor, and existential mystery gives it a distinctive identity within contemporary speculative fiction.
June 15, 2026
Dead Malls by Darby Harn was a surprise hit for me. I was hoping it was tongue-in-cheek horror and light fun. Instead, what we ended up with was a look at the human experience and broken, lonely people.
This review will start with the story and switch to a separate review of the Kickstarter edition.
The Story:
What can you say about this book other than that it challenges perception and keeps you guessing about what is happening? Through the book, we keep getting flavors of other books and TV shows, yet none capture this properly.
The story centers on broken characters in broken worlds.
We have a pair of POV characters: Sam and Diane (no, not the ones from Cheers).
Sam is the most likely protagonist of the story. They are working as a guard in a mostly-dead mall. Sam lives in their car and spends their time being underpaid by Roger, a gun nut who has the contract to guard the mall. Sam has PTSD from being attacked in a bar after hitting on a woman. Sam was saved from a crippling death by Roger, who then brought Sam into his circle.
Diane is a survivor. She has also had horrible things done to her, and in her version of the world, a nuclear exchange had ruined civilization. She watched her mom fade and die and then had to survive alone.
Our two broken people, three if we count Roger, who has his own problems, lives cross when Sam spots Diane moving through the mall after hours. Sam captures Diane, and they discuss. It is clear both are lonely and about the same age, so we have a mix between protecting the fair maiden and a will-they-date.
Speaking of will-they fiction. Large parts of the book are formatted like a choose-your-own-adventure. That led to some confusion while reading, as it wasn’t that type of book.
We can’t go into much more detail as the discovery is part of what makes the book interesting.
There is also sharp dialogue and so much nostalgia that it may physically beat you.
4 1/4 stars for this fun story.
What keeps it from being a full 5-star? Pacing a little bit and some confusion on pronouns. I’ve gone back and reread near the front and was still confused. And, for some reason, despite being only 250 pages long, it read more slowly than expected. The chapters were often short enough to break reading momentum.
Kickstarter Edition:
I bought the Kickstarter collector edition from Darby at Gen Con 2025. It was his lone leftover, and I’m glad I got it. The campaign didn’t have that many backers, which means costs have to kept reasonable (no full-color art in this one).
For a Kickstarter, it is a mixed bag regarding special-edition features:
Nice dust jacket.
Boards are painted to look like a VCR tape.
Mall Map endpapers.
A sprayed edge.
And a membership card.
The SE elements make more sense after reading the book.
Value: The Kickstarter SE cost $60, which may be a hair high for what the edition offers, given the glued binding. It is the only way to get this SE (well, other than how I did).
Verdict: It was worth the purchase. If you find a copy for sale on the resale sites, I’d say grab it.
This review will start with the story and switch to a separate review of the Kickstarter edition.
The Story:
What can you say about this book other than that it challenges perception and keeps you guessing about what is happening? Through the book, we keep getting flavors of other books and TV shows, yet none capture this properly.
The story centers on broken characters in broken worlds.
We have a pair of POV characters: Sam and Diane (no, not the ones from Cheers).
Sam is the most likely protagonist of the story. They are working as a guard in a mostly-dead mall. Sam lives in their car and spends their time being underpaid by Roger, a gun nut who has the contract to guard the mall. Sam has PTSD from being attacked in a bar after hitting on a woman. Sam was saved from a crippling death by Roger, who then brought Sam into his circle.
Diane is a survivor. She has also had horrible things done to her, and in her version of the world, a nuclear exchange had ruined civilization. She watched her mom fade and die and then had to survive alone.
Our two broken people, three if we count Roger, who has his own problems, lives cross when Sam spots Diane moving through the mall after hours. Sam captures Diane, and they discuss. It is clear both are lonely and about the same age, so we have a mix between protecting the fair maiden and a will-they-date.
Speaking of will-they fiction. Large parts of the book are formatted like a choose-your-own-adventure. That led to some confusion while reading, as it wasn’t that type of book.
We can’t go into much more detail as the discovery is part of what makes the book interesting.
There is also sharp dialogue and so much nostalgia that it may physically beat you.
4 1/4 stars for this fun story.
What keeps it from being a full 5-star? Pacing a little bit and some confusion on pronouns. I’ve gone back and reread near the front and was still confused. And, for some reason, despite being only 250 pages long, it read more slowly than expected. The chapters were often short enough to break reading momentum.
Kickstarter Edition:
I bought the Kickstarter collector edition from Darby at Gen Con 2025. It was his lone leftover, and I’m glad I got it. The campaign didn’t have that many backers, which means costs have to kept reasonable (no full-color art in this one).
For a Kickstarter, it is a mixed bag regarding special-edition features:
Nice dust jacket.
Boards are painted to look like a VCR tape.
Mall Map endpapers.
A sprayed edge.
And a membership card.
The SE elements make more sense after reading the book.
Value: The Kickstarter SE cost $60, which may be a hair high for what the edition offers, given the glued binding. It is the only way to get this SE (well, other than how I did).
Verdict: It was worth the purchase. If you find a copy for sale on the resale sites, I’d say grab it.
April 14, 2026
I'm not sure who I am after finishing this book! Darby has taken me on an adventure through a mall so similar to the mall I used to walk with my family. Only now I am looking at an apocalypse? A teen with PTSD? Animated mall Christmas decor? Who knows!! Every loop and replay had me feeling the inevitable end of all things. I loved this journey and cannot wait to go back to the index and start it all over again . . . What will you choose?
June 19, 2025
One of the most unique, surreal, compelling, and heart-wrenching books I've read. Choose Your Own Adventure meets Stranger Things meet Truman Show. Check out this book!
July 13, 2025
Weird, wonderful, worth the read. This story is unlike anything I have ever read. I love that it has all these amazing 80s references wrapped in a wonderful, horror story. 10/10
November 2, 2025
A wildly surreal novel that spirals into itself, changing again and again what it's about, who it's about and where it's going. Describing it would not do it justice, it needs to be experienced.
February 13, 2026
This was the most wonderfully weird book I have ever read.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews