🏢 Book Review: The Indigo Room by Stephen Graham Jones (Kindle Edition, The Shivers Collection #2)
A slow-burn office horror that turns corporate monotony into creeping dread—Stephen Graham Jones blends the mundane and the macabre in a short story that’s as unsettling as it is thought-provoking.
🧠 Overview
Published on April 15, 2025, The Indigo Room is a 36-page short story in Amazon’s The Shivers Collection, a series of standalone tales exploring everyday settings where the supernatural seeps in. The story follows Jennifer, a middle manager enduring yet another tedious office presentation—until she notices something impossible: a colleague across the table is missing their head.
At first, she tries to dismiss it as a trick of the light. But as the day unfolds—with a surprise visit from senior management, the unexpected arrival of her ex dropping off their son, and more disturbing visions—Jennifer begins to suspect that something is deeply wrong in her workplace. The titular “Indigo Room” becomes both a literal and symbolic space where reality frays and danger closes in.
🔍 Key Themes & Highlights
- 🖤 Corporate dread: Transforms the banality of office life into a claustrophobic nightmare
- 🧠 Psychological unease: Blurs the line between hallucination and supernatural threat
- 🪞 Social commentary: Subtly reflects on workplace alienation, safety, and the fragility of normalcy
- 🌀 Gradual escalation: Jones’s trademark slow-burn pacing builds tension toward a jarring climax
- 🎯 Compact impact: The short format amplifies the urgency and leaves lingering questions
“The horrors of the modern workplace meet actual horror in a fiendishly entertaining short story…” — Goodreads description
💬 Reader Reception
- ⭐ Goodreads rating: ~3.5/5 (early reviews)
- 📖 Some readers praise the atmosphere, creeping tension, and memorable twist, calling it a standout in The Shivers Collection
- 🧾 Others felt the pacing dragged in places or wished the ending went darker
⚠️ Considerations
- 📄 Short format: At 36 pages, it’s a one-sitting read—best approached as a mood piece rather than a plot-heavy thriller
- 📚 Standalone: Works independently, though thematically aligned with other Shivers entries
- 🧠 Ambiguity: Leaves key elements unexplained, which may intrigue some readers and frustrate others
🏁 Final Verdict
The Indigo Room is a moody, unsettling slice of office horror that showcases Stephen Graham Jones’s skill at finding terror in the ordinary. It’s a quick but lingering read—perfect for fans of psychological dread, ambiguous endings, and horror that thrives in fluorescent-lit spaces.
