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Third Shift #1
Cthulhu's Car Park
There's something creeping around in the basement. And it has tentacles.
Sam's job as a parking attendant has always been boring. Until now. A hole straight to hell has opened up and evil lurks in the shadows of the garage. When management fails to help, Sam turns to her friends and coworkers.
But, can a handful of burned out employees save a city? Will Sam discover the secret of the parking garage without getting fired, or will she die trying?
Find out in... Cthulhu's Car Park.
Sam's job as a parking attendant has always been boring. Until now. A hole straight to hell has opened up and evil lurks in the shadows of the garage. When management fails to help, Sam turns to her friends and coworkers.
But, can a handful of burned out employees save a city? Will Sam discover the secret of the parking garage without getting fired, or will she die trying?
Find out in... Cthulhu's Car Park.
121 pages, Paperback
Published October 12, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 29, 2024
This book was reviewed as part of the Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship, or SFINCS, which I am judging as part of Team Jamreads. This review contains my honest thoughts and does not represent the opinion or final rating of the team.
Probably the most original novella of our team’s batch, Cthulhu’s Car Park explores what happens when supernatural Lovecraftian horrors clash with the mundane – specifically, the day job at a local car parking garage. I was honestly expecting this story to be a horror comedy, but the emphasis here is certainly more on the horrors of monsters and also customer service.
Characters
The story is told from the perspective of Sam, who works at a city car parking garage in Ann Arbor as a parking attendant. Her job isn’t massively complicated or glamorous – she basically helps customers pay their parking fees. Much of that is automated these days, but customers being customers, they don’t always mix well with technology or simple devices, and so a human touch is required. While going through the motions of her day job, Sam notices some strange noises coming from the spooky basement garage, and upon investigation, she comes across a green jelly-like monster that oozes when splatted. This begins a sequence of horrifying events that reveals the existence of eldritch monsters that want what all evil beings of the cosmos want – the end of the world!
Sam thus has to put together a team of her colleagues to deal with this mess while also dealing with rude and entitled customers. Just because the world could be ending doesn’t mean you can skip out of work.
Personally, I’m a fan of characters bringing together a team to face horrors together, and I loved that the employees of a parking garage were the last line of defence between reality and the end of the universe. Sam is a fairly optimistic character, all things considered, and I liked her no-nonsense attitude of just getting on with the job at hand – serving customers and killing monsters. Though I would have liked to see more development of her character. I get a sense that she’s satisfied with her lot in life and didn’t really have many goals to strive for, or opportunities for her character to overcome odds and change throughout the story. Frankly, I think she needs a bit more self-respect!
Setting
The bulk of the story is based around the car park garage, as you might expect, and the author did a great job at describing the day job while also setting the atmosphere. While a car park might not seem like the scariest of horror locations, working a night shift in a quiet car park is spooky at the best of times, which you’ll know if you’ve ever been alone in one at night, and the author captured that creepy feeling perfectly. The author also stated on their Goodreads how they’d been inspired from their own experience of working as a car park attendant, and that definitely shines through!
Plot
The story is a fairly predictable monster hunting mash up, but with a few Lovecraftian twists. I would have liked to learn more about the lore surrounding the monsters and what threat they represented, though, and possibly more tension and stakes throughout some of the final battles. I also felt the ending was a bit abrupt, and would have liked to see Sam and the team’s return to normality after.
Writing
The story was well-paced with short-snappy chapters that kept me turning the pages.
Enjoyment
I enjoyed reading through this one and it reminded me of silly pulp-horror movies but without the silliness. There wasn’t much depth, but it was a fun and quick easy read.
Cover Art and Formatting
The cover is very psychedelic! It definitely says eldritch vibes.
Probably the most original novella of our team’s batch, Cthulhu’s Car Park explores what happens when supernatural Lovecraftian horrors clash with the mundane – specifically, the day job at a local car parking garage. I was honestly expecting this story to be a horror comedy, but the emphasis here is certainly more on the horrors of monsters and also customer service.
Characters
The story is told from the perspective of Sam, who works at a city car parking garage in Ann Arbor as a parking attendant. Her job isn’t massively complicated or glamorous – she basically helps customers pay their parking fees. Much of that is automated these days, but customers being customers, they don’t always mix well with technology or simple devices, and so a human touch is required. While going through the motions of her day job, Sam notices some strange noises coming from the spooky basement garage, and upon investigation, she comes across a green jelly-like monster that oozes when splatted. This begins a sequence of horrifying events that reveals the existence of eldritch monsters that want what all evil beings of the cosmos want – the end of the world!
Sam thus has to put together a team of her colleagues to deal with this mess while also dealing with rude and entitled customers. Just because the world could be ending doesn’t mean you can skip out of work.
Personally, I’m a fan of characters bringing together a team to face horrors together, and I loved that the employees of a parking garage were the last line of defence between reality and the end of the universe. Sam is a fairly optimistic character, all things considered, and I liked her no-nonsense attitude of just getting on with the job at hand – serving customers and killing monsters. Though I would have liked to see more development of her character. I get a sense that she’s satisfied with her lot in life and didn’t really have many goals to strive for, or opportunities for her character to overcome odds and change throughout the story. Frankly, I think she needs a bit more self-respect!
Setting
The bulk of the story is based around the car park garage, as you might expect, and the author did a great job at describing the day job while also setting the atmosphere. While a car park might not seem like the scariest of horror locations, working a night shift in a quiet car park is spooky at the best of times, which you’ll know if you’ve ever been alone in one at night, and the author captured that creepy feeling perfectly. The author also stated on their Goodreads how they’d been inspired from their own experience of working as a car park attendant, and that definitely shines through!
Plot
The story is a fairly predictable monster hunting mash up, but with a few Lovecraftian twists. I would have liked to learn more about the lore surrounding the monsters and what threat they represented, though, and possibly more tension and stakes throughout some of the final battles. I also felt the ending was a bit abrupt, and would have liked to see Sam and the team’s return to normality after.
Writing
The story was well-paced with short-snappy chapters that kept me turning the pages.
Enjoyment
I enjoyed reading through this one and it reminded me of silly pulp-horror movies but without the silliness. There wasn’t much depth, but it was a fun and quick easy read.
Cover Art and Formatting
The cover is very psychedelic! It definitely says eldritch vibes.
August 20, 2018
Superb! If you've ever had to work in customer service, you'll laugh yourself silly at this clever story that pits a job from hell against, well, actual hell.
As the title suggests, Cthulhu's Car Park is a tale of horrible creatures from another dimension wreaking havoc on a parking structure. And the plucky parking lot attendant who seems to be the Earth's only hope for salvation is an unlikely hero you'll totally root for.
Whether she's being screamed at by irate customers or stalked by creepy dudes, Sam just can't seem to catch a break. But that doesn't stop her from trying.
The action sequences are tightly-paced and gross but not horrifying -- think reading the screenplay of Evil Dead. But it's the sardonic tone that really made this for me. A quick read that will make you chuckle but also look under the bed before you go to sleep. The illustrations bump up the creepiness factor and really round out this comedic horror tale.
I requested and was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of this novella for review. I can't wait to be able to buy the rest of the series!
As the title suggests, Cthulhu's Car Park is a tale of horrible creatures from another dimension wreaking havoc on a parking structure. And the plucky parking lot attendant who seems to be the Earth's only hope for salvation is an unlikely hero you'll totally root for.
Whether she's being screamed at by irate customers or stalked by creepy dudes, Sam just can't seem to catch a break. But that doesn't stop her from trying.
The action sequences are tightly-paced and gross but not horrifying -- think reading the screenplay of Evil Dead. But it's the sardonic tone that really made this for me. A quick read that will make you chuckle but also look under the bed before you go to sleep. The illustrations bump up the creepiness factor and really round out this comedic horror tale.
I requested and was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of this novella for review. I can't wait to be able to buy the rest of the series!
December 16, 2023
I received this novella to judge for SFINCS. Opinion is my own, and does not represent that made by the team. I did also happen to purchase the audiobook, as I am super busy, and the narration was a nice plus.
This was an interesting mix of kind of slice-of-life styled mundane work and then urban fantasy-ish blended cosmic horror and action. A car park. Creepy lights and darkness. The car park workers. Discovering a cistern that’s slowly churning out multi-dimensional monsters. Oh and the monsters turn to sludge when they die, so no one will believe it.
The main character, Sam, is enjoyable and believable. Her experiences are so real and frustrating that I didn’t mind sitting in the booth with her while she worked. As a retail worker, I have experienced and heard some of these things myself, so it was spot on (sadly!).
I liked the idea of her recruiting the other car park employees to protect the place and stake out the cistern, however I did find the ending to come up a bit short. Both in the literal scale, and excitement. It wasn’t outright flat, it just felt as if it came and went, the action happening in one single little burst. It made the built up stakes not read as quite real.
Personally a 3.5/5*, I’d still recommend as I’m sure book 2 adds even more to it.
This was an interesting mix of kind of slice-of-life styled mundane work and then urban fantasy-ish blended cosmic horror and action. A car park. Creepy lights and darkness. The car park workers. Discovering a cistern that’s slowly churning out multi-dimensional monsters. Oh and the monsters turn to sludge when they die, so no one will believe it.
The main character, Sam, is enjoyable and believable. Her experiences are so real and frustrating that I didn’t mind sitting in the booth with her while she worked. As a retail worker, I have experienced and heard some of these things myself, so it was spot on (sadly!).
I liked the idea of her recruiting the other car park employees to protect the place and stake out the cistern, however I did find the ending to come up a bit short. Both in the literal scale, and excitement. It wasn’t outright flat, it just felt as if it came and went, the action happening in one single little burst. It made the built up stakes not read as quite real.
Personally a 3.5/5*, I’d still recommend as I’m sure book 2 adds even more to it.
October 5, 2018
This was a quick, easy read. It was very good. The story gripped me from the beginning. I can’t wait to read the sequel.
October 28, 2023
I read this book as part of the Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship where I’m part of Team Jamreads. This review contains my own thoughts and may not reflect the opinion or final rating of the team.
Going by the title, I did not expect to enjoy this book. I thought it’d be some silly horror/comedy with tentacle monsters in a car park or something. To my surprise, I found this wasn’t the case. Sure, there are monsters in the car park, but the story isn’t trying to be a funny one, and it’s not silly – except maybe for the premise as a whole, but that’s something you’ll just have to deal with.
The main character of the story is Sam who works at a car park attendant. She keeps an eye on the premises, and she helps people use the machine that lets them pay and get out of the car park. It’s not a glamorous job, but Sam does her best to do it well so she can take some pride in it and make it bearable.
Maybe it’s because I’ve worked so long in customer support, but the part about Sam’s dead-end job actually made the book more enjoyable. She observes the people she encounters and the things they do, and it’s just the kind of crazy you’d expect. Enough to make you groan, but not so wild as to be unbelievable. Makes me glad I don’t work with people face to face.
What about Cthulhu, though?
Well, there are monsters coming out of a cistern at the lowest level of the car park, and they’re heralding the end of the world. The main plot of the book is about Sam and her fellow car park attendants trying to stop that. There’s also a chaos magician, a junkie thrall, good friends in time of need, and managers hell-bent on micromanaging your every move.
What I’ll whine about
I’d have liked a more Lovecraftian vibe. Not in the prose, because that’d be a drag to read, but in the feel and atmosphere. The story is missing that dense, ominous mood of soul-shattering, unfathomable cosmic horror.
What I’ll gush about
Concept and execution. I feel like it takes a certain kind of courage to come up with an idea like this and not try to make it into a pulp comedy. It also takes a definite skill to bring the characters, their job, and their city to life. I’m really quite impressed the author pulled it all off.
Final Words
A quick read about life in customer support, complicated by monsters.
Going by the title, I did not expect to enjoy this book. I thought it’d be some silly horror/comedy with tentacle monsters in a car park or something. To my surprise, I found this wasn’t the case. Sure, there are monsters in the car park, but the story isn’t trying to be a funny one, and it’s not silly – except maybe for the premise as a whole, but that’s something you’ll just have to deal with.
The main character of the story is Sam who works at a car park attendant. She keeps an eye on the premises, and she helps people use the machine that lets them pay and get out of the car park. It’s not a glamorous job, but Sam does her best to do it well so she can take some pride in it and make it bearable.
Maybe it’s because I’ve worked so long in customer support, but the part about Sam’s dead-end job actually made the book more enjoyable. She observes the people she encounters and the things they do, and it’s just the kind of crazy you’d expect. Enough to make you groan, but not so wild as to be unbelievable. Makes me glad I don’t work with people face to face.
What about Cthulhu, though?
Well, there are monsters coming out of a cistern at the lowest level of the car park, and they’re heralding the end of the world. The main plot of the book is about Sam and her fellow car park attendants trying to stop that. There’s also a chaos magician, a junkie thrall, good friends in time of need, and managers hell-bent on micromanaging your every move.
What I’ll whine about
I’d have liked a more Lovecraftian vibe. Not in the prose, because that’d be a drag to read, but in the feel and atmosphere. The story is missing that dense, ominous mood of soul-shattering, unfathomable cosmic horror.
What I’ll gush about
Concept and execution. I feel like it takes a certain kind of courage to come up with an idea like this and not try to make it into a pulp comedy. It also takes a definite skill to bring the characters, their job, and their city to life. I’m really quite impressed the author pulled it all off.
Final Words
A quick read about life in customer support, complicated by monsters.
September 9, 2025
_Cthulhu's Car Park_ by D.S. Ritter is book one in her Third Shift series, a three volume ebook series focusing on Sam, an attendant in a parking garage in Ann Arbor, Michigan and her fight with at least in this volume, cosmic horror. Sam works for Empire Parking, in parking garage Seven-One, a privately owned parking garage that services the University of Michigan as well as local bars, restaurants, and other businesses. Though by one viewpoint her job is superfluous, as the parking garages are set up to being automatic with customers paying with credit card at the gate in a machine (or having paid cash elsewhere), in practice Sam and her fellow employers help customers who can’t manage the simple automated controls (often from being drunk). In addition, Sam can answer questions, troubleshoot issues or take over if the automation fails, and patrols the garage for issues like spills, someone vomiting, etc, requiring her to occasionally check the eight levels above and the three half-levels below.
One day Sam finds a Really Big Issue; squishy cosmic horrors coming from below the parking garage and threatening the city if not the world. Sam recruits her coworkers/friends and together they try stop the horrific invasion.
It’s a quick, fun read at 123 pages, lots of action and definitely Lovecraftian/cosmic horror but the lighter side of that subgenre. Comparisons to the tone of the John Dies at the End series by David Wong (Jason Pargin) are apt, though the author really understanding retail worker life in a public facing more or less dead-end jobs reminded me a lot of _Horrorstör_ by Grady Hendrix, as this book read like it was written by someone who experienced such a working life first hand.
There were a few minor typos of the type spellcheck might miss (I recall use of whole instead of hole once), but they are rare and minor. It’s a fun read, the non cosmic horror aspects felt really grounded, and I am interested in more in the series.
One day Sam finds a Really Big Issue; squishy cosmic horrors coming from below the parking garage and threatening the city if not the world. Sam recruits her coworkers/friends and together they try stop the horrific invasion.
It’s a quick, fun read at 123 pages, lots of action and definitely Lovecraftian/cosmic horror but the lighter side of that subgenre. Comparisons to the tone of the John Dies at the End series by David Wong (Jason Pargin) are apt, though the author really understanding retail worker life in a public facing more or less dead-end jobs reminded me a lot of _Horrorstör_ by Grady Hendrix, as this book read like it was written by someone who experienced such a working life first hand.
There were a few minor typos of the type spellcheck might miss (I recall use of whole instead of hole once), but they are rare and minor. It’s a fun read, the non cosmic horror aspects felt really grounded, and I am interested in more in the series.
Read
June 17, 2023The title made me expect a comic take on the Mythos, but "Cthulhu's Car Park" plays it straight. The stars-aligning-bad-things-coming plot is in well-trod territory, but the realistic (at least within my own experience) details of working in a parking garage grounded this for me. Ritter writes physical action well (the scene blocking was always clear) and some of the descriptions had a visceral impact (I wouldn't call this splatterpunk, but it's not for the squeamish).
June 2, 2026
A good story.
This is a quick read with humor , suspense, and some horror. I like Sam , the main character, a lot. I like how she got her co-workers to help her prevent monsters from entering our world. She is a believable character. The illustrations are good . I look forward to reading the next book.
This is a quick read with humor , suspense, and some horror. I like Sam , the main character, a lot. I like how she got her co-workers to help her prevent monsters from entering our world. She is a believable character. The illustrations are good . I look forward to reading the next book.
October 12, 2019
Solid. Good character development for a book of this length
The book does a better then average job of developing a characters given the length. It is breezy fun. Looking forward to the sequel.
The book does a better then average job of developing a characters given the length. It is breezy fun. Looking forward to the sequel.
May 6, 2021
This was a fun read. It's less Lovecraft horror and more "John Dies at the End" humor. Like one of the Harry Dresden stories when he's doing parkour a lot, it doesn't take itself seriously, and that's a good thing. I'm definitely looking forward to more books in the series.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews