New Yorkers just might find something scarier than a rent increase inside a new offbeat storefront.
The Twisted Spine, the Big Apple’s first horror-focused bookstore, opened in Brooklyn this month, hawking upwards of 1,500 books from “Dracula” to “Frankenstein” to “The Haunting of Hill House” – and serving as a spooky place to hang out and have a drink, co-owner Jason Mellow told The Post.
“It’s been difficult to keep everything in stock,” he admitted as a new 750-book shipment was wheeled into the dimly-lit gothic enclave in Williamsburg Tuesday morning.
“We had a line down the block for six hours, and people were waiting for up to two hours to get in,” co-owner Lauren Komer said of the store’s Sept. 6 grand opening.
“It’s only been more intense since then.”
Mellow, 37, and Komer, 31, “business and life partners” who live in Manhattan’s Two Bridges neighborhood, began hawking horror books last year after Komer – a scientist at the National Institute on Aging — sunk her teeth into bone-chilling audiobooks at work.
“It was around the time I was like, ‘New York has got to have a horror bookstore, I can pick up a book,’” she said, “and I was just really shocked that one didn’t exist already.
“You go to most bookstores, and there’s one shelf – combining mystery, suspense, horror and crime,” Mellow added. “There’s nothing else like this.”
The pair began peddling paperbacks as a pop-up bookstore last September and, despite a five-year plan to launch a brick-and-mortar, were fast-tracked to finding a permanent home thanks to skyrocketing demand among readers and publishers alike.
“Horror really celebrates being different and not part of the traditional status quo,” Komer said of the store’s dedicated fan base, which raised $40,000 via Kickstarter within months. “They’re some of the most empathetic and kind people: horror is about being in touch with your own morality.”
The dark literature haven has since welcomed both horror novices and experts, with books organized into subcategories like Horror 101, comedy and slashers to folk horror and even “splatterpunk” – reserved for the bloodiest, “most extreme horror,” Mellow said.
“We have a book for everyone,” Komer added, “and a wide variety for all different levels” of fear fans.
Despite some of the more blood-curdling tales on the shelves, Komer argues the horror “stays between the pages,” and the store opts for a cozy, mysterious “study” feel – complete with a fireplace and seating aplenty – instead of a “Halloween store when things are popping out at you.”
The ambiance was chosen to accommodate both the hordes of 20- and 30-something horror fans as well as families and stroller moms who bring their tots to the childrens’ corner, the couple said. The bookstore is even set to host an upcoming children’s “Scary Story Time” in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library.
The shop also features an in-house cafe complete with year-round Eternal Pumpkin Spice lattes and themed baked goods, as well as a beer and wine bar at night.
“We wanted to cover all our bases: NYC rent is the real horror,” Komer laughed, noting the cafe combo is also expected to bolster community at the shop.
“We found that, after COVID, it’s hard to find a place where you can just relax and read a book and have a coffee at any time of day,” Mellow added, calling the shop a crucial “third space,” which is a place to spend time other than work or home.
“NYC suffers from a lack of third spaces where people can come together,” he added. ”We realized pretty quickly that the community aspect was something that people were really searching for.”
Other events are set to feature international bestselling authors – such as Jeong Yu-Jeong, “considered to be the Stephen King of Korea” – as well as mystery movie nights and “silent” book clubs.
Fans have flocked to the store in such record numbers that the owners had to move an upcoming panel event of authors to a brewery that could accommodate nearly 200 bookworms who RSVP’d in just a few hours.
“I think that people have undervalued the horror literary community,” Komer said, noting the genre’s fanbase is expected to continue to explode in popularity as, “in times of political unrest horror, always comes to the forefront.
“It’s a way of building resilience to real-life horror.”
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