Atlanta's Grim Reader Bookshop celebrates the more macabre side of literature
It's a bit of a food truck meets book club with a dash of spooky season on top.
The Grim Reader is a new mobile book shop in Atlanta that's adding a twist to what it means to be dying to get your hands on your next read.
Some people may think Atlanta's renowned Oakland Cemetery would be an odd place for a book shop on wheels. Olivia Doyle thinks it's just perfect.
"It's filled with birds chirping, a lot of greenery, a lot of beauty, in something that is so haunting, but is something so rich in history as well," Dolye said.
It might make more sense when you look at the car she drives her books around in
"Horror, spooky, fantasy, dark stories, and then we just kept talking, and we were like, wouldn't it be really funny if we put it all into the back of a hearse?" Doyle recalled. "Fifteen days later, this was in my driveway."
After looking through a few Facebook groups for buying, selling, and trading hearses, Olivia and her husband found one for under $10,000.
"We decommissioned one from a funeral home in Villa Rica," she said.
Instead of being filled with bodies, The Grim Reader Bookshop is filled with books and, well, one body. Chester the skeleton sits in the driver's seat.
While she knows this isn't what some people would consider normal, Doyle wants to share her passion for this brand of storytelling.
"I really wanted to celebrate this thing that people are excited about. The horror, the spooky, the dark stuff, but they're kind of afraid to talk about because they think people will look at them a little oddly," she said. "It's not necessarily about gore or jump scares or adrenaline. It has a lot of complex themes and natures that we want to let people feel a little more comfortable enjoying."
She wants people to embrace their inner spooky, one book at a time.
Doyle and The Grim Reader plan to open a storefront on Friday the 13th. You'll still be able to catch her and Chester rolling around Atlanta for the mobile bookshop.
