Tales from the Gas Station: Volume One

Amazing book, I first thought they were just a random assortment of stories until you noticed 5hat there is clearly a plot line and chronilogical order to it. A must read if you wan to laugh and be on the edge.

This book, this series, is so special. I highly encourage everyone to give it a chance. Over time it develops into something weird, profound, beautiful, and irreverent

Creepypasta

Tales from the Gas Station: Volume One by Jack Townsend

A Lonely Broadcast: Book One by Kel Byron

The Neverglades: Volume One by David Farrow.


Wiki defines “creepypasta” as:

“A creepypasta is a horror-related legend which has been shared around the Internet.[1][2][3] The term creepypasta has since become a catch-all term for any horror content posted onto the Internet.[4] These entries are often brief, user-generated, paranormal stories that are intended to frighten readers. The subjects of creepypasta vary widely and can include topics such as ghosts, cryptids, murder, suicide, zombies, aliens, rituals to summon entities, haunted television shows, and video games.[1] Creepypastas range in length from a single paragraph to extended multi-part series that can span multiple media types, some lasting for years.[4]”

The three books I picked out seem to fit this category. They started out as internet blogs, are in the horror genre, and are part of a series.

Tales from the Gas Station was the most entertaining by far. It occupied a horror zone adjacent to the weirdness of “Welcome to Night Vale.” Night Vale is a podcast that features developing news reports from a small town in the American Southwest. It has secret police, para-dimensional visitors, UFOs, and every other kind of conspiracy that the tin-foil hat brigade imagines emanates from Area 51.

The Gas Station in Townsend's story sits in the woods outside an unnamed small American town with dark, spooky forests. It is an area where cultists have compounds in the neighborhood, eldritch gods build enclaves, and the odd serial killer might wander in for a slushie. Jack is the protagonist of the story. He's dying of some odd ailment, so he doesn't engage much with his life. Things happen around Jack, who refuses to admit surprise or much interest because it would involve him in the life he is shortly to exit.

The existential weirdness and the nonchalant attitude of Jack are a great part of the charm of this story.

In addition, a plot, character development, conflict, and growth emerge in the story, which was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed this story. It wasn't great literature, but it was entertaining.

I found A Lonely Broadcast less worthwhile. Evelyn McKinnon returns to Pinehaven to work in a radio station in an old first tower on the outskirt of another small American town surrounded by dark, spooky woods. This story has no humor, as Evelyn discovers that the forest is haunted. The haunting seems to be composed of equal parts of The Fog by Stephen King and Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. Dead things don't stay dead in the forest. They come back mutated and kill the living. The townspeople seem to know this to a greater or lesser extent but it is kept mostly quiet. The radio station where Evelyn works is a warning station against the macabre.

I found the story far beyond my tolerance for willing suspension of disbelief. Evelyn is the twenty-eighth person to work at the station – the others having been killed – but station management is still sending in people to get killed? Evelyn grew up in the town, and her father was killed fighting the mystery, but Evelyn knew nothing about what was going on? There was no orientation for Evelyn about what to expect? The government hasn't evacuated the entire area and sent in a pacification force? In the first part of the book, Evelyn gets a call on the air from somebody who it turns out was her best friend, but she didn't know the person when she got the call?

The Lonely Broadcast series seems to be well-received. It is now in multiple sequels. To me, though, it was not original enough to hold my interest.

Likewise, I did not finish The Neverglades by David Farrow. In this book, we have another secluded, remote, small American town hiding in the pine forests of the Pacific Northwest. The main character is a local police detective who runs into weird deaths. He's helped out by a seven-foot-tall being who wears a fedora, smokes a cigar, and goes by “the Inspector.” This being is from another dimension. It turns out that the “Neverglades,” as the area is called, is an arena for interdimensional incursions.

I didn't find the mysteries very compelling. It seemed like the stories I read were designed to bring in the Inspector, who can then unravel the mystery. There was nothing wrong with the stories. I didn't find the characters or plots compelling. Though, if Scoobie Doo is your kind of thing, this might be your kind of thing.

i enjoyed some parts of it, but in its entirety, it's not really my cup of tea.

This review is only going to be a stream of me gushing about how much I loved this book for a couple of paragraphs.
Townsend brought together some of my favorite world building elements, horror themes treated as par for the course and no big deal (think a WTNV kind of approach), a how are you still alive main characters who isn't even all that sure he wants to be there (something that will speak to any millennial's soul) and a grimy setting. There's a great sense of humor that ties it all together in an amazing and non-stop moving package.
Jack is amazing and he's probably my second favorite character of all times at this point (having lodged himself between Tommy Wildclown from The Apocalypse Series by G. Wells Taylor and John Taylor from The Nightside Series by Simon R. Green, I have a type and, apparently, they don't always have to be private investigators they can also be gas station attendants).
Now I'm going to try to pace myself and wait maybe a week before I start volume 2, wish me luck!

Edited to add (November 2, 2023), it's been a little over a year since I initally read this book and I still find myself making references to it fairly regularly and I've read literally hundreds of books since, it was just that good.

Jack is going to die. As the book goes on, in more than one possible way, but alas, he has this illness that is definitely got good for him. He has a fatal insomnia condition, so it seems logical to do the kind of job where he needs to stay overnight; non-stop gas station attendant. It must be boring, yeah?
Except his workplace is outside a small town in the middle of nowhere, and things are not how they should normally be. Mutated raccoons steal cigarettes if you don't pay attention. Plants looking and moving exactly like human hands are growing outside that you have to burn sometimes or else they rip apart animals (and they scream while they burn). A death cult regularly comes in and buys up all the snacks.
At one point he just decided that hey, writing a blog about his experiences could work. What could go wrong?

Normally I am not super much into horror. I love the mystery parts, where you have the ominous feeling and you don't know what the hell is wrong. But the actual, being chased by the psycho with an axe? Nah. Not for me. Luckily, this was heavily based on the fact this person is telling you his story in first person. To him a bunch of the odd things are perfectly normal to him. He tells you like you would tell someone about a weird guy at work or the leaky coffee machine in the break room.
There is something cool about the almost bored tone. You know. It is what it is, the naked cowboy is in the bathroom again.

The issue with writing a review is, though, that I have no idea what to say that would sell you on this, but wouldn't say too much that is a spoiler OR that just makes me sound deranged.

Sort of just a truckload of weird stories dumped in a pile, but done with such style that I thoroughly enjoyed it. This didn't have much of a throughline plot, but what there was intrigued me - I would like to know more since it wasn't remotely wrapped up in this volume.This is very reminiscent of David Wong/Jason Pargin's [b:John Dies at the End 1857440 John Dies at the End (John Dies at the End, #1) David Wong https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1189289716s/1857440.jpg 1858059] novels, and evidently it has a similar origin story - online tales connected and published as a book. I found Jack's stories less compelling than Dave & John's weird, gross, hilarious, and oddly philosophical romps, but they scratch the same itch. I'll definitely be tuning in to the YouTube stories to see what additional fun is in store!