The Rules of the Road

"The rules don’t fuck around. "

What a hard book to rate.

We have a narrator, a ride-along character, who stumbles upon a mysterious radio program while driving late one night. A mystery man, Buck Hensley, comes on the air with a short radio segment entitled "Rules of the Road", where he delivers a strange ultimatum to our driver. If he sees a single solitary shoe on the side of the road, he has to stop and put a sock inside it. If he doesn't, something bad will happen. Sure enough, not long after hearing this (and after the absurdity of it has lodged itself deep inside our man's brain), he sees a shoe alongside the road. Of course he stops. And what happens after he does so sends our man on a spiraling journey to connect with other people who have experienced this same strange radio broadcast, who know about Buck Hensley, and what their particular Rule of the Road might have been. Some did as instructed. Some didn't.

The bulk of this book is taken up by the stories that our main character compiles into a website, and forms the narrative structure. 12 stories from different people about their encounter with the broadcast are included here, as well as a final story from our main character that explains some things about Buck Hensley, and an epilogue about how things end up. The short stories are a mixed bag, there's lots of author commentary here in some stories about cell phone usage (people being obsessed with their phones), some political viewpoint commentary, and immigration issues. The stories themselves are supposed to be unsettling and creepy, but of all of them I think only three were standouts for me ("What's Your Name", "Landslide", and "Left of the Dial"). The others came off boring or preachy or repetitive. Chapter 13, the Buck Hensley backstory, felt tacked on, and while I appreciated the info to fill in the gaps (including the origins for the "Rules of the Road"), it felt too... I don't know... different from what the rest of the book was supposed to be. I did end up feeling things for (ending/plot spoilers) Buck and Carla as their story was told, and I did like how the author turned each of her road trip superstitions/habits into its own story, I just wish it felt more put-together.

Still, I did feel compelled to finish this, and it did make me feel things, so there's something here. It's just a bit hard to get through to the interesting bits.

I really liked the first part with the stories of people who heard the Rules of the Road broadcasts, I have a thing for radio based horror (oddly enough because you couldn't pay me enough to willingly listen to the radio) so that was really up my proverbial alley. However the ending is where things sort of just unraveled for me and I was left with a feeling of oh-okay. Still well worth the read just for the vignettes.

The book is in the same vein as Alice Isn't Dead by Joseph Fink and I would recommend it for readers who enjoy the general vibe of Fink's writing style a lot of its best elements are present in Jones' style but with a gritter tone.

It was also a surprisingly quick read for a book that's over 300 pages long.