The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham

by Brian Keene, Nick Mamatas

A hilarious, shocking, terrifying thrill-ride across the American landscape, The Damned Highway combines two great flavors of the gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson and the uncanny terrors of H.P. Lovecraft Horror legend Brian Keene and cult storytelling master Nick Matamas dredge up a tale of drug-fueled eldritch madness from the blackest depths of the American Nightmare. On a freaked-out bus journey to Arkham, Massachusetts and the 1972 Presidential primary, evidence mounts that sinister forces are on the rise, led by the Cult of Cthulhu and its most prominent member - Richard M. Nixon

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Lovecraftian, Weird Fiction, Humor, Cthulhu Mythos, Adult

205 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2011

About the author

BRIAN KEENE writes novels, comic books, short fiction, and occasional journalism for money. He is the author of over forty books, mostly in the horror, crime, and dark fantasy genres. His 2003 novel, The Rising, is often credited (along with Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later film) with inspiring pop culture’s current interest in zombies. Keene’s novels have been translated into German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, French, Taiwanese, and many more. In addition to his own original work, Keene has written for media properties such as Doctor Who, Hellboy, Masters of the Universe, and Superman.

Several of Keene’s novels have been developed for film, including Ghoul, The Ties That Bind, and Fast Zombies Suck. Several more are in-development or under option. Keene also serves as Executive Producer for the independent film studio Drunken Tentacle Productions.

Keene also oversees Maelstrom, his own small press publishing imprint specializing in collectible limited editions, via Thunderstorm Books.

Keene’s work has been praised in such diverse places as The New York Times, The History Channel, The Howard Stern Show, CNN.com, Publisher’s Weekly, Media Bistro, Fangoria Magazine, and Rue Morgue Magazine. He has won numerous awards and honors, including the World Horror 2014 Grand Master Award, two Bram Stoker Awards, and a recognition from Whiteman A.F.B. (home of the B-2 Stealth Bomber) for his outreach to U.S. troops serving both overseas and abroad. A prolific public speaker, Keene has delivered talks at conventions, college campuses, theaters, and inside Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, VA.

The father of two sons, Keene lives in rural Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uncle Lono leaves Colorado behind and heads east for Arkham, Massachusetts, in search of the American Nightmare. He winds up caught in a conspiracy that will see Richard Nixon raise Cthulhu from the depths of the ocean to destroy the world...

After reading Fear and Loathing in Innsmouth in Whispers from the Abyss, I was delighted to discover this work existed. Dr. Gonzo visiting Miskatonic University, Arkham, and Innsmouth, written by Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas: how could I lose?

The subtitle of this work is Fear and Loathing in Arkham so I knew what I was getting into. The Damned Highway is written in a voice very similar to Hunter S. Thompson. Only his drug-addled psyche could withstand the cosmic horrors of the Cthulhu mythos.

Without giving too much away, this is a road book peppered with references to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the Cthulhu mythos. Uncle Lono encounters Deep Ones, Cannocks, shoggoths, fungi from Yuggoth, and a lot of other crazy shit. It's a good mix of comedy and cosmic horror.

I have to admit I was a little skeptical at first but Keene and Mamatas did a great job weaving Hunter S. Thompson's style with Lovecraftian horror. Casting Nixon as the villain was a great touch. The last sixty pages or so were really hard to put down.

The Damned HIghway is a fun piece of Lovecraft-inspired fiction, penned by two of the best currently active horror writers. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Winter in Woody Creek, Colorado. It is just after midnight on january 5, 1972, and this is when the fun begins. They call this the wee hours, but there is nothing small about the hours between midnight and dawn. These hours last forever, each one as long and endless as the black gulf between the stars. As I pound the keys, the licking of the clock syncs with the world’s heartbeat, and the rapid-fire staccato of my typewriter slows. Each breath is an eternity.
These are not Wee hours; these hours are larger than life. They also call this the witching hour, and who knows? Perhaps they are right. All that I know for sure is that this is when I do my best work, under the cover of darkness. This is when I am strongest-when the whiskey and the mescaline and the pills course through my body, and my mind burns with a terrible righteousness and sense of indignation. This is alchemy. This is magic. When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro, and I am certainly both. Ask anyone. They know. They’ll tell you that I am both weird and a pro. I am a professional writer and my role is that of the back-ground observer. I am a doctor of journalism, and there is nothing more professional than that. And the night? The night has never been weirder."

These are the opening lines of some really good writing prose. The story is a strain of the bizarre side with some solid analysis of life and politics. A world of Nixon, Hoover and Lovecraft. The American Dream is dead and Richard Nixon presents the American Nightmare for the main protagonist a writer.
A series of hazards and madcap adventures. He voyages through lovecraftian places and characters. The story serves up an nice dose of reading involving occults, cults and fishlike lovecraft characters. The protagonist has an obsession with Nixon.
Arkham and Innsmouth here we come!
Innsmouth a town that feeds Dagon with human sacrifices. A town where subhuman fish people breed with local homecoming queens and mold and mildew are the interior decorator colours of choice. Eventually he descends via road trip to DC with his lawyer to speak to Edgar Hoover. When he meets he finds Hoover has devised a plan a wacky plan to swap brains with Nixon when the writer interviews him.
'Even Reagan' the writer remarks 'are you utterly insane? I've heard gibberish on this latest road trio, but that beats all! Ronal Reagan? He can't be president!
I wonder how he would react if he knew Arnie 'i'll be back' became governor of L.A.
An American nightmare. A writer who switches pen names and who's heart is filled with fear and loathing.

" The American Dream is dead. I know this because I proved it was dead two years ago when I ran for sheriff of Aspen on the Freak Power ticket. There is no American Dream anymore-no guiding principle for generations of our countrymen. In the end, the American Dream was left raped and bleeding and lying face down in an alley, drowning in its own vomit and urine. That was how it ended, but the American Dream didn`t die overnight. No, its death was slow and insidious, like a long, painful bout of intestinal cancer that starts out as just a little flatulence and terminates with you vomiting out your own bloody intestines through your mouth. There were a number of symptoms, but We didn’t spot them in time. The downfall of our last, true American hero, Muhammad Ali, mixed with the treacherous doings in our nation’s capital and the vacation paradise that is Vietnam and the savage anarchy of the Hells Angels and the riots and the sick depravity manifested in Las Vegas. All of this and more contributed to the death of the American Dream and gave birth to the American Nightmare."

Review also here with video interview with thee H.P Lovecraft

[Nathan Shumate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admittedly, this book is a one-trick pony, but when that trick is "H.P. Lovecraft meets Hunter S. Thompson," is enough of a trick to carry the whole book. Set in 1972, it posits an evil behind Nixon beyond the reasons for which a post-hippie gonzo journalist would assume, and so the narrator, who adopts the name "Uncle Lono" for this exploration, sets out to discover the "American Nightmare," and finds more than he bargains for.

My only real complaint with this book stems from my complaints with Thompson and the premise of "gonzo journalism." Yes, he (and the voice in imitation of him recreated here) is a compelling writer, but the idea that pure demonizing diatribe in which vehement opinion is elevated to the stature of a prophetic jeremiad bears any resemblance to "journalism" is -- was -- the beginning of the encroachment of "truthiness" into the realm of fact in American media.

That said, it's a welcome change from the leaden and pedestrian Lovecraftian pastiches in which the imitation of adverbial excess is a wrongheaded tribute to Lovecraft's imagination.

[Sharon Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham by Nick Mamatas and Brian Keene is an intelligent, unique novel that will get you thinking. Politics, drugs, paranoia, the old gods, conspiracies, one crazy writer and a heap of strangeness fill this thrilling novel. The publisher has described The Damned Highway as a combination of the gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson and terrors of H.P. Lovecraft, and I can think of no better or accurate description. In fact, I am still having trouble coming up with words that can do justice to this incredibly smart, funny and thought provoking work. It was among the strangest, and greatest, books that I have read in the last five years. My complete review is available here on Associated Content.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in 1972, and published in 2011, The Damned Highway by Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas is the best book ever written about the 2016 US presidential election.

[TEOTU · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blending the gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson with the dark writing of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos is a match made in heaven, or perhaps some outer dimension, but the two were not contemporaries so they never collaborated, but what if they had?

Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas’ book The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham is the closest thing to such a collaboration. It is a funny and hallucinogenic imagining of a road trip undertaken by Thompson from his Colorado hideaway to the darkest corners of New England and his encounters with the cultists that live where he discovers dark forces are on the move to assist the biggest Cthulhu worshipper of them all, U.S. President Richard Nixon.

The novel is essentially a pastiche of Thompson’s writing style and, for anyone familiar with it, it’s a remarkably faithful facsimile. It is rife with Thompson’s usual mutterings about drugs, authority, handguns and the same sort of creative cursing that he would have used. And like any good Thompson story, it throbs with the undercurrent of violence which threatens to erupt at any moment and often does. It’s very much in the style of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the book for which Thompson is most famous.

The Lovecraftian elements of the story include the settings of Arkham and Innsmouth which are famous outposts in the Chtulhu universe where dark cultists wait for the arrival of the Old Ones. During his adventures, Thompson, who is never named as such, encounters a variety of bizarre characters who may, or may not, be worshippers of the ancient gods.

During his investigations, he discovers the link between the cults and Richard Nixon’s attempt to be re-elected as U.S. President in 1968, the year in which the novel is set. It seems that if Nixon sweeps all 50 states during the campaign, Cthulhu will awake as the sunken isle of R’leyh emerges from the ocean’s depths. Thompson, more worried about Nixon than the elder god, sets off to Washington for a climactic showdown with Nixon.

The cover is also very much reminiscent of the Ralph Steadman illustrations which accompanied some of Thompson’s best-known work. I only wish that there were more of them inside the book. The novel is published by Dark Horse, an imprint more famous for its comic books, so if anyone can add illustrations to a book, it is them. It might even make a good graphic novel some day.

I found this book to be utterly addictive and had a hard time putting it down. Fans of Thompson and Lovecraft will thoroughly enjoy this crossover tour-de-force. Even if you’ve never read either of the authors who inspired this work, you’ll surely get swept up by the insanity of this story and will undoubtedly rush out to read books by them. Not only that, but you’ll probably want to check out more of the works by the men who wrote this love-letter to gonzo writing and eldrich horror.

A review copy of this book was provided by Dark Horse.

[Gef · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I do enjoy Lovecraftian horror, I've never been a fan of the author. And while I've yet to read a book written by Hunter S. Thompson, he's always struck me as a captivating character. So, all that considered, what the hell was I doing reading a book that melds the two? I'm hardly an aficionado of either subject. Honestly, I just thought it was a damned cool idea for a book.

Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas joined forces to craft a sincerely weird journey through the eyes of Hunter S. Thompson, under the guise of Uncle Lono, as he treks across America during the election season of 1968. It's treated as Thompson's attempt to further escape his own fame, while also getting up to his eyeballs in the same kind of gonzo legwork that made him famous in the first place. This time his mission is to unearth the American Nightmare, since the American Dream is dead. Boy, if he only knew.

Now, for a guy like me, my only familiarity with Hunter S. Thompson thus far has been the film adaptations of his work--the Johnny Depp stuff, basically. You would probably expect a book like this to be almost too inside or inaccessible for non-fans of Lovecraft and/or Thompson. Well, even with a vicarious hold of both men's work, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Right from the get-go, despite no direct utterance of Thompson's actual name, the character feels instantly recognizable, not to mention genuine. And I imagine that after I read Fear and Loathing and Hell's Angels, both of which sit somewhere in my home, I'll have an even greater appreciation for all of the work Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas put into this book.

Just a straight-up tribute to the man and his work would have been enjoyable enough, I imagine, given the artful manner in which his style and mood were captured. But throwing in the Lovecraft elements, both direct and alluded to, put the story on a different plain. From stumbling upon ritualistic torture in a seedy bar, to popping mushrooms from Yuggoth in an eighteen-wheeler bound for Arkham, to watching an old companion get carnal with a giant sea creature, the psychotropic rabbit hole Uncle Lono burrows down is too surreal to properly relate to prospective readers.

If there's fault to be found in the book, it's that it is a lean, and very mean two-hundred pages. I would have been content to see the antics carried out over a longer period, but it's hard to begrudge a book that has been distilled down to such a potent proof.

An added bonus comes with the allusions to the 2012 U.S. election, as Uncle Lono opines on the status of American politics in 1968. His inevitable showdown with good ol' Tricky Dick was especially splendiferous--in a macabre kind of way.

Between this, and Ellen Datlow's Supernatural Noir (which I read and reviewed last year), if this is the caliber of fiction Dark Horse plans to publish outside the realm of comic books, then I can't wait to read what they have in store down the road.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Dr. Thompson + H.P. Lovecraft crossover was a must read for me. This could have been cornball, or gimmickey but it wasn't. It was a damn fine tribute to both authors. The more familiar you are with both of them the more you'll take from it. Its a bit slower than Thompson's actual writing, but there are times when its just as fever pitch as any Fear and Loathing sequence. Also its more libertarian than Thompson's actual writing. I suspect one of the authors is one.

Mild spoilers: Thompson goes through Arkham, and Innsmouth, gets into physical alterations with various cultists and deep ones, sees his attorney get body and mind fucked by a sea monster, eats Fungi from Yuggoth, has visions involving Nixon, Kissenger, Ctulhu, Moloch and more. Just to give you a taste of how exactly the crossover works.

I also LOVE the steadman-esque beast on the cover

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like The Damned Highway more than I did but it just wasn’t for me. The writing is fantastic, and the story is great, however I’m not a fan of the style used and this made it hard for me to get into the story and truly enjoy it. I’m sure that other people would love this book but I’m just not a fan of Hunter S. Thompson (the main influence on this book) and that type of writing. I can’t connect with the characters and drug fuelled ramblings just irritate me, I could see the skill in the writing but I didn’t like the delivery and this ended up frustrating me.

[Chuck Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a hilarious read. If you can, grab it on Audible…the guy who reads it is excellent!

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Damned Highway by by Nick Mamatas and Brian Keene mixes together Hunter S. Thompson, H. P. Lovecraft's monsters and Watergate. Thompson, reeling from his unintended fame from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas gets caught up in a plot that involves the invasion of monsters that hinges on the re-election of Richard Nixon.

The book is written in first person, with Thompson as the narrator. His first person observations are written in a voice that wobbles between something similar to Thompson's actual writing style and Lovecraft's Gothic horror.

For me, Thompson's voice seemed forced. It didn't flow. There was too much emphasis on making it as wacky and moody as possible. There wasn't any room for Thompson to take a breadth — or the reader.

Maybe a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Call of Cthulu mashup would have worked. Tossing in Richard Nixon, though, was a distraction. It was one element too many.

[Julian · Rating 1 out of 5]

This union of two styles and genres of writing just didn't work. Both the 'Gonzo' writing and the many Lovecraft references feel forced, and its borderline insulting to the works and lives of both Lovecraft and Thompson. I thought working Thompsons suicide into the plot years before its occurrence was the breaking point for me, until the two authors wrote themselves into the ending. I'm not even sure how it took two authors to create something this bad in the first place. They tried to hard to hit a mark that never existed, and fell short of hitting anything at all.

[D.K. Hundt · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5.0 Stars

As you delve into this book, and, perhaps, your first impression of the narrative is that it reads like the nonsensical (at times hilarious) ramblings of a drug and alcohol-infused unreliable narrator who’s on a road trip, or perhaps he’s just tripping, you would be on point, because, well…that is kind of the point.

THE DAMNED HIGHWAY: FEAR AND LOATHING IN ARKHAM, intended as both a tribute and a parody, is set in the early 1970s—Authors Nick Mamatas and Brian Keene mix the gonzo journalism of Hunter A. Thompson, the Comic Horror of H.P Lovecraft, and 1972 Presidential election featuring Incumbent Republican Richard M. “I Am Not A Crook” Nixon.

Thompson wrote his novel FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS in 1971, billed as a cult classic that centers around the journalist and his lawyer, their drug-addled brains, and a road trip they go on during a long weekend.

As much I am transfixed by the Shroom-induced hallucinations—out of pure curiosity, to be honest, as to where this book is headed, I had to call it quits at the fifty percent mark.

Trust me, Dear Reader, the promise of seeing Nixon portrayed as a tentacle-waving member of the Cult of Cthulhu (mentioned in the synopsis) is well worth the price of admission—my one hope—that he’s met with an unpleasant end. So, I may return to this book at a later date.

I have to admit I have yet read any of Thompson’s work, and this is my first introduction to Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas’ writing, though Keene’s book THE RISING has been creeping it's way up to the top of my towering TBR pile, which I hope to read soon.

Thank you, NetGalley and Crossroad Press, for loaning me an eGalley of THE DAMNED HIGHWAY: FEAR AND LOATHING IN ARKHAM in the request of an honest review.

[Nikolas Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas answer a question no one ever thought to ask with The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham. What if Hunter S. Thompson, instead of joining the campaign trail during the 1972 presidential primaries, traveled to the fictional town of Arkham, MA, where he experienced the horrors H.P. Lovecraft described in his writing?
I'm honestly a bit sad that I didn't know about this book when it was originally released ten years ago. The cover art for that edition is definitely superior and so perfectly captures the blend of cosmic horror and gonzo journalism one is destined to find if they crack the spine and open this book. When I say they've perfectly captured this blend of otherwise disparate things, I'm not joking. The Thompson pastiche doesn't come across as being satirical or heavy-handed. As someone who's read essentially everything Thompson had published, the style is unmistakable...and these two authors nailed it, including the unrelenting disdain for Nixon. I've never read any other work from Mamatas, though I've always sort of intended to (it just falls by the wayside). but I've enjoyed a good number of Keene's books in the past, and nothing from his other work mimicked the style and texture of another author in this way.
Feeling as if he's going to be crushed under the weight of both snow and an endless barrage of unwanted fan letters, our eminently unreliable narrator determines that he needs to escape from his Colorado compound. He can't go West. That's where all of this awfulness began. Instead, he chooses to go all the way in the opposite direction. Looking at the map on the bus station wall, he picks Arkham as his destination. A short while later, he's waiting for the bus to arrive as an ethereal tentacle caresses his leg....and you can sort of guess where it goes from there.
The biggest difference between this fictionalized version of Hunter S. Thompson and the traditional Lovecraft narrators is the capacity to take in stride things that should drive any sane man mad. The moral of the story is that when you're never quite sure that a thing you're seeing isn't just another hallucinatory episode brought on by the surplus of illicit substances you've carried with you, it's far easier to cope with unearthly horrors. In that sense, it could be argued that there would be no better guide into the realm of eldritch horrors. It could be argued that a man with Thompson's psychology is uniquely suited to document this descent into the unknown.
This is an odd book in so many ways, but it's equal parts amusing and horrifying; it's disturbing in both its depiction of cosmic horrors and the antisocial, drug-addled mind of our protagonist.

[D.K. Hundt · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5.0 Stars

As you delve into this book, and, perhaps, your first impression of the narrative is that it reads like the nonsensical (at times hilarious) ramblings of a drug and alcohol-infused unreliable narrator who’s on a road trip, or perhaps he’s just tripping, you would be on point, because, well…that is kind of the point.

THE DAMNED HIGHWAY: FEAR AND LOATHING IN ARKHAM, intended as both a tribute and a parody, is set in the early 1970s—Authors Nick Mamatas and Brian Keene mix the gonzo journalism of Hunter A. Thompson, the Comic Horror of H.P Lovecraft, and 1972 Presidential election featuring Incumbent Republican Richard M. “I Am Not A Crook” Nixon.

Thompson wrote his novel FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS in 1971, billed as a cult classic that centers around the journalist and his lawyer, their drug-addled brains, and a road trip they go on during a long weekend.

As much I am transfixed by the Shroom-induced hallucinations—out of pure curiosity, to be honest, as to where this book is headed, I had to call it quits at the fifty percent mark.

Trust me, Dear Reader, the promise of seeing Nixon portrayed as a tentacle-waving member of the Cult of Cthulhu (mentioned in the synopsis) is well worth the price of admission—my one hope—that he’s met with an unpleasant end. So, I may return to this book at a later date.

I have to admit I have yet read any of Thompson’s work, and this is my first introduction to Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas’ writing, though Keene’s book THE RISING has been creeping its way up to the top of my towering TBR pile, which I hope to read soon.

Thank you, NetGalley and Crossroad Press, for loaning me an eGalley of THE DAMNED HIGHWAY: FEAR AND LOATHING IN ARKHAM in the request of an honest review.

[zxvasdf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our favorite gonzo journalist is at it again, only this time the madness exists outside his head!

Reeling from the fame and notoriety caused by his Vegas book, the Duke reinvents himself and becomes Uncle Lono. He strikes eastward on the corpse of the American Dream in search of the American Nightmare. He encounters bizarre situations which he takes in stride because there is always cause for great and terrible violence, and because he's got Wild Turkey and Heineken in hand. The drugs help too, of course. Especially the fungi from Yuggoth.

The American Nightmare Uncle Lono discovers is something so terrible and pervasive, he decides he's the only one mad enough to fight it!

This book is very well written. I have not read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but I imagine the style is very similar. This is fan fiction at its best, written with loving regard and due respect for the original gonzo journalist. The Lovecraftian aspect blends beautifully with the inherent insanity of the Duke's rambling. Mamatas and Keene take great pleasure in bringing us Thompson's last adventure, that one last hoorah before age and pain takes its toll across the long years towards that final, fearless moment.

Deliciously depraved, hilarious in its many contradictions, and relentlessly inventive, this is not a book I'll easily forget.

*Courtesy of Netgalley*

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I would like to blame work and the excessive hours it takes from my life, I know the real reason I'm about 8 behind my goal of 65 books for 2016 is because of books like this one.

The first half? It was awesome and I couldn't put the damn thing down. I sped through the first 45-50% of The Damned Highway in something like 2 days. At first the mashup of the gonzo journalism of Hunter S Thompson mixed with the cosmic horror of HP Lovecraft worked surprisingly well. Think an extremely sarcastic and jaded reporter describing the Eldric and dark entities of Lovecraft's stuffy fictional cosmos. It's true it doesn't seem like a good pairing but in execution it went together about as well as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. At least it did before it got old and stale.

Aside from the often times overwrought prose, The story of The Damned Highway quickly grew boring and stretched for far too long a length. Even though this book topped out at under 250 pages, it felt far longer. After all, there really is only so much you can do with a plot like this. Repeating scenes over and over again only served to lengthen an already weak storyline. Add in an extremely rushed and confusing conclusion in the book quite suddenly became more of a chore to read than an actual form of entertainment. And honestly it really is a bit sad because I really wanted to like this book.

[Kaisersoze · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a huge fan of Brian Keene, I've been gradually buying a copy of every one of his books over the past five or so years. Though I'm missing some of his very early, limited press works, and those that he only releases as part of his Maelstrom deals, I pretty much have everything else he's published. The one exception was this novel he co-wrote with Nick Mamatas, and the reason for that exception was that I knew I wouldn't like it. I'm not a Hunter S Thompson fan; I'm not schooled enough in American politics from that era; and I don't generally get a kick out of psychedelic, drug-fueled ramblings in place of a coherent narrative structure. (Though I do like myself a good Lovecraftian homage.)

But if I wanted to own everything Brian Keene has written, then I was going to have to bite the bullet.

So I did, and I read The Damned Highway, and it was everything I'd thought it would be. So I can't even honestly say I was disappointed or surprised. My rating therefore simply reflects how little I enjoyed this - even if those who like the things I mentioned above may love every page.

Very much not for me, but Brian Keene still rocks.

1 Ill-Advised Bus Trip for The Damned Highway.

[J.T. Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining, if completely pointless, mash-up of HST and HPL: Crawling Chaos in Las Vegas if you like. It doesn't have the energy to sustain a full book and, as others have said, the writing could have done with a few less uses (about 10 less) of "fear and loathing" and "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" in its barely-200 pages. It's an accurate enough pastiche of Thompson, though, with a few witty touches (the fungi from Yuggoth as hallucinogenic mushrooms is a delightful gag). In combining cosmological terror, conspiratorial rambling and narcotic episodes, the overall effect seems familiar: reminiscent of David Wong or Mark Manning as much as Raoul Duke or Randolph Carter.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd story of Hunter S. Thompson facing the forces of Lovecraft's mythos during the 1972 presidential campaign. He really doesn't like Nixon, but doesn't seem to be much in favor of anyone else, either. It's a well-told humorous story, certainly very different than anything else that Keene has previously done, but is pretty much the same thing that Mamatas did in an earlier novel called MOVE UNDER GROUND. It just features Thompson this time and is set a decade later. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a sequel to (or perhaps a reboot of) the earlier, shorter book or not; I'd recommend reading one or the other but not bothering with both.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gonzo is an apt word for this tale, but such was the goal of Nick Mamatas and Brian Keene when they penned this one. While I enjoyed it for a variety of reason (Uncle Lono and his cast of supporting characters, the denizens of Arkham, fun with senators...all that), but what really got me was the weirdness of it all. I dig weird.

The plot finds Lono crossing the country on the tail (or is that tentacle?) of a story with eternal implications for mankind, big stuff for most journalists but just par, I think, for Lono. It's a fun ride.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keene and Mamatas totally nail the distinctive voice and worldview of Hunter S. Thompson in this book, and the way the plot integrates both Thompsonian obsessions like Nixon and Lovecraftian touchstones like "fungi from Yuggoth" is note-perfect. I know it can be worrisome to hear a book described as "Hunter S. Thompson meets Cthulhu," because that's the sort of idea that can very easily go wrong. But fortunately, this book is exactly what you'd want from that elevator pitch. A total blast.

[Nicholas Kaufmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hunter S. Thompson runs afoul of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos in this fast, fun novel. Fans of history, politics, and fungi from Yuggoth will love it. Fans of Nixon, G. Gordon Liddy, J. Edgar Hoover, and Mi-Gos may take issue.

[Matt McRoberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it kind of boring.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frolicing fun and satire with Dr. Lono (Hunter S. Thompson) taking his hate for Nixon and the search for the American Nightmare to Arkham.

[Fresno Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

how has no one done this before?

[Ingrid Stephens · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a fan of Brian Keene, so when I saw this book I had to read it. Unfortunately, it ended up not being for me. No fault of the talent of either writer, but I have never read Hunter S. Thompson and am not the biggest Lovecraft fan in general. But even with those two major issues, I was intrigued by the book's description blurb.
I had to look up Thompson to see what he was so famous for because all I saw was a loud-mouth, drugged fueled, egotistical man who thought he was the story no matter what he wrote, and if you say it loud enough and long enough it can become true. Well, the last 4 years showed he was right on that front, but I digress.
Thompson, or as he is called in the book, Uncle Lono, annoyed me to the point of mumbling to myself as I read.
It takes place in 1972, as Nixon is running for re-election. Apparently, all republicans are Cthulhu worshipers and Nixon is the chosen one that they blindly follow even to the point of murder and torture if you voted democrat. Sounds familiar, actually...way too familiar. I like the idea of Nixon being an evil being, a prominent member of the Cult of Cthulhu It was just an amusing enough idea to be fun. Unfortunately for me, it was not fun. I spent a lot of time saying “What the hell…? What is wrong with this guy?” until I had to call Uncle and give it up.
I’m not saying the book is not good, if this is your style of horror then have at it. You’ll love it. But it is not mine, it was just farcical and silly in my eyes and a waste of good reading time. (Sorry but true)

I received this book free of charge in exchange for my honest, unbiased review, thanks to Crossroad Press and @Netgalley

[Horror DNA · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's safe to say that just about everyone has at least heard of Hunter S. Thompson. Whether it's because of the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or Uncle Duke in the Doonesbury comic strip, everyone should have an idea of who the gonzo journalist was. He wrote a series of articles in the early ‘70s focusing on the Democratic campaign for president which was later collected into a book called Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. Authors Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas have "unearthed" ten lost chapters from the book that shows a very different view of the historic election as Richard Nixon won his second consecutive term, one that involves Cthulhu, Moloch, mind-swapping and more. It's been released as The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham.

You can read James' full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mash-up of Thompson and Lovecraft should be in my bailiwick, and it is, but this is more pastiche than anything else. His first encounters with sinister figures doing weird things tends to leave both parties puzzled and at cross-purposes, which shiuld be funnier than it actually is, but the gonzo patter and the solemn threats belong on different planets. Later on, politics get involved and that's where it gets properly lively and Thompson incorporates cosmic monstrosities into his worldview of US politics with relative ease and is more at home with plitical figures worshipping or defying Cthulhu than run-of-the-mill high priests and such and his verbal fireworks are more at home with the horror.

[Nathan Pilgrim · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than a alternative Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, this is more influenced by Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, which can be a little misgiving.

Beyond that it is a really fun trip, pun maybe a little intended, following Thompson across northamerica and going deep in the heart of Lovecraft territory is really amusing to see, however in is really loaded with tons of lovecraft lore and name dropping, and this can hinder your experience through the book, specially if you have little of no idea of the politics of the US in the 70's, other than that, I highly recommend this book to any Lovecraft follower or just a weird things lover.