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Highways to Hell
"Let me unequivocally state that Bryan Smith creates the most fantastic, sick, demented and twisted characters in horror fiction today." -Famous Monsters of Filmland "I look forward to spending a weekend with a new Bryan Smith book the way I used to look forward to spending a weekend with a new Richard Laymon novel. In my view, there isn't higher praise than that."--Brian Keene, author of The Rising. "Holy. Shit." -Horror Drive-In The road to hell is paved with angels and demons. Brain worms and dead prostitutes. Serial killers and frustrated writers. Zombies and Rock 'n Roll. And once you start down this path, there is no going back. Collecting thirteen tales of shock and terror from Bryan Smith, Highways to Hell is a non-stop road-trip of cruelty, pain, and death. Grab a seat, Smith has such sights to show you.
192 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2011
8 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
Bryan Smith
106 books765 followersBryan Smith is the Splatterpunk Award-winning author of more than forty horror and crime books, including 68 Kill, the cult classic Depraved and its sequels, as well as The Killing Kind, Slowly We Rot, The Freakshow, and many more. Bestselling horror author Brian Keene called Slowly We Rot, "The best zombie novel I've ever read."
68 Kill was adapted into a motion picture directed by Trent Haaga and starring Matthew Gray Gubler of the long-running CBS series Criminal Minds. 68 Kill won the Midnighters Award at the SXSW film festival in 2017 and was released to wide acclaim, including positive reviews in The New York Times and Bloody Disgusting.
Bryan also co-scripted an original Harley Quinn story for the House of Horrors anthology from DC Comics. He has worked with renowned horror publishers in both the mass market and small press spheres, including Leisure Books, Samhain Publishing, Grindhouse Press, Death’s Head Press, and more. His works are available wherever books are sold, with select titles also available in German and Italian.
68 Kill was adapted into a motion picture directed by Trent Haaga and starring Matthew Gray Gubler of the long-running CBS series Criminal Minds. 68 Kill won the Midnighters Award at the SXSW film festival in 2017 and was released to wide acclaim, including positive reviews in The New York Times and Bloody Disgusting.
Bryan also co-scripted an original Harley Quinn story for the House of Horrors anthology from DC Comics. He has worked with renowned horror publishers in both the mass market and small press spheres, including Leisure Books, Samhain Publishing, Grindhouse Press, Death’s Head Press, and more. His works are available wherever books are sold, with select titles also available in German and Italian.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 15, 2016
This was a disappointing collection from one of my favourite authors who freely acknowledges in the opening "About The Stories" section that he does not usually write short fiction and is not particularly enamoured by it.
Now I'm all for a bit of transparency when it comes to authors and their work. But in this case, it really shows that Smith had to be talked into this collection.
Smith is renowned by writing pulpish horror with beautiful femme fatales who will kill anyone and anything that get in their way, hapless males who get led around by one of their organs, and fantastic creatures which bring mayhem and death to anyone they happen across. And while Highways to Hell is replete with plenty of the first two types of characters, the fantastic elements i enjoy about much of his longer fiction was largely absent.
That alone would not be enough to sully a collection for me. But what does are stories which are too repetitive to be distinguishable a day after completing them, and numerous typos and errors not picked up by editors before release. Highways to Hell, sadly, suffers from both of these problems.
That said, there are two very good stories which stood head and shoulders above the rest here: JARHEAD and TRUTH. Both were varied enough to be memorable, one contained an excellent twist, and the other was disturbingly entertaining. If only the other tales contained within had have been of the same calibre...
Time to pick a Bryan Smith novel to restore my fanboy love for his work.
2.5 Women as Beautiful as They Are Lethal for Highways to Hell.
Now I'm all for a bit of transparency when it comes to authors and their work. But in this case, it really shows that Smith had to be talked into this collection.
Smith is renowned by writing pulpish horror with beautiful femme fatales who will kill anyone and anything that get in their way, hapless males who get led around by one of their organs, and fantastic creatures which bring mayhem and death to anyone they happen across. And while Highways to Hell is replete with plenty of the first two types of characters, the fantastic elements i enjoy about much of his longer fiction was largely absent.
That alone would not be enough to sully a collection for me. But what does are stories which are too repetitive to be distinguishable a day after completing them, and numerous typos and errors not picked up by editors before release. Highways to Hell, sadly, suffers from both of these problems.
That said, there are two very good stories which stood head and shoulders above the rest here: JARHEAD and TRUTH. Both were varied enough to be memorable, one contained an excellent twist, and the other was disturbingly entertaining. If only the other tales contained within had have been of the same calibre...
Time to pick a Bryan Smith novel to restore my fanboy love for his work.
2.5 Women as Beautiful as They Are Lethal for Highways to Hell.
April 10, 2015
Bryan Smith is vastly more known for his novels than short stories. He even writes in the introduction that this might be the only collection he puts out because he simply has not written many shorts, having gained notoriety in the horror literary world with his novel length stories.
With Highways To Hell, the majority of stories involve someone doing something bad to another, only to have the tables turned - the shoe on the other foot, so to speak. After a few stories, things get predictable. Most of the short stories are pretty average, but manage enough fun and go by quick enough that it keeps you reading.
My favorite two are found at the end of the collection. Walk Among Us and Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be stand out as easily the best and it was nice to end the book on those high points. Another positive note is that Walk Among Us is quite long - a novelette length - and moves like lightning, with colorful characters and a nicely constructed world building, all in a little over 30 pages. Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be was written for the Edward Lee tribute anthology, Infernally Yours, and is wholly entertaining and any fan of Lee will be all smiles when reading it.
Consistently solid stories aside, I was disappointed in the large number of typos and spelling errors I found throughout the book and was surprised Deadite Press put out such a product. Overall, a mild recommendation as far as short stories go, but fans of Smith and Edward Lee should have a better time with it.
With Highways To Hell, the majority of stories involve someone doing something bad to another, only to have the tables turned - the shoe on the other foot, so to speak. After a few stories, things get predictable. Most of the short stories are pretty average, but manage enough fun and go by quick enough that it keeps you reading.
My favorite two are found at the end of the collection. Walk Among Us and Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be stand out as easily the best and it was nice to end the book on those high points. Another positive note is that Walk Among Us is quite long - a novelette length - and moves like lightning, with colorful characters and a nicely constructed world building, all in a little over 30 pages. Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be was written for the Edward Lee tribute anthology, Infernally Yours, and is wholly entertaining and any fan of Lee will be all smiles when reading it.
Consistently solid stories aside, I was disappointed in the large number of typos and spelling errors I found throughout the book and was surprised Deadite Press put out such a product. Overall, a mild recommendation as far as short stories go, but fans of Smith and Edward Lee should have a better time with it.
August 4, 2019
Bryan Smith is one of my all-time favorite horror writers. There is no one who comes closer to telling an amazing tale à la Richard Laymon, than Bryan.
However, short stories are not his thing and it shows. There are some great ideas in here like the version of Hell for a wanna-be redeemed serial killer, Jarhead, and the Grimm Detective Agency but they just don’t flow as short stories. I struggled to read this book and that’s hard for me to say about Bryan Smith because his full length novels are just killer.
However, short stories are not his thing and it shows. There are some great ideas in here like the version of Hell for a wanna-be redeemed serial killer, Jarhead, and the Grimm Detective Agency but they just don’t flow as short stories. I struggled to read this book and that’s hard for me to say about Bryan Smith because his full length novels are just killer.
August 2, 2011
The thirteen stories in this collection by Bryan Smith are frightening and hilarious, repulsive and fun in the spirit of good old fashioned pulp fiction. I was often reminded of some of the better tales in EC comics but here, of course, Smith has the license to ratchet up the sex and violence to 21st Century standards. There is some extreme horror, the likes of which Edward Lee or Richard Layman might employ, but it never felt gratuitous.
Smith’s characters are vivid and quite believable. Most of them will ring true for readers who came of age during the days of slackers and Gen Xers. The tales are seasoned with lots of details of these time periods—the characters drive hand-me-down vintage cars, listen to lots of classic rock (The Doors pop up often), and use alcohol and drugs rather nonchalantly.
Smith is simply a gifted writer, able to bring all this to life. For us horror fans, it’s a bonus he has decided to bring these gifts to our genre. While the entire collection is enjoyable—no filler here—I will highlight a few of my favorites:
The collection is framed by two great stories and in content and theme provide the perfect bookends to the overall loose theme—highways to hell.
In “Living Dead Bitch,” Rick and Danny are driving on a rural two lane road while wasted when they realize there is a dead woman in the back seat. They do not remember the night before well, certainly not her. She turns out to a zombie. While the story is fairly simple, these two losers offer some great black comedy to the ghastly proceedings.
The final tale, “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be,” begins near the end when John Marlowe wakes with a hangover, opens his refrigerator to find his wife’s severed head, a reminder of the murder he committed the night before. Currently 42, we learn while in his early 20s, John Marlowe decided to be a serial killer as a road to fame and fortune. He was too good as it and was never caught, thus—no fame. When his wife mentions he has confessed the crimes in his sleep and wants to blackmail him, he kills her, writes his confession and then kills himself
It may seem like I just gave a lot away, but that is only the set-up for this inventive and often darkly comic journey to Hell. John meets up with one of his victims who was actually quite a prolific killer herself before he sent her to Hell. I will say nothing further, so as not to spoil the fun, but she serves as his guide to a unique view of the Underworld. Eighties nostalgia also provides nice flavor to this one.
Other creative tales include: “Pizza Face”-- a pizza delivery guy’s interruption of a home invasion by some colorful crazies --“Jarhead” is one of those tales where I am already saying too much that the title is a hilarious play on words and “Walk among Us” is an exciting tale of monster slayers who travel time through magic portals.
I highly recommend this exciting and highly creative collection.
Smith’s characters are vivid and quite believable. Most of them will ring true for readers who came of age during the days of slackers and Gen Xers. The tales are seasoned with lots of details of these time periods—the characters drive hand-me-down vintage cars, listen to lots of classic rock (The Doors pop up often), and use alcohol and drugs rather nonchalantly.
Smith is simply a gifted writer, able to bring all this to life. For us horror fans, it’s a bonus he has decided to bring these gifts to our genre. While the entire collection is enjoyable—no filler here—I will highlight a few of my favorites:
The collection is framed by two great stories and in content and theme provide the perfect bookends to the overall loose theme—highways to hell.
In “Living Dead Bitch,” Rick and Danny are driving on a rural two lane road while wasted when they realize there is a dead woman in the back seat. They do not remember the night before well, certainly not her. She turns out to a zombie. While the story is fairly simple, these two losers offer some great black comedy to the ghastly proceedings.
The final tale, “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be,” begins near the end when John Marlowe wakes with a hangover, opens his refrigerator to find his wife’s severed head, a reminder of the murder he committed the night before. Currently 42, we learn while in his early 20s, John Marlowe decided to be a serial killer as a road to fame and fortune. He was too good as it and was never caught, thus—no fame. When his wife mentions he has confessed the crimes in his sleep and wants to blackmail him, he kills her, writes his confession and then kills himself
It may seem like I just gave a lot away, but that is only the set-up for this inventive and often darkly comic journey to Hell. John meets up with one of his victims who was actually quite a prolific killer herself before he sent her to Hell. I will say nothing further, so as not to spoil the fun, but she serves as his guide to a unique view of the Underworld. Eighties nostalgia also provides nice flavor to this one.
Other creative tales include: “Pizza Face”-- a pizza delivery guy’s interruption of a home invasion by some colorful crazies --“Jarhead” is one of those tales where I am already saying too much that the title is a hilarious play on words and “Walk among Us” is an exciting tale of monster slayers who travel time through magic portals.
I highly recommend this exciting and highly creative collection.
March 25, 2012
Having read nine novels by Bryan Smith I have become used to a high level of horror writing and this eclectic mix of short stories does not fail to hit the same level. The 13 stories within the book have a good mixture of funny and sickening moments with a range of topics from vampires, zombies, serial killers, Hell and more. [return][return]The characters within the book are all believable especially if you were young in the 80s with lots of the details from this era such as the bands named. This helps to add to the stories making them more realistic and helping to make you relate to the people within the tales. [return][return]Whilst this collection of stories doesn't have the same level of sex and gore as his novels; it doesn't detract from the level of fun within the book. Highly recommended.
July 27, 2021
Well, I'll Be Damned...
Sometimes...I wonder where Bryan Smith gets the inspiration for the things he writes, but then, I'm not sure that I truly want to know.
Sometimes...I wonder where Bryan Smith gets the inspiration for the things he writes, but then, I'm not sure that I truly want to know.
May 23, 2016
Short fiction is not one of Bryan's strong areas, but pick up something longer by him and prepare to have your mind blown. Still, there was enough good content to warrant four stars. I almost dropped it to three stars for the excessive editting errors which at times detracted from the story content, but then I decided it wouldn't be fair to hold that against the author.
Grab a copy of this book, read a story or two from time to time and you'll be pleased you did.
Grab a copy of this book, read a story or two from time to time and you'll be pleased you did.
July 14, 2014
These are short stories of varying quality. Some are good…others…I found myself starting and stopping the collection. A really good book holds me to the end.
Want to read
December 11, 2016This hardcover book is signed by Bryan Smith. These are now sold out and were ony available with the Bryan Smith bundle.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews