Nightshift clerk and high-functioning insomniac Jack is back to work, trying his best to keep out of trouble. But when his chain-smoking coworker discovers a mysterious radio signal revealing the guarded secrets of their town, Jack will learn that an annoying new dayshift manager is far from the worst of his problems.In this second installment of the Gas Station saga, Jack finds himself entangled in his most harrowing adventure yet. With the newest crew of coworkers along for the ride and the resident psychopath out for his blood, our hero(?) must navigate the drama of small-town murder conspiracies, vigilante justice, and demonic summoning rituals...whether he wants to or not.
I am especially delighted to have been absorbed in these tales of high strangeness. They’re ridiculous, yet everything I’ve wanted.
“What followed is actually pretty difficult to describe. When we saw it, the three of us had a shared moment, a visceral reaction like we’d just been nut-punched right in the soul. Before that moment, I had seen some things that many people might have considered horrific: my own exposed bone, too many dead bodies, a vision of the literal end of the world, the floor of the gas station bathroom. But after seeing this thing, I had to completely reexamine the concept of horrific. The very image of that creature, which is not even the right word for it, if human language is even capable of one, is something that eyes were never meant to behold. Its existence was an obscenity my perception couldn’t handle… …I did manage to get one word out. In fact, we all said it at the exact same time, ‘FUCK!’”
“Smile or you will be written up.” “No more birthdays.” “Employees must wash all hands and feet inside the building at all times.” “Nobody can be taller than the gas station has rooms. Don’t forget to count the rooms.” “Do not believe the hobo. He is a liar and a killer.” “There are only 40 eye combinations.” “There will be consequences.” “Remember: We all taste like pork.” I’d read enough. Calvin had gone off the deep end.
Volume two, oh Mr. Townsend, how you have made me a fan of your work. By far one of my favorites.
Simple-life yearning Jack, who runs an isolated gas station in the heart of a mysterious, eerie forest, finds himself in a bit of a pickle. Or rather, several. Where there are demons, there are also cigarettes and gasoline pumps. Can Jack manage a few moments of peace while doing the bare minimum of his job, or will the horrifying creatures lurking at the forest’s edge snatch him and his friends up before the morning rush?
The naming of the townies is one of my favorite things about Tales from the Gas Station... Farmer Junior? So cute. I enjoyed the first volume, but I absolutely loved the second. If you're into comedy, horror, endless conspiracies, snow, and just a touch of gore, you've come to the right gas station. A hilarious read!
”You’ve seen the gas station after the raccoons got in and had their way with it. It can’t be much worse than that, right? It was much worse than that. It was so much worse than that”.
Just when I thought this series couldn’t possibly be more nuts than the last instalment. It got more nuts than the last instalment.
I will continue with it because I love the characters (especially Jerry). This one wasn’t as good as the first. Vol 2 at the Gas Station is a 2* star in terms of story (*it was okay) and has 3* star character shenanigans. (*good. I liked it).
It really could’ve got away with being at least 100 pages shorter as I felt I was going around in circles with it towards the last quarter.
So a rating of 2.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 3 ⭐️ this time.
When this series gets the weird, eery mood right, it does get it REALLY right. You know, like... everything is inexplicable, but at the same time, it's perfectly normal for the characters. Which only makes you more uneasy. That, I love. Now... sometimes it's just unsatisfying, though. There are many, many seemingly random story elements that often go completely ignored. At least right now. But the thing is, I don't know how they will be tied up at the end and that makes me feel like this isn't as smart as it could be. I know I am not necessarily making a lot of sense, but my point is, sometimes it feels like this series is a bit too random for no reason. This is coming from a person who, more often than not, prefers the beginning stages of horror; when things are set up. The explanations are usually nowhere near as satisfying. But still, we have a lot going on here and they are all put on a shelf titled "bear with me now, these will come back later". Now sure how long interest can be kept up with all that.
Some ideas are hilarious and cool. Some are unoriginal in the vein of "rednecks who are racist or some shit are attacking us". Or "that one way too excited, busybee worker trying to fix us up, but he is also a racist sometimes". Like... okay, man? Very cool, yet another person we are supposed to dislike because polo shirts or something, but then it's like... oh, racist. Which you didn't know, but whatever. I don't know, I like this book at its off-the-walls (handplants, anyone?), not at its "every fucking horror movie made in the last few years".
Does the author have the skills to bring any of these storylines to fruition, though? We still don't know shit about Spencer, the owners, Jack's illness and the doctors, his biggest fan, what the fuck is going on with Jerry (whom I love, he is hilarious), whomever is targeting the town, anything! Now, I know this is some online writing project and as that, the quality of the writing is pretty freaking great. But at the same time, I don't think it benefits from (as far as I know) not having a definitive ending point. Maybe I am wrong, might be, but at this point it feels like this will end up being an endless project where the heart just goes after a time and I will forget about it. We will see.
I gave it a shot, but this is where I step off the ride.
While I still love the characters—especially Jack—and appreciate the totally bonkers moments that made me laugh out loud, Tales from the Gas Station: Volume Two just wasn’t for me. The writing style is fun, and I do enjoy the string of bizarre encounters and weird characters that drop into the story. I even like that there seems to be a bigger plot forming beneath all the randomness.
But that’s the problem. Seems is the key word. There’s only so many random events and unanswered questions I can take before it starts to feel like the story is just spinning its wheels. The sheer absurdity kept me entertained for a while, but after a certain point, it got exhausting. I needed more substance, more answers—something to hold onto amid the madness.
If you’re here purely for the chaos, you’ll probably have a great time. But for me, it just wasn’t enough to keep going.
“You and your friends are all kinds of messed up. It would take an army of psychiatrists to untangle the mental slinkies inside your minds.”
توروخدا این چهقدر باحال بود🤣 من واقعا جلد اول رو دوست داشتم، ولی با تمام وجود عاشق این جلد شدم. این کتاب همه چیز داره، کمدی، وحشت، یکم gore، معما، لحظات ودفطور، همه چیزززز. یعنی کتاب اونقدر قاطی پاتی و درهم برهم نوشته شده که یه لحظه دارید از شوک و تعجب و هیجان پوست لبتون رو میکنید، و لحظه ی بعد از شدت خنده گوشی از دستتون میوفته. (یکم exaggerate کردم، ولی خب برای اینکه بفهمید چهجور کتابیه) السو تا حالا هیچ unreliable narratorای اندازه ی جک unreliable narrator نکرده بود. جدا واو✨️
So this suspense/thriller/horror/mystery/humor had me cracking up and grossing me out all on one page. I'm so glad my neighbor loaned me two in this series. I can't wait to get my hands on the others in this series.
I didn’t think I could love these characters any more, but somehow….someway….they absolutely destroyed my emotions in the best way, and I need to protect every single one of them. (Except Calvin, screw that guy.)
I went into reading this thinking it was a short story collection, to find it was actually a novel, and apparently a sequel, but a sequel that I could still read as a stand alone volume. I would definitely describe this as absurdist. It was extremely absurd, in fact. And, I loved it! I read a lot of serious 'literary fiction', so it's nice to read something that makes me laugh and crack a smile as a breath of fresh air. This was definitely a wild ride. I think we've all experienced at least one fever dream in our lifetimes, and if you have, then you'd have a pretty good idea what '...Gas Station' is like. If you are looking for something that is both outrageously absurd and gives you a good laugh, look no further!
Okay. I guess the weird stuff is about to start back up again. The break was nice while it lasted.
Are you prepared for nudist zombie attacks, murderous stalkers or even being able to pass (finally!) the Bechdel test? How about a once in a thousand years apocalyptic blizzard, unfathomable horror, or even dead birds that may or may not have or have had herpes? Well, even if you said yes to any of these, do you think you could handle shapeshifting demons that may or may not take the form of critically-acclaimed actors and/or musicians (don't look at me, I had to Google him! Or it!)? Needless to say (but Jack did anyway), things get exponentially weirder in "Tales from the Gas Station: Volume Two".
I mean, it’s not like I was going to end up being solely responsible for a series of events that would eventually summon an all-powerful pain deity to our world to enslave and torture humanity for the rest of eternity. Reviewer's note: that's called foreshadowing kids. Look it up!
I'm really not sure what I can add to THIS review that I didn't say in my LAST review. No, not of this same book, do pay attention, okay? I'm talking about the review I left for "Tales from the Gas Station: Volume One", which I finished scant hours ago and have since been reading this book, that is, "Tales from the Gas Station: Volume Two" like my life depended on it. Note that I'm not yet willing to rule out yet that it doesn't. And I'm definitely not willing to bet life, limb or any dangly bits either!
I wouldn’t be getting any more reading done, which—in my opinion—meant the terrorists had already won.
Kids, this is another wild one. I could see where some of you might be flinging 1- or 2-star ratings about and hey, if that's you, that's fine. This is certainly not the kind of fiction (?) that will appeal to everyone, particularly anyone that may or may not have most of their mental faculties still intact. Would I (noting I do not qualify for the previous disclaimer) recommend it to everyone? Oh definitely. Yes, it is an ungodly mess of bizarreness and weirdosity. But yes, it is all combined somehow into a neat little package that shouldn't be anything this tidy! But again, it somehow works, it somehow makes sense and it sure as hell is entertaining the bejeegers out of me along the way!
“You hallucinating or something?” “I sure as hell hope so.”
I mean, I've never written POETRY before as I was reading a book. Yes, I started a few stanzas (hint: they really REALLY sucked) that I was somehow going to use as my review. But I couldn't really fit all these thoughts into any semblance of rhyme or reason (see what I did there). The first bit wasn't so bad, but that was about it. Please, do NOT tell me what you think: If you go out in the woods today And see a crazy old man putting squirrels in a blender Don't worry too much You're just dying too slow Or maybe still on a bit of a bender!
So yeah, you can imagine how the other bits turned out. I am definitely not a poet. I'm not a writer either but that doesn't stop me from releasing these novella-length reviews every few days. Still, better I delete said stanzas from the Cloud asap and just move on to Book 3, right? Right.
P.S.1: During my reading of this particular tome, I learned about Paingravy Discord. And snow diarrhea. I am considering suing for mental distress… P.S.2: Praise Sagoth! What? The way things are going, it couldn't hurt, could it?
It was nice to visit with Jack and Jerry again, Jack's brand of humor didn't come through as strong as it did in the first book and the horror vibe was more prevalent. I lowkey miss the handplants.
The second volume is better than the first! The first was great, but some moments were a bit on the cringey side of internet humour, but the second volume doesn't have that. On to volume three!
And the series continues with volume two, narrating the peculiar adventures of Jack, the near emotionless insomniac gas station employee! Shall I add, one of my FAVORITE fictional characters of ALL TIME 😍🔥
In this volume, a few new characters were introduced such as Rosa, deputy Amelia O'Brien and another character that had a big impact on Jack's mental health, but I won't mention the name to avoid spoilers. This book was no less interesting than the previous one and along the way, I noticed many details that I had completely forgotten or might've missed while listening to the podcast by Mr.Creepypasta ❤
Jack's mental health and sanity keep on deteriorating and he had to go through an alarming experience that left me, as a reader, heartbroken and drained 😭💔 it's already hard trusting people when you've got all your brains! So imagine the struggle of doing so while having a terminal illness that affects not only your memory, but also your sense of judgment 😫💔 add to that a serial psychopath who HATES YOUR GUTS for no apparent reason and you've got the most poisonous combo 👌
Besides Jack and Jerry, my other favorite character is definitely deputy O'Brien 😍🔥 that woman is SO BADA$$! I love how much she cares for Jack, even at the ending after everything that happened ❤ she's pure hearted and as loyal and protective as it gets! You can tell she doesn't only insure Jack's safety because she was assigned to do the job but because she wants to do it, and that's really heartwarming 🤗❤
I really loved the ending of this book! It's reassuring to see that even though Jack is kind of a secluded and loner guy, he was still able to find HIS crew, people who care about him and accept him the way he is, no judgment 😍 I simply can't WAIT to dive into the third book of this amazing series!!!
If you enjoy your horror with a healthy dose of humor (or your humor with a healthy dose of horror), you will enjoy the Tales From the Gas Station series.
Our protagonist Jack is back at the gas station, a little worse for the wear after the trials he faced in the first volume. Unfortunately for him, they were nothing compared to what he will face this time. Shapeshifters, demons, and a particularly awful new co-worker are just a night shift's worth of dread at the Gas Station. There are more than a few moments that made me cringe and even more which made me bark laugh. This is an extremely funny read. I highly recommend the audio version.
My only complaint? Not enough gnome mischief and trash pandas.
“‘Are you kidding me?!’ I said. ‘Are we really going to Scooby do this?’ Apparently, we Scooby were. And after a few more rounds of discussion, we Scooby did.”
Just as funny as the 1st book. This is just fantastic, the definition of horror comedy done perfectly. Jerry and Jack’s interactions are just comedy gold.