Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Tales from the Gas Station #2

Tales from the Gas Station: Volume Two

Rate this book
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.

349 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 9, 2019

556 people are currently reading
2084 people want to read

About the author

Jack Townsend

10 books1,062 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
2,767 (57%)
4 stars
1,583 (32%)
3 stars
434 (8%)
2 stars
53 (1%)
1 star
16 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 329 reviews
Profile Image for Michelle .
390 reviews181 followers
May 25, 2021
Just as funny as the 1st volume. I listened to the audiobook for this one, and the narrator was great too!
Profile Image for Lizz.
436 reviews116 followers
August 25, 2025
I don’t write reviews.

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!’”
Profile Image for Sharmyn.
147 reviews6 followers
July 5, 2025
“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.


These books are so much fun!
Profile Image for Angie.
116 reviews8 followers
November 5, 2024
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!
Profile Image for Lisa - *OwlBeSatReading*.
516 reviews
April 7, 2025
”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.
Profile Image for Derpa.
280 reviews57 followers
September 17, 2022
3,5 stars

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.
Profile Image for Kev Ruiz.
204 reviews9 followers
March 11, 2025
★★½

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.
Profile Image for Mahnaz.
266 reviews63 followers
October 26, 2025
“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✨️
Profile Image for Crystal  FloridaGrams Of3.
361 reviews13 followers
May 30, 2024
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.
Profile Image for Aimee.
85 reviews6 followers
August 28, 2025
Referring to a group of violent rednecks as "Ya'll-Qaeda" is worth the 5 stars alone.
No series has made me laugh out loud as much as this one.
Profile Image for Myffanwy Geronazzo.
Author 1 book6 followers
August 15, 2024

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.)
Author 5 books47 followers
November 27, 2025
Donald Glover is in everything these days.
332 reviews
August 11, 2025
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!
Profile Image for Kathy Brackin.
329 reviews
November 16, 2025
Wow this second book had so much crazy situations. Really was a great book 👏🏻👏🏻
Profile Image for Ziggy Nixon.
1,148 reviews36 followers
August 8, 2022
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?
Profile Image for Stitching Ghost.
1,483 reviews388 followers
December 12, 2022
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.
Profile Image for Kayla.
105 reviews3 followers
May 12, 2023
I'm obsessed with this character and this ridiculous gas station.
Profile Image for Rori.
88 reviews7 followers
March 8, 2025
I love this so much 🤩
Profile Image for Pitoufa's Bookish Corner.
241 reviews4 followers
October 25, 2022
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!!!
Profile Image for Michael.
Author 36 books22 followers
March 13, 2020
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.
Profile Image for Emerun.
35 reviews1 follower
July 25, 2025
“‘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.
Profile Image for Christine.
55 reviews1 follower
January 20, 2020
Love this series! Made me laugh several times, very clever, very entertaining.
Profile Image for ZT.
3 reviews1 follower
January 6, 2024
A little more serious than volume 1, but still very enjoyable.
Profile Image for danielle.
58 reviews10 followers
January 29, 2025
He cracked his knuckles, turned, and walked right outside, announcing as he went, “I’m gonna go kick this guy in the uterus.”

God I love Jerry.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 329 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.