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Tales from the Gas Station #2

Tales from the Gas Station, Volume Two

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.

Audible Audio

First published August 9, 2019

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Jack Townsend

10 books1,203 followers

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5 stars
3,217 (55%)
4 stars
1,982 (34%)
3 stars
532 (9%)
2 stars
62 (1%)
1 star
17 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 410 reviews
Profile Image for Michelle .
395 reviews188 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.
468 reviews131 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.
217 reviews17 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 Derpa.
287 reviews59 followers
May 15, 2021
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 Angie.
121 reviews11 followers
January 16, 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 Kev Ruiz.
218 reviews11 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 Lisa - *OwlBeSatReading*.
611 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.
Author 5 books62 followers
November 27, 2025
Donald Glover is in everything these days.
Profile Image for Mahnaz.
321 reviews81 followers
March 27, 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 Aimee.
94 reviews6 followers
June 14, 2023
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 Cofi.
189 reviews
September 22, 2026
I feel like a supernatural fan going "hmm this would have been good if it was actually good"
Profile Image for Sarah.
1,113 reviews291 followers
March 1, 2026
Listened to the full cast (graphic?) audio. It had sound effects and stuff. I like that, but I don’t know if everyone does. I thought it was well done. I like Mr. Creepypasta’s voice. His delivery of some lines is *perfection*.

Could I tell you, what the hell happened in this book?

No probably not.

There was a guy, Spencer Middleton, who wouldn’t stay dead. I think he was from book one, but I couldn’t remember book one that well except that I enjoyed myself. I don’t know why he wouldn’t stay dead? I don’t know why he hates Jack so much.

There was a demon (Sargath?).

There was a shapeshifter.

There were some aliens that wanted to kidnap Jack.

How all those things fit together…

I don’t know.

Did I have a good time?

Yes, yes I did.

The problem is, Jack is an unreliable narrator (I think?) and it’s implied some of these things didn’t happen or memories have been erased… so sorting it all out took some work.

But like I said, it didn’t really matter. I laughed quite a bit. If my experience of this book was letting it wash over me, know that I had a good time. I recommend them if you enjoy campy/dark horror.

I already own book 3. I’ll definitely continue.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Ziggy Nixon.
1,294 reviews43 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 Hatseflats.
374 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 Crystal  FloridaGrams Of3.
391 reviews17 followers
May 29, 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 Stitching Ghost.
1,658 reviews445 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.
117 reviews3 followers
May 12, 2023
I'm obsessed with this character and this ridiculous gas station.
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.)
Profile Image for The Fox.
75 reviews7 followers
October 7, 2026
If a book could describe my vibe, it would be this one 😆
Profile Image for Kathy Brackin.
369 reviews
November 16, 2025
Wow this second book had so much crazy situations. Really was a great book 👏🏻👏🏻
Profile Image for Emerun.
39 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 Ishmael.
9 reviews
August 6, 2024
The best series to read whilst bored at work (cause half of it is about reading whilst bored at work)
Profile Image for Zee.
163 reviews
July 29, 2026
*3.4*

The final twist was crazy. I put a tiny chance of someone playing Jack but if it's legit, I wonder how it changes a lot of what happened. I like Rosa, our new employee. Jerry keeps getting more hilarious and unhinged. It's a little annoying that, again, everyone's forgotten everything.
When Tony mentioned that Jack's illness is nonexistent I kinda believed it but now I can't put it up next to the fact that the reason a lot of these supernatural beings can't influence him is his supposed chronic insomnia. It may be that someobe's toying with him. Kieffer mentioned Jack was the subject of an experiment. I kinda suspect the owners. One of them mentioned interacting with 'humans' along with Jack Normal implying that they might not be human?
There are so many characters now. Tony was probably with the sheriff's station and if Jack Normal wasn't human, could the sheriff be the one summoning the gods? The new player? Then again the shapeshifter mentioned someone summoning Saggoth, could there be more than one summoner? Then there is Spencer who at this point I don't even know if ever died or not. If he's actually the resurrected one, why's he suddenly changing his path. The Dark God seemed to be opposing Sagoth. I wonder if we see the man in the blue raincoat again.
I just hope Jack's not responsible for Vanessa. It was already a heart-wrenching scene. It doesn't need another twitch of knife.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Rori.
128 reviews8 followers
March 8, 2025
I love this so much 🤩
Displaying 1 - 30 of 410 reviews