Killer on the Road

by Stephen Graham Jones

Sixteen-year-old Harper has decided to run away from home after she has another blow-out argument with her mother.

Her two best friends, little sister, and ex-boyfriend stage an intervention disguised as a road trip to stop her from hitchhiking her way up Route 80 in Wyoming. What they don’t realize is that Harper has been marked by a unique serial killer who’s been trolling the highway for the past three years.

Now the killer is after all of them, and they are thrust into an explosive, pulse-pounding, and terrifying race for survival down the interstate. As the body-count rises, Harper will break all the limits to bring the killer down.

Genres: Horror, Audiobook, Thriller, Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal, Adult

288 pages, Hardcover

First published June 17, 2025

About the author

Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author thirty-five or so books. He really likes werewolves and slashers. Favorite novels change daily, but Valis and Love Medicine and Lonesome Dove and It and The Things They Carried are all usually up there somewhere. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado. It's a big change from the West Texas he grew up in.

Reviews

[Nina The Wandering Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s nothing like a bit of hell on the highway, and Killer on the Road had me at the edge of my seat (car seat to be exact because I listened to this purposefully in my car while driving)!

In this novella, we’re given a supernatural spin on a suspenseful slasher. Sixteen year old Harper runs away from home after a fight with her mother and decides to hitchhike across Route 80 in Wyoming. With the intent of an intervention (disguised as a road trip), she is intercepted by her two best friends, her ex-boyfriend, and her little sister. But a very unusual serial killer known as Bucket Mouth has been terrorizing the road for years and has a particular interest in Harper who unknowingly has a target on her back.

When it comes to final girls, Stephen Graham Jones always delivers the most relatable, complex, smart, and courageous female characters! There was so much blood and suspense in this story as well as heart!

I highly recommend doing as I did and listen to the audiobook on your next road trip for an added story-consuming experience!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Audio for the gifted audiobook!

[Bill Riggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first by this author and definitely not the last. He has crafted a tense, startling highway to hell thriller of a novella. I’m looking for to seeing what he does with a full length novel.

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Graham Jones has perfected the art of the slasher and Killer on the Road is a prime example of that. Killer on the Road is a High stakes game of cat and mouse with a bad ass main character in Harper.

As soon as I started Killer on the Road, I was immediately pulled in with a shocking opening chapter. The killer in this one is truly horrific and the story kept me on the edge of my seat. At 240 pages its a faster read and I absolutely loved it! And of course as always with SGJ, I appreciated the indigenous rep

Killer on the Road won't be for everyone since it does have a lot of gore however Jade Daniels, slasher, and final girl fans will love this one!

I listened to the audiobook version which was read by Isabella Star LaBlanc and Richard Brake who did an excellent job. I highly recommend the audiobook!

Killer on the Road by Stephen Graham Jones will be available on July 15. Many thanks to Simon Audio for the gifted audiobook!

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a simplicity to this book that makes it really shine. The being-chased-by-a-killer-on-the-highway subgenre is small but it's effective and Jones really makes the most of it with all kinds of big setpieces of destruction, mayhem, and gore. This would make a great movie and you wouldn't need to make that many changes to adapt it, by far the most cinematic of Jones' work I've read so far (which is saying something given how focused on the cinematic much of his work is).

Solid audiobook, though as always with Jones' work audio requires a little bit of extra concentration. He doesn't punctuate big moments the way most thriller writers do by slowing the action down. Sometimes he even speeds it up in a blink and you miss it kind of way.

[Oscar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this audiobook version!

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better ones of SGJ.
I've read quite a few now, and even though I get through them, there's always the feeling that I'm not 100% able to follow.
The dialogues for one are hard to follow. They leave out big chunks of the sentence because the friends don't need them, they know each other so well, they don't have to spell it all out.

The other thing is that the descriptions sometimes are overly technical. In fear of not getting it right, the author has researched trucks and rigs so much... but I haven't. So all the details are wasted on me, confuse me, don't help me to see the scene.
It's like reading a repair manual which describes all parts in fancy names...

Story wise: Harper is a good character, makes big mistakes but tries to correct them.
I feel sorry for her friends, they all deserved better, there wasn't the typical 'lets split up and investigate' mistake of other splatter stories, but their demise is, I guess, the price you have to pay for a serial killer.

Bucketmouth - he gets more background story than usual. His loneliness shines through. Which is needed to believe his concessions to Harper...

Her sister Meg seems to be a bit smarter though and it really irritates me that the end isn't more clear.

[Lia Reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 80%

Honestly I was just looking for a thriller to change up what I’ve been reading but this book just isn’t it. It is so gorey and so much death happens and idk at a certain point I’m wondering if survival even matters.

I looked up spoilers to see how it ended and I feel like the ending would be okay, but I just can’t handle the book anymore. Not for me.

[ThatBookish_deviant · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

The first chapter is REALLY suspenseful and had me on the edge of my seat! The chapter reads beautifully and illicits a feeling of impending doom that’s similar to the first chapter in My Heart Is A Chainsaw. Unfortunately, in my experience, the first chapters were the best part of both books and they went downhill from there.

I keep thinking my next SGJ book will be the one where it finally “clicks” but I’ve come to accept that his writing just doesn’t work for me. I’m glad so many other readers clearly connect with his novels. He’s built quite the dedicated fan base and appears to be a great guy.

[Trisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I've been down a lot of bad idea roads."

Great audio. The plot is gory slasher, like old school horror movies. So much death and cat and mouse in trucks on the road. I liked the adventure and the serial killer. The narrators were compelling and I liked giving voice to the story.

And if you get the chance, do the audio. The author always narrators acknowledgments and it's always my favorite part. I love hearing the stories and people that inspired the book!

As always, this author tells a great story. I enjoyed it!

[myreadingescapism · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uhh…. Okay. 🙄

[Celine Ong]

mom come pick me up i wanna go home

[Angyl · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an insane first chapter. The dialogue bouncing back and forth and then the sudden turn things took made me gasp aloud. Safe to say, I was invested quickly.

The story is about a young girl running away from home after a bad fight with her mother. She ends up hitching a ride with her friends who were visiting from out of town, and her younger sister tags along. However, they are soon stuck in a fight for their lives after being stalked and tormented by a mysterious killer who finds fun in taking lives on the road. But, don’t expect a typical slasher…there is much more to this killer than meets the eye.

This was fast-paced, brutal, and emotional. Basically everything I was expecting. The roadtrip horror was everything I didn’t know I needed, and reminded me of my days as a kid watching and rewatching the movie Joy Ride 😂
Overall, I didn’t find it as impactful as some of my favorite SGJ reads but this was a great time the whole way through.

[Sassy Sarah Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Killer on the Road has such an interesting and unique premise about the hitchhiker. I don't want to say too much because I think this one should be gone without knowing too much. I will say the opening chapter is crazy. The only reason I'm giving this 4.5 stars and not a solid 5 is that I struggled to get into this novella. The first 35 pages were hard for me to connect to the narrative style and pacing. However, once I was in, I was in. In typical Stephen Graham Jones fashion, it was balls-to-the-walls brutality and horror. This one is brutal. It's packs a punch, and the people in the laundry room who kept her me saying, "WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT THE FUCK?" as I was doing my laundry, and listening to people lose body parts and limbs due to cannibalism or full-speed semitrucks were right to look at me funny. This was such a good read! One of my favorite Stephen Graham Jones' novellas.

[Joshua Strank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall this was a super fast paced horror that I read in one sitting ! It isn’t my favourite book from Stephen but I did still enjoy it and find it super easy to read ! My reasoning behind the 3 star resulted from the plot feeling slightly disjointed at points as well as the elements with bucketmouth being very predictable throughout the entirety of the book but also with the disjointed structure it also made the storyline confusing at alot of points for me. Overall it was a decent read and I cannot wait to dive into more

[ClairevoyantBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75⭐️ I love SGJ’s writing so much 😭
This story was action packed from start to finish - I loved the character of “Bucketface” and Harper is for sure going in the Final Girl hall of fame.
Everyone usually says audiobooks are excellent for his books, and it was very well done, but I think I just prefer reading physical copies for his stories. Will probably do a re-read that way.
Nevertheless, very grateful to Simon Audio and Saga Press for gifted audiobook 🫶🏼

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️
Really fun, but the writing style didn’t flow as smoothly as some of his other work. Still really fun and brutal though.

[Lorin (paperbackbish) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Saga Press for my free ARC of Killer on the Road by Stephen Graham Jones — available Jul 15!

» READ IF YOU «
🔪 can’t resist a badass final girl
🛣️ love a slasher story set on a desolate stretch of highway
👁️ would do anything for the people you love

» SYNOPSIS «
Harper is running away again, determined to hitch up the interstate to get away from her crazy mom. But her plans are instantly foiled by her besties and baby sister, who snatch her off the side of the road to talk sense into her. As they drive though, they realize something sinister is after them, and leaving bodies in its wake—but there’s nowhere to hide on the remote Route 80, so they’ll just have to push their little truck as fast as it can handle to stay ahead of the danger.

» REVIEW «
I know this might seem crazy to some of you, but Harper might be my favorite final girl?! It’s a toss up between her and Laurie from Del Rio, honestly. She just has so much grit, and heart, and courage—I love her to bits. Stephen, I hope you write the sequel I know you’re angling to! Trust me, you’ll be drooling after a second book too, once you get to the ending of KOTR.

“Get her into a corner, I mean, she’ll show her teeth, fight her way out, and then fight the whole world while she’s at it, just because. These are the kind of people I prefer to believe in. They’re also where I keep my heart.”

So yeah, another slasher novel from the King of Slashers—lucky us, right? It’s a beautiful ride down a treacherous highway, to be sure. Tears at the end for me, which is becoming the norm with SGJ books. And? I know reading this gore-filled horror story wasn’t supposed to make me itch to head up to Wyoming so I can drive I-80 myself, but alas, here we are. I just want to pull into all the rest stops, look around for a teenage girl with a fire in her eyes...

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[unstable.books · Rating 5 out of 5]

SGJ perfection. No notes. Thank you exponentially to Saga Press Books for the early copy <3

[always reading ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun read. Gruesome and fast-paced.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We're in an overheating truck we don't own and we just blew up about twelve semis and we left a paralyzed woman to die in her car and I'm wearing some dead guy's jacket and we just saw our two best friends die and there's a killer after us who can change his face and likes to eat people, Harper says. Yeah, I'd say we're great."

It's no secret that I absolutely love slashers, it's also no secret that while I have a complicated relationship with Jones' writing, I do absolutely admire the tenacity and bravery with which he writes. In a sea of thrillers that read pretty much all the same, Jones is forever crafting some of the most experimental stories out there. Even when he writes a pretty typical slasher novel that leans heavily into conventionality and genre tropes, he manages it make it a wholly unique experience. This fucking glorious slasher is written in such a wildly stressful manner, it'll have your heart hammering at a dangerously fast pace. Killer on the Road is just one of those books that never offers a moments respite from its craziness.

This thing is batshit insane, it's absolutely mental, and maddening and all-consuming, and I think, with this novel, Stephen Graham Jones has perfected the art of the slasher, from the over the top gory violence to the supernatural abilities of the killer, and the rad as fuck final girl, this novel really does have it all. The bodies pile up high and the bloodshed never seems to end, and every single one of the kills is satisfying as all hell, it's all blood, guts and gasoline, the very things the USA was founded on. This is more than just another slasher, though, it's a little bit of everything blended together, a supernatural thriller, a cheesy b-horror, a folklore inspired tale of terror, a blood soaked slasher, and a wonderful piece of indigenous horror - it's like a love letter to the horror genre.

"Already had my finger for the day, the hitcher says, looking at all his own, still spread out perfect on the blue vinyl of the dash. Not me, the driver says, and presses the snub-nose barrel of his revolver against the hitcher's pinky where it connects to the hand, and pulls the trigger. The sound in the cab of the car is massive. The driver drops the revolver to press this finger to the dash, catch it before it can fall into the floorboard. The hitcher reels away, pushing hard with his feet, his butt climbing the seatback, but then he realizes: the gun in his lap. He fumbles up, trying to hold it and stop his new stump from gouting blood up into the headliner."

The intense hyper-violence of this novel makes it so brilliantly cinematic, it almost feels as if you're watching a Hollywood blockbuster rather than reading a book, never have I found it so easy to forget I'm reading words on a page. There's a weirdly humorous tone to this book that, typically, I wouldn't appreciate within a novel, however, it seems to really work here. There is absolutely nothing subtle about Killer on the Road, it's like watching a multi-car wreck where each car flips end over end multiple times. Subtle? No. Entertaining? Fuck yes. So many of the scenes in this book are so anxiety inducing, they will be forever burned into my brain. The scene with the cop might just be one of my favorite horror novel scenes of all time.

"It's timed perfectly for the next rig slamming past-probably the last one to pass the pullout before it was blocked off. It doesn't just hit her, it bursts her, and, because Harper's looking right at her, is trying to reel her back in just by not breaking eye contact, she has to see it in high detail: the round passenger-side headlight carving Kissy's face into a clean half-moon, the bumper passing through her like she's a Jell-O sculpture."

[Steph (fallintosteph)]

Wow this was twistedddd

[Helena (helinabooks) · Rating 2 out of 5]

how can a short novella feel like it's neverending and keeps dragging?

I'm sorry, but after having read two books by this author, I can safely say his work is not for me. Love the concepts, hate the execution — and how he writes female teens. Not in a sexualising way or anything like that, don't get me wrong, but as someone who not only was a teenage girl but also works with teens... they don't feel believable to me. And the main character in this one really got on my nerves sometimes, god. She kept making stupid decisions and I wanted to shout at her every time she had yet another useless and whiny argument with the killer.

I also didn't see the point in some of the events that happened or characters that were introduced, to be honest. They would appear and then they'd be dropped out when it felt convenient for the plot, just like that, or that was my impression, at least.

And while the twist at the end was clever, the way the author got there was so incredibly absurd that I had to stop the audiobook and rewind it because I couldn't believe what I was hearing (you're telling me this invincible serial killer, supposedly a mastermind, decides to trust the teenager he's been tormenting and trying to kill for the entire book, despite knowing she wants to get revenge on him, and simply falls into her trap because he's lonely and wants some company? because he's curious to see if she's like him? what the actual fuck. Also, the killer "kissing" Harper, a teenage girl, while wearing HER DAD'S FACE? that grossed me out way more than the cannibalism and gore and I thought it was completely unnecessary).

I'm obviously in the minority here because I've only ever seen positive opinions about this author's work, but I think I'll pass next time. It really is a shame because I wanted to love this, though!

[Sophie Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

no notes. Stephen Graham Jones is a master ☠️🙌

[Katie T]

Dnf pg 183.

This is really good in the sense that there’s endless action and horror and violence but for a shortish novella, it will not end and I think I get the point.

[David Sharkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a blow out fight with her mom, Harper decides to head out on her own and takes to the nearest Interstate onramp to hitchhike her way to freedom. Only her friends decide otherwise and head her off to stage an intervention. But things turn deadly as a serial killer with a 'unique' set of skills sets his sights on Harper and her friends...

The second of SGJ's books I've read, and I preferred the other one. It's a good chase story, lots of cat and mouse action. The narrative is perhaps a little too self aware. Like at multiple points Harper comments on how it's a cat and mouse situation, and at various times they point out how if anything had been different then they wouldn't be in this situation, very much stating the obvious. As with "Teenage Slasher", SGJ struggles to make the action come alive, there's something about his descriptions that I find myself unable to picture in my head. The volume of super niche terminology was also too much. I know nothing about big rigs (a major plot device), and I don't particularly want to know more about big rigs, but my lack of knowledge about the mechanics of a big rig, or of North American trucker culture in general, shouldn't have felt like such a handicap when reading this book.

[Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fricken truckers and their fricken piss jugs.

[Merin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starting off 2026 by reading a book I was supposed to read last year and didn't. Unfortunately, this one was just okay. The audio is well done, and the first chapter grabbed hold of me instantly, but I just found that the rest of the book went downhill from there. I think it's perhaps a bit too long, as some parts got a bit repetitive. This is definitely horror - there's lots of gore, so be forewarned. All in all I just didn't have the best time with this and was really just reading to get it done. Perhaps not the most auspicious way to start off my reading for the new year.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy shit. I hit one point where I was driving home, listening, and had such a visceral reaction that the car beside me gave me weird looks and peeled out immediately when the light turned green.

The story follows Harper as she tries to run away from home and runs into the ultimate Urban Legend come true. It was terrifying, gross, and sad. I was so compelled - any time I wasn't listening, I was thinking about listening.

My first book by Stephen Graham Jones but definitely not my last!

[Teleseparatist · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars - Jones is really hit and miss for me, and this was not quite right. I had to push through the middle part and the action. I found the horror of interactions with Bucketmouth and the final confrontation very satisfying (creepy, scary, gross), but the action and the cars - eh.

[Bee B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I switched from paper copy to audio book part way through.

I felt like this one slowed a bit in the middle and I struggled a bit to get over that hump but I still really enjoyed it— especially the very beginning and towards the end!!! I did really grow attached to the characters too.