What do you think?
Highway Fifty: Choose Your Own Descent
Not yet published
Expected 13 Oct 26They call Nevada's Highway Fifty both the "Loneliest Road in America" and the "Bermuda Triangle of the West."
After the death of his father, Josh sets out across the American West with his closest friends. What begins as an attempt to escape their grief turns into something far stranger after their car breaks down along Nevada's Highway 50 and one of them disappears into a night where the sun never fully sets.
As the search draws the group deeper into the desert, the road stops behaving normally. Distances change. Hours vanish. Familiar landmarks return. Every choice pushes them farther from the world they thought they knew—and from the people they once were.
Told through branching narrative paths, interwoven short stories, and optional multimedia companion pieces, Highway Fifty is a literary horror novel about grief, identity, codependence, and the terrifying comfort of refusing to move on.
Every road leads somewhere.
The question is who you'll be when you arrive.
After the death of his father, Josh sets out across the American West with his closest friends. What begins as an attempt to escape their grief turns into something far stranger after their car breaks down along Nevada's Highway 50 and one of them disappears into a night where the sun never fully sets.
As the search draws the group deeper into the desert, the road stops behaving normally. Distances change. Hours vanish. Familiar landmarks return. Every choice pushes them farther from the world they thought they knew—and from the people they once were.
Told through branching narrative paths, interwoven short stories, and optional multimedia companion pieces, Highway Fifty is a literary horror novel about grief, identity, codependence, and the terrifying comfort of refusing to move on.
Every road leads somewhere.
The question is who you'll be when you arrive.
408 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication October 13, 2026
About the author
Ryan McMurray
1 book2 followersBased in Dallas, Ryan McMurray graduated with a degree in Screenwriting from the University of Oklahoma in 2015. He always told himself he would never write simply for the sake of writing, a promise that meant seven years would pass before he created something new after graduation. In 2022, he conceived the idea for Highway Fifty, the first of many stories he hopes to tell.
Outside of writing, Ryan works in sales and has long been a world-ranked competitive gamer, a pursuit that began during his college years. Whether through film, games, or literature, he has always been fascinated by storytelling and the boundaries that can be pushed in any medium. Highway Fifty is his debut novel.
Outside of writing, Ryan works in sales and has long been a world-ranked competitive gamer, a pursuit that began during his college years. Whether through film, games, or literature, he has always been fascinated by storytelling and the boundaries that can be pushed in any medium. Highway Fifty is his debut novel.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I was really intrigued by the unique concept and I really wanted to enjoy this one.
Unfortunately, the writing made it incredibly difficult for me to follow, and I ultimately had to DNF.
The narrative felt very disjointed, with dialogue and internal thoughts dominating the pages while giving very little sense of the setting, characters or what was actually happening. I often found myself having to stop and work out who was speaking or what was going on, which made it almost impossible to become immersed in the story.
I think the concept has so much potential, but for me the execution just didn’t work. The different paths should have made the story exciting and unpredictable, but instead I found the reading experience confusing and messy.
I received an advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, the writing made it incredibly difficult for me to follow, and I ultimately had to DNF.
The narrative felt very disjointed, with dialogue and internal thoughts dominating the pages while giving very little sense of the setting, characters or what was actually happening. I often found myself having to stop and work out who was speaking or what was going on, which made it almost impossible to become immersed in the story.
I think the concept has so much potential, but for me the execution just didn’t work. The different paths should have made the story exciting and unpredictable, but instead I found the reading experience confusing and messy.
I received an advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy
"Highway Fifty" is one of my favorites of this year. The premise already had me interested: an interactive, choose your own adventure, road trip horror. And I was not disappointed. I loved the writing style, the characters, the atmosphere, the short stories in between. The different paths are written so well with so much attention to detail and to the branching storylines. I read a digital ARC, thanks to Booksirens, but I will definitely try and get a physical copy as well. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review of advance copy
The concept of a choose your own adventure book for adults is intriguing and I would have been completely on board with it, but the quality of the writing makes the narrative unfollowable. There are no descriptions of place, setting, time period or anything to ground the reader. It's all dialogue, both inner and outer. It's unclear what is happening. This book needs several rounds of editing. This is a clear example of writing that is meant for the screen vs. novel writing.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was sooo hard to get through. I really tried my best but the writing style is confusing and it took me out of the book so much despite the fun idea of choosing paths.
The concept is fun, but it feels disjointed and messy, leaving out who was speaking, switching up characters to the point where I couldn't become immersed at any point.
Just a painful read and I was so excited for this.
The concept is fun, but it feels disjointed and messy, leaving out who was speaking, switching up characters to the point where I couldn't become immersed at any point.
Just a painful read and I was so excited for this.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was a fun book to read it was my first choose the path books so i would definitely read it again and choose a different path because the ending to the path i choose was crazy. But it was a little hard to follow at some part. But the story was really good and will have you saying what the hell is going on.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews