Stars: 3.5 out of 5
October is the best time for spooky horror, and there is nothing spookier than getting stranded in the middle of nowhere on a rainy night, with your car disabled and no phone service. Yet that’s exactly the situation Ellie, Henry, and a few other strangers find themselves in. At first, finding an open dive bar with a strangely friendly bartender and a silent, solitary guest feels like a blessing, or at least a reprieve from the elements, but nothing is as it seems. There are monsters lurking in the trees, and isn’t that bartender a little bit too friendly?
Even though the book features POVs from several different characters, I might argue that Ellie is the main protagonist in this story, and her POV is the only one written in the first person, while everyone else is third person. We also learn a lot more about her past than we do about the other characters. Well, we learn a bit more about Henry, but almost nothing about the old man who gets killed by a rabid dog. In fact, I’m still a bit puzzled about his inclusion in this story. It almost seems like his ordeal was written for pure shock value for Ellie and Henry, which does him a big disservice.
I would say that the lack of attention given to the characters other than Ellie and, to a lesser degree Henry, made me dock a star off my rating. As I already mentioned, the old man is barely a footnote in the story. The young couple is a bit more fleshed out, while the gay stockbroker is a walking caricature of a narcissist. Just from seeing the lack of depth to their characterizations, I could predict who would survive to the end of the book and who wouldn’t, which killed part of the suspense for me.
All in all, I liked the premise behind the story and the reason why all these characters ended up in that car pile-up on a rainy road, and subsequently in the dive bar. It’s one messed-up situation, which made me hate the bartender even more. Just the idea that the woods outside of the bar would show you your biggest fear is… well, terrifying. And I will not go into any more details because I don’t want to spoil the book.
I had fun reading this story, and I rooted for the characters to survive and break out of this vicious little pocket universe. I will definitely recommend this as a spooky read for a spooky season. Oh, and think twice before taking an unfamiliar road at night.
PS: My thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.