Synopsis
There are locations in this world where the light doesn’t seem to reach. Where, no matter how illuminated the place might be, shadows creep in too strongly to fight back.
A suspiciously empty gas station rest stop in the middle of the night, littered with googley eyes… A doctor’s office, where a bottle of booze and a tear-stained folder wait on the desk… A tech millionaire’s haunted kitchen… A Bible-quoting ventriloquist’s dingy apartment… A yoga retreat in the middle of the desert, silent except for the screaming…
These locations and more are your destination and bestselling author Nat Cassidy will be your guide. Featuring the Bram Stoker Award-nominated, critically acclaimed novella Rest Stop (one of Esquire’s Best Horror Books of 2024), along with a number of other original short stories, some which have never been published before, I Know A Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours is a travelogue down twisting side streets and through alleyways where the darkness has eyes… and teeth.
Let’s hope you make it home in one piece.
Review
“I know a place.” Four simple words, with so much terrifying context behind them. And like many of the stories contained within I KNOW A PLACE: REST STOP AND OTHER DETOURS by Nat Cassidy, there is so much more beneath the surface of this eclectic mix of dark, twisting stories.
To briefly reiterate what I’ve said before about Rest Stop; this novella is a razor-sharp, lightning fast locked-in-a-room thriller, that throws both our protagonist and us some new horror every other page. It’s as tense, gripping, vivid, and exciting the second time around as it was the first, and frankly, it remains my favourite out of the bunch.
But the other stories collected within are all brilliant too! Not one of them feels out of place, and each one stands proud as a great work of short fiction. Each story explores some almost mundane/liminal encounter, whether it be a first date at an indie bar, an OB/GYN appointment, a Christian children’s entertainment rehearsal, and even the childlike anticipation for Christmas is morphed into something wholly dreadful. For me, the absolute standouts are Laughlines (an epistolary story that crashed my Kindle, literally), Come (about the sinister effects of Revenge Porn), and Generation (a purposefully ambiguous story, where what it doesn’t tell you is worse than what it does). Run For Your Life also feels like something straight out of King’s repertoire in all the best ways. They all explore these seemingly simple looks at human life and nature, but with Cassidy’s signature dark tinge. Some are humorous, some are bleak, some left me hopeful. Even the positioning of each story felt purposeful, which isn’t something that’s ever really occurred to me before in short story collections.
Also, for anyone who has read this, hit me up! I want to read the final story with a small bunch of you (as is so instructed by Nat himself).
I Know A Place is a fantastically moreish set of stories, and I highly recommend this to everyone! Nat Cassidy is easily one of my favourite modern horror authors, especially after his phenomenal When The Wolf Comes Home last year!
Thanks to Shortwave Publishing and Nat Cassidy for the ARC!
Purchase the book directly from Shortwave Publishing! Use the link below for 0% off, but at least you’re not support Bezos!
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