I Know a Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours by Nat Cassidy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I Know a Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours is a Horror short story collection from Nat Cassidy. This collection starts out with his previously published novella, Rest Stop.
Somehow, it’s unclear to me how, I hadn’t yet read Rest Stop prior to this, and I loved it. What a way to kick off a collection. It really set the tone for the numerous stories that would come thereafter.
I loved the variety in this collection, but also the overriding theme of these locations. I felt like it was a clever idea to frame a collection around. I really enjoy reading fiction with a true sense of place, think The Overlook in The Shining, a place that becomes a character unto itself.
And while not every story reached that level of place for me, I think you could see the idea of that in each story. How these various places, most seemingly normal, under the right circumstances could bring all the horror we crave.
So many of these stories gave me thrills and chills. I was locked in once I started, excited to see what each new story was going to present.
The audiobook was also very well done. There were some cool, fun sound and voice effects, and I felt that helped to elevate a few of these stories for me. My favorite was Laughlines. I love Epistolary format anyway, and found that one to be creepy AF.
I would definitely recommend this collection, both to fans of Cassidy, and to new Readers of his work. I think this could be a great introduction to his writing style if you’ve never read from him before.
Thank you to the publisher, Shortwave, for providing me with a copy to read and review. As always, please be sure to read Cassidy’s Author’s Note, and in this case, Story Notes. He’s the king of the Author’s Note for me.