Tales from the Gas Station: Volume 1

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There is an air of absurdity to this book that plays well into the mystery of what's happening and why, and the MC's interactions with all the absurd goings-on and strange characters he encounters adds levity to what might otherwise be a rather ho-hum tale.

This was...fine. Perfectly fine. Imagine "Welcome to Night Vale" but focusing entirely on the bleak and the absurd. The protagonist is dying from a neurological condition that causes permanent insomnia and we see the strange things he witnesses working the nightshift at a run-down petrol station in the rural American South. How much is real? How much is delusion or hallucination? We have only his word to go on. When you walk into the bar, and this beautiful girl gives you this big, welcoming smile, and you think to yourself ‘This girl digs me!’, right before her huge boyfriend who entered after you passes you. Anyway, the reason a went into this whole unwanted explanation, is to make you understand that this book takes place, almost entirely, in OFF. Things may seem normal at the gas station, but there is just a little something, well, off. we're talking hand plants, transporting into another dimension in a kitty pool and multiple spawnings and unaliving of a dude named Kiefer.

The year is 2018 and "Tales from the Gas Station" are published. There aren't many people who know about this book, but the vibe is similar. Small town. Random gas station. A protagonist who is either too stupid or too smart for paranormal shit that happens around. There is dark god, a group of radioactive racoons, excellent humor and great writing. I went into this one not knowing what to expect and found it to be just so intriguingly different. Imagine experiencing an ongoing freaky acid trip, laced with the absurd and surreal and then just add a trace of the supernaturals and then you might get some idea. At times it was a case of lighthearted comic horror but occasionally things became dark and sinister and all without any deliberate explanation or direction. Events were truly random and the reader was left pleasantly wondering what was possibly going to happen next. This adventure was so crazy, so interesting, so quaint, so creepy, so funny, and soooo… cozy. Well, it’s closer to witty jokes, nevertheless, I was openly laughing quite often. OFF is where your mind goes when you fully believe, even for a fraction of a second, something that goes against your personal logic, reason and life experience. In other words, to believe in something you think is impossible.

While I enjoyed the humor a lot (it has this JOHN DIES AT THE END vibe), and the writing was much better than I expected, it felt a little too long for what it offered. It is the first one in a series, so there is more story to come, but once the gag has run its course, it’s probably better to put it to bed. The situations are over-the-top ridiculous and the characters wandering through the gas station are hilarious. I laughed out loud too many times to count. What can I say? This book really surprised me. I liked the title and read the synopsis and thought “what the hell, I’ll give it a shot”. This book is not to be taken seriously or… I guess you could and just not have a good time, up to you. What keeps this one from failing is the humor and the MC, who stumbles through the story without ever actually DOING very much. Normally, this would pull me out of the story a bit, but here, it works very well, leading to many laugh out loud moments throughout. Occasionally, the humor falls flat, but it's so rare--and even when it does happen, it's always immediately followed by a nugget of gold--it doesn't detract from the overall experience.This was a unique novel. In many ways, the writing style reminded me of Jeff Strand with the injection of humor throughout. Like with Strand's work, it flows very well here.

I was not disappointed at all. Fast read, very interesting, prose is very different from anything I’ve read in a while and just an all Another thing you should remember is that you can’t knowingly go there. No matter what you do, how drastic, it is not possible.But, once I tell you, you will never forget it. And you’ll be surprised by the number of times it happens to you. It doesn’t matter what you call that place, the name will probably differ from person to person. With an unreliable narrator, cosmic horror and the perfect adhd induced plot, I think the term suspending disbelief might be be too shallow of a phrase, maybe catapult or torpedo sane rational thought out the window instead?

The dialogue is mostly good, thanks in part to the humorous approach, and while character development only really occurs with our MC, it's done well and the whole story is focused on him, not the other players, who mostly have small parts to play here and there. This was exactly what I expected from a Tales from the Gas Station story, was definitely not disappointed. Lots of unexpected twists that you wouldn't guess from the regular stories on Reddit. Finding out the missing pieces of the free stories (the Halloween incident, whatever happend to certain characters, deeper character motivations) just tied things together. Mrcreepypasta as narrator of the Audible version did great, as always. I can't wait for Volume 2. After all, he’s just a gas station clerk. It’s not like he’s getting paid enough to wage battle against the nightmarish aberrations plaguing his community. Besides, he already has his hands full attempting to manage all those mysterious lawn gnomes, the mutant raccoons, and the charming phantom cowboy who lives in the bathroom. Most of the events and strange occupancies didn't seem to fit together very well. Many things were also not properly explained or tied in which left me feeling more confused than anything else when finishing the book. Honestly, it wasn’t quite a book I’ve read. It was several days I’ve lived through on this nowhere gas station.I'm not sure exactly what kind of book I just read with this one. What I can say for sure is that the author is definitely a creative guy. It’s weird, and I like weird. But there are moments of hilarity and what I think is just flat out brilliant writing. After deciding to start an online blog about his experiences, it opens a door to a whole new round of trouble he never saw coming. Working at a dead-end retail job in the middle of nowhere can be hard. The long hours. The helpless customers. The enormous eldritch horror living deep below the building…