REVIEW: Rest Stop (novella) by Nat Cassidy

Rest Stop is horror. I bought my copy new.

This review includes mild spoilers. 

Review:

Abe is doing a drive he doesn't want to do, to see his grandmother one last time as she's dying in a hospital. All of Abe's memories of his grandmother are pretty negative. His entire life, she seems to have delighted in telling him what a failure he is, and how weak and overly American he is. Granted, she's an old Jewish Polish lady who's likely seen some horrible things in her life, but still.

Even so, he's going to see her. It gets him away from his own life for a bit, which currently isn't going all that great. It's now nearly two in the morning, and Abe decides to stop at a rest stop for a bit, grab some snacks, and use the restroom.

Despite the fact that there are two cars and a van out front, the rest stop is completely empty. It creeps Abe out more than a bit, so he decides to use the restroom and just grab some snacks and leave cash on the counter if there's still no one around by then. Except when he tries to leave the restroom, he realizes he can't. He's locked inside. Things get worse, a lot worse, from there.

Abe reminded me a bit of Bear from Obsession, what with his unspoken feelings for Jenna and his fantasies about her somehow coming to find him in this little hellhole he's ended up in. She even knew he liked her, and might have given him some kind of answer, whether yes or no, if he'd ever actually said anything. But he didn't, because it was easier to dwell in maybes and might have beens.

Which isn't really what this story is about, but it's part of what it's about. In addition to various external dangers, one of the things Abe is forced to wrestle with in this rest stop are his own thoughts. It was mostly the external dangers that had me squirming, but it was probably the things going on in his own mind that had the most lasting effect on Abe.

All in all, a tense and chaotic read. In addition to the creepy crawlies (snakes, spiders, and a brief mention of a centipede), there's some nasty face and eye stuff, as well as a lot of blood and general gore. That said, this didn't feel as gory as it could have (which, for me, was a plus), maybe because there wasn't a whole lot of time to dwell on any of it.