Tales from the Gas Station: Volume Two by Jack Townsend

Tales from the Gas Station

Nightshift clerk and high-functioning insomniac Jack is back to work, trying his best to keep out of trouble. But when his chain-smoking coworker discovers a mysterious radio signal revealing the guarded secrets of their town, Jack will learn that an annoying new dayshift manager is far from the worst of his problems.

In this second installment of the Gas Station saga, Jack finds himself entangled in his most harrowing adventure yet. With the newest crew of coworkers along for the ride and the resident psychopath out for his blood, our hero(?) must navigate the drama of small-town murder conspiracies, vigilante justice, and demonic summoning rituals...whether he wants to or not.

It was nice to visit with Jack and Jerry again, Jack's brand of humor didn't come through as strong as it did in the first book and the horror vibe was more prevalent. I lowkey miss the handplants.

Volume 2 just as amazing as volume 1. Finished it in one night. But now I don't want to wait for volume 3!! I need my fix, I need to know what happened!

3,5 stars

When this series gets the weird, eery mood right, it does get it REALLY right. You know, like... everything is inexplicable, but at the same time, it's perfectly normal for the characters. Which only makes you more uneasy.
That, I love. Now... sometimes it's just unsatisfying, though. There are many, many seemingly random story elements that often go completely ignored. At least right now. But the thing is, I don't know how they will be tied up at the end and that makes me feel like this isn't as smart as it could be. I know I am not necessarily making a lot of sense, but my point is, sometimes it feels like this series is a bit too random for no reason.
This is coming from a person who, more often than not, prefers the beginning stages of horror; when things are set up. The explanations are usually nowhere near as satisfying. But still, we have a lot going on here and they are all put on a shelf titled “bear with me now, these will come back later”. Now sure how long interest can be kept up with all that.

Some ideas are hilarious and cool. Some are unoriginal in the vein of “rednecks who are racist or some shit are attacking us”. Or “that one way too excited, busybee worker trying to fix us up, but he is also a racist sometimes”. Like... okay, man? Very cool, yet another person we are supposed to dislike because polo shirts or something, but then it's like... oh, racist. Which you didn't know, but whatever.
I don't know, I like this book at its off-the-walls (handplants, anyone?), not at its “every fucking horror movie made in the last few years”.

Does the author have the skills to bring any of these storylines to fruition, though? We still don't know shit about Spencer, the owners, Jack's illness and the doctors, his biggest fan, what the fuck is going on with Jerry (whom I love, he is hilarious), whomever is targeting the town, anything!
Now, I know this is some online writing project and as that, the quality of the writing is pretty freaking great. But at the same time, I don't think it benefits from (as far as I know) not having a definitive ending point. Maybe I am wrong, might be, but at this point it feels like this will end up being an endless project where the heart just goes after a time and I will forget about it.
We will see.