Bark at the Ghouls

"A road trip through Hell in the spirit of Skipp & Spector's The Scream and Grady Hendrix's We Sold Our Souls. I loved it!" -Brian Keene, author of The Rising 

This book is so very gross and boy does it ever move. I’m glad I picked it up over the weekend because I needed something fast paced and pitch black that I could finish quickly to help me feel like I accomplished something in my reading life and that’s what I found here, along with a little bit of the darkest of dark humor as a lovely bonus.

The story is presented as a journal written by a guy named Spencer who is sick to death of life on the road and even sicker of most of his douche-y band members. Some people aren’t cut out for life on the road and Spencer is one of them. After this last show he plans to ditch the band for good.

But his plans go awry when the tour bus makes an unexpected pit stop. Into HELL. Then the carnage begins and doesn’t ever let up as Spencer struggles to survive and maintain his sanity after he witnesses one atrocity after another. The fun here is in the monsters which are very imaginatively drawn (and in one case ridiculously and terrifyingly hilarious) and the gore. I wasn’t kidding when I said this book was gross. The author splatters your face and all of his characters with the nastiest of body fluids, some human and some not. The tree scenes will haunt me. Just ewwww and fantastically horrible. I don’t think I’ve been this horrified by a tree since I first watched The Evil Dead as a teen. This vision of hell is truly disturbing and I could not tear myself away from it.

Don’t expect deep characterization, lovable characters or a whole lot of answers. This isn’t that type of story. For that you’d need a much longer piece. I love answers, don’t get me wrong, but this ended in a way that allowed me to ponder things and make up my own ugly little scenario and that’s kind of fun too. One for the Road is like reading a nightmare and it was just what I needed this weekend even though there are a few images now imprinted on my brain that make me never want to sleep again, haha. I can’t wait to read more by this author.

4.5 stars and highly recommended to you twisted types.