Rest Stop

This grimy survival horror novella from Cassidy (Nestlings) careens along with anarchic glee, following Abe Neer, the bassist for noise-metal duo Darwin’s Foëtus, as he fights for his life in a godforsaken public bathroom. Abe is en route to his cantankerous grandmother’s deathbed when he veers off the highway to visit an out of the way rest stop called Trumbull Farms Snake and Spider House. He winds up trapped in the tiny, filthy bathroom by an unseen assailant as a series of crawling horrors slither in through the vent. Haunted by memories and flights of imagination as he fights off the creepy crawlies, Abe struggles to keep his wits—especially after he catches a glimpse of the thing on the other side of the door, a masked figure covered in googly eyes that wants to devour him completely. The splatterpunk plot hits the ground running and maintains incredible tension throughout with fearlessly disgusting horror beats and a twist readers will never see coming. One part Stephen King’s Desperation and one part Green Room, this is like a perfectly satisfying gas station hot dog—greasy, made of surprisingly complex components, and viscerally rewarding. Agent: Alec Shane, Writers House. (Oct.)