“A blood-soaked freakout that does for gas stations what Jaws did for beaches.”
—Kirkus Reviews, on Rest Stop
The first collection from USA Today bestselling author Nat Cassidy, featuring his unique blend of gleefully terrifying short fiction.
"[A] platter of phobias… Luckily, for every scare, there is a sense of resilience and a laugh in the face of fear to get you there." —Fangoria Magazine, on Rest Stop
There are locations in this world where the light doesn’t seem to reach. Where, no matter how illuminated the place might be, shadows creep in too strongly to fight back.
A suspiciously empty gas station rest stop in the middle of the night, littered with googley eyes… A doctor’s office, where a bottle of booze and a tear-stained folder wait on the desk… A tech millionaire’s haunted kitchen… A Bible-quoting ventriloquist’s dingy apartment… A yoga retreat in the middle of the desert, silent except for the screaming…
These locations and more are your destination and bestselling author Nat Cassidy will be your guide. Featuring the Bram Stoker Award-nominated, critically acclaimed novella Rest Stop (one of Esquire’s Best Horror Books of 2024), along with a number of other original short stories, some which have never been published before, I Know A Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours is a travelogue down twisting side streets and through alleyways where the darkness has eyes… and teeth.
Let’s hope you make it home in one piece.
“[A] platter of phobias… Luckily, for every scare, there is a sense of resilience and a laugh in the face of fear to get you there.”
—Fangoria Magazine
“Nat Cassidy is quickly becoming one of those names in horror—along with Tananarive Due, Keith Rosson, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia—that inhabit the ‘go to’ section of my brain with it comes to picking up new books. They always delight, intrigue and horrify. Guaranteed to deliver.”
—Patton Oswalt
“Somewhere between SAW and Sartre, there’s a detour. Nat Cassidy’s Rest Stop is that roadside attraction, a funny, beautiful, and scary novella that leavens its introspection with blood-spatter and a dusting of spider legs. It’s great!”
—Adam Cesare, author of Clown in a Cornfield and Influencer
“Poignant and nasty as hell, Nat Cassidy’s Rest Stop is a thoughtful and sharply written chamber drama that veers off the rails into a profoundly devastating cosmic splatter spectacle.”
—Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
“A blood-soaked freakout that does for gas stations what Jaws did for beaches.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“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.”
—Publishers Weekly
Nat Cassidy writes horror for the pages, stage, and screen. He’s the author of the acclaimed novels Mary: An Awakening of Terror and Nestlings. His books have been featured in best-of lists from Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, NPR, the Chicago Review of Books, the NY Public Library, and more, and he was named one of the “writers shaping horror’s next golden age” by Esquire.