Tales From the Gas Station: Why You Should Read This Horror-Comedy Series
By Jackson Decheck
There are places on this Earth that no matter how hard you try to understand them, they simply don’t make sense. Events could happen that make you scratch your head and think, “What the heck just happened? Was the chili dog I ate from the convenience store bad?” For Jack Townsend, who works at the crappy gas station at the edge of town, he simply shrugs and goes back to reading his book.
“Tales From the Gas Station” is a four-book, two-novella series that grew its popularity on the Internet as a web blog posted to the Reddit forum “r/nosleep” in 2017. Jack Townsend, who inserted himself as the main character, received praise for his use of comedic writing, wordplay, and awarded Best Horror Story of 2017 by r/nosleep.
Photo by Jackson Decheck
The series follows book-Jack and his fellow coworkers and friends: Jerry, an ex-cultist whose extravagant personality foils Jack’s nonchalant and dead-pan style; Rosa, a bubbly clerk who cares about her job and sticks her nose in stuff Jack thinks she shouldn’t; and Deputy Amelia O’Brien, the straight man of the group who moved to town from Brooklyn and watches over the gas station. Together, they go through their “normal” day-to-day of watching the register, collecting lawn gnomes that appear at random, and dealing with local sociopath Spencer Middleton.
Jack in the story has Fatal Familial Insomnia, a genetic disease that prevents him from sleeping and thus causes hallucinations. Accepting his fate, he becomes the only full-time employee at the 24/7 gas station, which only closes when somebody dies or a body is dug out of the walls. Years have passed since his diagnosis, and it may be the reason he is unaffected by the activity surrounding the gas station and the town.
However, things seem to change when Jack decides to create a blog to act as a journal. Not realizing that others can see what he writes, the phenomena that surround the gas station seem to crank up to 11. Soon, customers complain of having dreams of something evil under the gas station, threatening to swallow it whole. Jack sees a strange man in a trench coat standing outside in the wee hours of night. The cultists who live in the forest come to the gas station to stockpile on supplies. Jack’s mind wanders and he comes back to reality while digging a hole. And this is only the beginning…
“Tales From the Gas Station” is not your traditional horror series. Not only does it heavily focus on comedy and outrageous plot points, but it’s also told by an unreliable narrator. Most of the series is not to be taken seriously. It is a good story full of twists, development, and surreal scenes that make the reader question what they read actually happened or was one of Jack’s hallucinations.
What also deserves applause is the balance of horror and comedy. One page could be detailing the absurdity of a bipedal deer that is trying to pay for a bottle of water; The next page would detail a horrific scene of a homeless man covering himself in gasoline and setting himself on fire. At the start of the series, Jack shrugs off what happens in the gas station. But by the middle part of the series, ignorance can no longer be justified, and he must act to save what he loves.
“Tales From the Gas Station” is published in multiple formats: paperback, Kindle, Audible (narrated by online personality Mr. CreepyPasta), and theatrical audiobooks. Townsend’s original stories are found on his blog, Reddit posts, and on Mr. CreepyPasta’s YouTube channel. All formats are provided in this article.
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