Buy it here:
Synopsis:
A must-have collector’s item for horror fans, comprised of two novellas, The Babysitter Lives and Killer on the Road, from the new master of horror Stephen Graham Jones.
The Babysitter Lives
When high school senior Charlotte agrees to babysit the Wilbanks twins, she plans to put the six-year-olds to bed early and spend a quiet night studying: the SATs are tomorrow, and checking the Native American/Alaskan Native box on all the forms won’t help if she chokes on test day. But tomorrow is also Halloween, and the twins are eager to show off their costumes.
Charlotte’s last babysitting gig almost ended in tragedy when her young charge sleepwalked unnoticed into the middle of the street, only to be found unharmed by Charlotte’s mother. Charlotte vows to be extra careful this time. But the house is filled with mysterious noises and secrets that only the twins understand, echoes of horrors that Charlotte gradually realizes took place in the house eleven years ago. Soon Charlotte has to admit that every babysitter’s worst nightmare has come true: they’re not alone in the house.
Killer on the Road
Eighteen-year-old Harper has decided to run away from home after she has another blow-out argument with her mother. However, her two best friends, little sister, and ex-boyfriend all stop her from hitchhiking her way up Route 80 in Wyoming by joining her on an intervention disguised as a road trip. What they don’t realize is that Harper has been marked by a very unique serial killer who’s been trolling the highway for the past three years, and now the killer is after all of them in this fast-paced and deadly chase novel that will have your heart racing well above the speed limit as the interstate becomes a graveyard.
Review:
Saga Press has started printed new double books, where you finish one story, flip it over, and start the other story. The first in their series is two novellas by Stephen Graham Jones, Killer on the Road and The Baby Sitter Lives. Both stories come with an element of a supernatural being stalking the main character, and both stories suffer from the same problems.
The Killer on the Road: The story takes place on Route 90 in Wyoming, where Harper is trying to hitch a ride to get away from her mother after a fight. Before too long, Harper is spotted by friends and an ex-boyfriend, and shortly after, her younger sister has found them and is tagging along. Also along this stretch of Route 90 is Bucketmouth, a shapeshifting killer who is having fun going from one body to the next while travelling crisscross across the country with no real intentions besides killing and having a good time doing it. He is currently travelling on Route 90 as well, and before too long, he and Harper are in a deadly game of cat and mouse. This game also involves semi-trucks travelling at breakneck speeds and becoming just as big of hazards to Harper and her friends as Bucketmouth. The beginning and the end of this novella are interesting to some degree, but the pages and pages of cat and mouse between Bucketmouth and Harper involving trucks, gas stations, and rest stops just seem to drag on and on, and sometimes the clarity of what is happening gets lost in the writing. Many times I find myself rereading parts and trying to figure out what is really happening in a story where the pages should be moving fast to keep the pace and the action exhilarating.
The Babysitter Lives: Charlotte is babysitting the Wilbanks twins, hoping that they go to bed early enough for her to study for her SAT exam in the morning. When the twins show her that the house is funny and she can enter secret spaces that will make her show up in another section of the house (the laundry room transports her to a beanbag upstairs), she is quickly swept into the horrors that are also hiding in the secret spaces of the house. An entity, trapped there, is trying to get Charlotte’s body so that they can escape. I liked this a little more than The Killer on the Road, but there are moments when the story does not make any sense and instead of helping the reader figure it out quicker, Stephen Graham Jones continues forward, going toward the next scene without really any explanation or return to understand what might have happened.
Both stories have strong female main characters, and they could have been better reads if there was more editing for clarity, not for content. The stories are good and have interesting premises, but most of it gets lost in the convoluted way it is written. Stephen Graham Jones admits that he worked on finishing both of these novellas fast, and it fells like there were times when he thought, “This will get cleaned up later,” but it does not happen. I have read several of his novels, and there are some that I like better than others, but it feels like these two novellas are the worst written of any of the stories of his that I have read. It makes both stories hard and frustrating to read, and by the end I was glad to be done with them both. I will continue to read his books, but I would recommend any of his other books as a first read before recommending these two novellas. I will not be revisiting either of these stories anytime soon.
ghostvillehero 