Review: Dive Bar at the End of the Road: A Novel

Dive Bar at the End of the Road: A Novel by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I haven't read much horror lately. Watching the news is usually enough horror for me. But something in my subconscious told me to ask for this book, and I am so glad I listened! The last so-called horror novel I read was just meh. This book had me not wanting to go to bed because of what I might dream!!! The characters are pretty well fleshed out in a book that doesn't exceed 300 pages. Vividly drawn descriptions of all the important things.

This book is reminiscent of the older Stephen King novels (Cujo, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon), Robert McCammon and a few others. However, I mean only their older books.

This book sent chills down my spine! The tropes are particularly delicious. For example: A dark and stormy night, getting lost in the woods, your worst nightmares coming true, meeting a horrible man whom you immediately hate who is in the same predicament as you are in, zombies, rabid dogs, and a possible demon/devil, things that go bump in the night and more.

This would be a great read for those with a vivid imagination and a strong stomach. Great dark-and-stormy-night read!

*ARC supplied by the publisher St. Martin's Press/Macmillan, the author, and NetGalley.

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SUMMARY: "Final Destination meets The Cabin at the End of the World in this supernatural horror from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, in which a series of car accidents traps a group of strangers at a dive bar.

A forested road at night, slick from the pounding rain and eerily illuminated by flashes of lightning. Just before midnight, a car swerves to avoid something—or someone—mysteriously standing in the road, only to slam into a fallen tree instead. In the pitch black, four more cars follow in a pileup no one can seem to avoid.

Stumbling out of the wreckage, soaked from the rain and nursing various injuries, five strangers find themselves in a backwoods dive bar, waiting for daybreak and hoping for cell service. But as tensions rise and the storm rages on outside, the occupants of the dive bar start to notice that not everything is as it seems. Time is moving differently, and they quickly learn that going outside—whether to assist another accident victim or to hike for help—is a very bad idea.

There’s something in the woods, something that isn't natural. Could the figure in the road have been a warning? Or something more sinister? None of this is normal, and they'll need to work together to figure out what’s happening if they have any hope of surviving the night."