PixlBit

Good Evening everyone,

I think it’s about time I shared another one of my Octoberween Guilty Pleasures. A few years back it was an HBO Asia series so I thought I’d shift gears and touch one what I’ve been reading as of late. Despite life keeping me busy I do my best to take time out to read a good book. Be it from the library, book store or flea market, I try to find books whenever I can for the right price and touch my interests. This year it’s been different for me in finding a good book to read no thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the places have made it a bit difficult to go book shopping through no fault of their own. Like many I ended up checking out books in the format I would’ve scoffed at years back: Ebooks.

Like other forms of media I prefer to have something physical when I enjoy taking part in my hobbies. I prefer my games on discs/carts, movies on DVDs/blurays and my books on hardcover/paperback. But I have to assume the move to digital ebooks was inevitable: I own more digital games than physical on my game systems due to their digital sales offerings and I’ve enjoyed the convenience of all the movies/TV shows I buy digitally being offered in a variety of streaming formats or easy download to any device I own. And given most of my books are still in boxes down in my basement due to not having enough room in my GameRoom to set up more book shelves, the convenience of having multiple volumes of books on a tablet was a siren song I just couldn’t ignore. Don’t get me wrong I still enjoy holding a physical book, feeling the books spine and pages as I flip through it, smelling that “book” smell from a tome that’s aged like a fine wine.

So during the pandemic and everyone shopping on Amazon I decided to finally take the plunge and buy myself a set of books I’ve been wanting for a while now, especially when I learned that Volume 3 of the series had just been released. I speak of course of today’s subject of tonight’s Guilty (Reading) Pleasure: The Tales from the Gas Station Series.

If you’re a frequent reader of my Octoberween blogs in the past, you’d have noticed I highlighted a certain YouTuber that does narrations of creepypasta stories found on the internet. One such creepypastat story series of course is the Tales from the Gas Station found on Reddit’s NoSleep Subreddit. Redditors have been enjoying these stories for a time which eventually caught the attention of various creepypasta narration YouTube Channels. Some produced content from Redditor GasStationJack work where I found out about this series. I, like many others, enjoyed hearing these stories of the strange and unusual lone gas station found at the edge of an unknown southern town in the US. So when I heard that these stories had actually received a book release I debated on reading them. I first though why should I? The stories are right here on YouTube and reddit so why bother. Well it turns out there is a good reason to which I plan to explain later on. But first an introduction to the series.

The Tales from the Gas Station series, as of this writing, are three volumes that tell of the adventures and exploits of the only full time gas station employee Jack Townsend. He’s a guy that’s been working at this gas station since high school and plans to work there till his death. His death something that is all but certain since he’d been recently diagnosed with a rare medical condition of Fatal familial insomnia. A condition that prevents him from sleeping and functioning like a normal human being. With only months to live his psychologist suggests he begins to keep a journal of his everyday life as a means to better cope with the future side effects of his condition. But instead of just keeping a journal he ends up creating a blog suggested by one of his few friends in town as a means to and I quote: “it’s what all the other kids are doing these days. It’s like a real journal only with the added perks of judgmental strangers telling you how they feel about it every step of the way.” But what Jack posts on his blog (these books) are not just the random, everyday life of one Jack Townsend. You see this gas station he works at is not your ordinary gas station. It’s a gas station that houses weird events and even weirder situations that to many would appear to be unusual. At this point I’ll do my best not to spoil too much of the stories in case you want to read them so forgive me if I don’t fully explain what each book is about in graphic detail.

What I like about this book series is how they portray these weird situations. Jack writes these events down as if were the norm for him. Something you find as you read on is more and more the case. There is a reason why he’s the only full time employee at this gas station for he’s the guy that’s been able to figure out how to survive any shift while working there. Jack best describes it as every job has their own set of “unspoken rules”. Rules you won’t see or hear during job training or orientation but rules that’ll help you survive your shift and possibly your sanity. To many the rules may make you think twice about working as a part timer at this gas station (with a reason why the gas station has a huge turnover rate of part timers). Some of them seem rather mundane, like don’t let the raccoons into the station, don’t leave the register unattended for long periods of time, only turn on the pumps when customers pay or use of the store’s phone is $.25 per minute no exceptions. But it’s the other rules that make one raise an eyebrow like don’t make eye contact with the Fox Lady, when taking out the trash do NOT venture into the woods nearby if you hear something calling your name, don’t touch the lawn gnomes with the green hats, don’t worry about the bathroom cowboy that appears if you see him or don’t worry about the red stain by the soft drink fountain…..

As you read on in the series it begins to paint a picture of what Jack Townsend has to deal with on a daily basis. Some of it seeming supernatural, other times paranormal, some of it down right mysterious given the circumstances involved in each volume. Volume 1 introduces Jack and the world he lives in and the things he interacts with. How he describes them is so mundane and deadpan as if it’s completely normal to him. Like the cultists that live deep in the forest, the one part timer Antonio (or Tony for short) who seems to have survived the longest out of all other part timers and becoming de-facto best friend. The odd rogue’s gallery of gas station customers like an old lady who drives monster trucks, Farmer Brown and later Farmer Junior who are obsessed with the hand plants that grow nearby the gas station, that one weird cultist that constantly comes into the store to buy smokes and tries convince Jack to come back with him where “transcendence and pancakes” await at their compound, the new age married couple that help him to open a portal to another realm so that they can fix his aura and Tom the town deputy whose been assigned to “gas station” duty….

If you haven’t guessed Jack’s life and the stories found in this volume are very weird. But what I like about reading about these stories is the fact that during it all you have to keep asking yourself if Jack is really experiencing all of these situations or if they are just a figment of his mind as it begins to shut down due to his condition. The way he approaches these circumstances seem surreal that any normal human being would be asking themselves if this was actually happening. But the stories that Jack tells feel like it’s just another day at his job. From a bipedal deer coming into the store to buy a bottle of water to a couple of would be robbers getting killed off by some unseen monster in the woods, Jack just takes it like a boss and just lives what little life he has. In his own words, “Not his circus, not his monkeys”. And yet you’re along for the ride in seeing what kind of antics he has to deal with every day. In volume 1 you learn about the cast of characters along with the weird happenings in and around the gas station. Things explode, limbs are broken, multiple people die (sometimes the same person over and over as if it was a twisted version of groundhogs day), people get trapped at the gas station and some truths are revealed that you might not even notice till the very end. I have to admit the plot twist at the end got me.

Volume 2 covers the story of Jack dealing with a new full time day shift manager, as the store owners prepare for Jack’s eventual death and the aftermath of what happened in Volume 1. It’s basically more of the same as it builds of the world building done in the previous books. Also continuing is the book’s signature dry and dark humor found in the circumstances that surround Jack and those around him. More new characters are introduced like Rosa Vasquez the new full time employee, Amelia O’Brian the new deputy in town, various side characters that oddly want Jack and his new friend Jerry dead, a cameo guest appearance of Donald Glover and an old nemesis of Jack’s that appeared in Volume one who might seem to be more friend than foe despite what he does to Jack over the course of the series. Again things explode, limbs are broken, multiple people die, people get trapped at the gas station, something turns into a dragon and we begin to learn that there is more going on in town than what is happening at this gas station. I have to admit I didn’t care much for the first act of the book due to one particular annoying character but the volume finds its footing when Jack and Jerry have their own mishaps and adventures together as they investigate a certain murder and the a radio transmissions of about the whereabouts of a certain gas station part timer.

Volume 3 introduces yet another character to the mix, a rich doctor planning to buy out the town for its property value but appearing to want the gas station the most. The carnival is in town and love is in the air. But once again things explode, limbs are broken, multiple people die, someone gets trapped at the gas station, old friends become enemies, enemies turn into friends. Someone finds a talking, decomposing head and the town seems to be suffering from a case of the “Pod People”. It’s here where we see Jack slowly losing control of the situation and his life in general. Jack’s figured he’d be dead before the year was out in the first volume but here he is still surviving and being way over his head in what’s going on in his world. The books plays up his condition well where you start to think if indeed Jack’s mind is slowly starting to circle the drain when he’s not even able to tell how much time passed between episodes of insanity or if indeed what he’s witnessing is what’s actually happening or what’s worse whose going to clean things up? Again I won’t spoil anything for you but I will mention that indeed “YOU WILL REMEMBER EVERYTHING” in the end.

 

*runs outside with arms flailing like Kermit the Frog*

The whole book series so far feels like something right out of the novel “In the Mouth of Madness”. The only difference being that Jack IS in the book and it’s HIS story he tells. What originally started out as a means for him to help remember what goes on in his life as his short term memory starts to degrade ends up becoming a chronical of dark gods, shapeshifters, murderous black-ops government agents, grey aliens called Ack-Yaks, monster hunters, the undead, crazy southern locals and of course Jack’s dangerous enemy yet, his “Biggest Fan.” I love the writing style of these volumes with Jack being the sole narrator of his tale. The story pulls no punches and is able to balance the world of reality and fiction with the events experiences. It makes sense these stories got a foothold on the No Sleep subreddit. They sound and feel like stories that one might experience if they happened to be all alone with nothing better to do with their time, just like a certain full time gas station attendant working a quiet overnight shift. We know at times we experience weird things when left to our own devices. Perhaps not as exact as what’s written in these volumes but these stories remind me of a time when I use to work as a gas station attendant part time during the overnight shift. During a time when hardly anyone comes into the store but with the higher risk of getting robbed. But between those moments of calm and crazy you find yourself wondering “what if” if you don’t happen to have anything with you to help keep your mind occupied.

I know my writings can’t do justice in what’s written in the Tales from the Gas Station Series. It may seem like that each volume is treading the same old ground/clichés given its focus is “a shitty little gas station at the edge of town.” The best explanation I can give is if the X-Files had a whole season that focused on one single location. It may sound boring in practice but in reality there is enough material and freshness to keep the stories going and feel alive. The character interaction between characters is top notch with each character having their own unique personalities. None really feel cookie cutter or unnatural (Unless the story calls for that). The other characters in the story don’t overshadow or reduce Jack’s role and they play well of each with their in the context of their story arcs. Aside from one character I came to enjoy each of their contributions to Jack’s narrative, making me hope they survive to the next story, let alone the end of the night.

So why do I consider this series a Guilty (Reading) Pleasure. Well the guilty aspect of this is not from the story content but that I feel guilty for double dipping. You see before I read these ebooks I originally heard these stories on YouTube for free but I ended up buying the audiobooks first thanks in part in trying out audilble’s free trial promotion. I have my reasons for doing this: the audio books have more content that isn’t found on Reddit or Youtube. I even learned that volume 3 had a massive rewrite by the author which would explain why certain aspects of that story arc in volume 3 are no longer found online. One major change I can mention is that originally Jerry and Rosa are supposed to share a drunken kiss together as Jack watches in secret. In the ebook that event never happens.

If you happened to read/listen to any of the Tales of the Gas Station media on Reddit or Youtube, you owe it to yourself to read these books or listen to the official audiobooks. They add more the lore of the series and help explain certain aspects that were either omitted from their original production or rewritten to offer a better cohesive story. Either way I enjoyed all of them and enjoyed finally reading what was offered on ebook. One day I may get around to owning the hardcover copies of this series. I’m just debating if I should buy them now or wait to see if they’ll come out in an omnibus format like how some of the books I read for Octoberween release as. I’ll probably feel guiltier if I buy the physical books when I now own both the ebook and audiobooks. But when it comes Tales from the Gas Station I haven’t enjoyed a better Octoberween read than I have with these volumes which originally found life on the internet. Hey if it’s good for Slender Man I’m sure it’s good for GasStationJack. I just hope Jack gets better Halloween costume residuals than Slender Man does.