At a passing glance, County Road 951 is an entirely unremarkable stretch of blacktop, a two-lane scar across the Cascade foothills of Central Oregon.
But the road is known by another name, coined by locals who’ve had to clean up after all those scenic detours went horribly wrong: The Devil’s Driveway.
When Livia and her long-time friends take the Driveway as a shortcut to a much-needed weekend getaway, what begins as a morning joyride quickly becomes anything but. Soon, they’re driving for their lives, pursued by a horror beyond anything they ever imagined.
The Devil’s Driveway might be only 15 miles long, but with danger at every turn, it will take the four women to the very limits of their friendships and their sanity.
And there’s no telling what else lies in wait just beyond the bend.
It’s summertime. Summer means vacations. Vacations mean road trips.
Road trips mean road trip horror.
I kept meaning to get to KC Jones’s debut novel, BLACK TIDE, but it was just one that got away from me. After reading WHITE LINE FEVER, though, I’m planning on getting to his first book sooner rather than later.
Oof, this book fucking killed me. I loved every last thing about WHITE LINE FEVER, and found it to be a brutally raw & emotional book, on top of being a wildly entertaining & twisted horror novel.
This book felt so cinematic to me, so much so that I can’t help thinking of the beginning as a cold open, as opposed to a prologue. If you read it…you’ll see.
At any rate, our main character is Livia Rhodes, and when we meet her, she’s just discovered her husband’s infidelity. After confronting him about it, she takes off driving & is involved in a pretty terrible car accident.
While she’s still recovering, her childhood friends decide to whisk her away (not too far away) on a weekend getaway at a spa. Ash & Becka are married (to each other), and Morgan is Ash’s younger sister. These four women grew up together & have stayed close into adulthood. The book is set in & around Bend, Oregon, although the girls grew up in Newberry, Oregon (I think maybe that’s a fictional town?)
Early into their trip, a road rage incident with a tow truck driver causes the women to find a “shortcut” on the map. But they’ll soon discover this is no ordinary road, and less a shortcut than a slow descent into madness.
I’m finding this book difficult to review in a way, because I think it’s really hard to conceptualize a story that takes place primarily on a 15-mile stretch of road. I mean, how much could realistically happen, right?
The horrors are plentiful, I can guarantee that. Each of these women bring their own demons with them on this road trip, and its those hurts & traumas that this nameless entity will use to haunt each of them in turn.
The thing that completely won me over in WHITE LINE FEVER is the flashbacks to when they are kids (maybe 11-13 I think?). To me, this part of the book was strong enough to almost warrant a prequel novel or something. I will always be chasing the high of experiencing things like SUMMER OF NIGHT, IT, or Stranger Things for the first time, and the flashback passages in WHITE LINE FEVER slot in perfectly with that coming-of-age horror/kids-on-bikes subgenre.
At that age, the girls call themselves The Scoundrels, and their adventures take place mostly at the junkyard owned & operated by Livia’s father. Livia’s house is on the property, too, so really this sprawling & dangerous junkyard becomes her entire world in many ways. All of it lorded over by her father, who is an abusive tyrant of a man. Just the absolute fucking worst, a real-life monster. Definitely want to caution people reading this book that there are some deeply upsetting scenes here, as Livia’s father is emotionally & physically abusive to both Livia and her Mom.
But wow, there is some serious magic in these flashback scenes & while they only take up a small(ish) portion of the novel, for me they were the highlight.
I also want to mention Diesel, the Rottweiler. Livia’s father gets one Rottweiler after another over the years, all of them named Diesel. And Diesel is actually a really complex dog(s), not treated well (as you might imagine), and with subsequently questionable loyalty. Sometimes, Diesel is looking out for Livia & her friends. But other times, unfortunately, Diesel is a bit of an antagonist, because he finds himself in service to Livia’s father. But ultimately I’d say Diesel is a Very Good Boy in a Very Bad Home. I do want to mention that Diesel (one iteration of him, anyway) does die “off the page” and while not a violent death, it was still really sad for me.
I thought this book was remarkable & I don’t know that I’ve adequately conveyed much about what it’s even about. But oh well! I think Jones has a great grasp on what makes people tick, and I think all the different relationships in the book are deeply complex, and feel like real friendships built up over decades. And while there is a whole lot of trauma built into this story, I found the book to be a great deal of fun too. And I haven’t even mentioned that there’s kind of a ghost-hunting subplot! So yeah, there’s that. Definitely adds a cool layer to an already-cool story!
I’ve just been fully immersed in reading as much horror as possible lately & I think WHITE LINE FEVER is for sure one of the best horror novels I’ve read this year! Super excited to see what’s next from KC Jones, and also to go back and read BLACK TIDE soon!
Massive thanks to Nightfire for sending this one my way!
Grimdark Dad 