The Scare Salon

At the beginning of the tale, we meet a man named Ron, who is a personal injury lawyer of the type often disparaged as “ambulance chasers.” He attended his high school reunion the night before (though we don’t see any of this), and it so happened that he hooked up with an old crush, Cecilia, in his hotel room. Cecilia is married now, but that didn’t stop her from sampling a bit of Ron when the opportunity arose.

In the cold light of morning, Cecilia tells Ron in no uncertain terms that although she always wanted to have sex with him back in the day and is glad she finally got to, this is absolutely a one-time-only situation, as she loves her husband and is going back to him. Ron, a little bit hurt by this, as well as by his perception that his other classmates at the reunion turned out more successful than he did, nevertheless understands, and Cecilia leaves.

Shortly afterward, he stops at a coffee place on his way out of town, and then all bloody hell breaks loose. A dude straight up drives his car through the windows of the coffee shop and gets out of the vehicle, giggling maniacally and sporting some unsettlingly yellow eyes. The crazy man then proceeds to beat our main character Ron to death. And no, that’s not a typo, and that’s not a spoiler either, because this all happens literally in the first few pages of the story and is also revealed in the book’s synopsis.

So basically, after this startling development, Ron wakes up back in the hotel room with Cecilia, and it seems as though the day is beginning to repeat itself. At first, Ron thinks the whole thing was a horrible nightmare, but similar shit keeps on happening, no matter how hard he tries to alter events; wherever he goes on that day, he is eventually set upon by different giggling nutcases with yellow eyes, and as the story continues, it starts to become clear that some kind of worldwide epidemic of homicidal madness is beginning to overtake the population. And not only that, but Ron seems to be the only person trapped in this purgatory where he keeps reliving the same day over and over again, and he can’t figure out why.

The bulk of the tale, then, is Ron slowly coming to the realization of what exactly might be happening, and trying to figure out a way to stop it if he can, or at least free himself from the time loop. Like many stories that deal with this kind of thing, there’s a tendency toward repetition, as Ron keeps getting killed in various ways and then waking up back in the hotel room again and having a similar exchange with Cecilia, but honestly, there’s quite enough variation in the scenarios that the reoccurring events didn’t really wear out their welcome. As soon as Ron clues into what’s happening, he starts to make alterations in the routine, going to different places at different times, for example, so it isn’t like it’s the exact same incidents playing out over and over again; the results are different every time.

As I said, I really enjoyed this story quite a bit; Ron was sort of a hangdog, everyman protagonist, but as the story unfolded, he really had to tap into his intelligence and fortitude to try to finagle his way out of his predicament. And I’ll admit that I didn’t really guess what the ultimate cause of the outbreak turned out to be, as it was somewhat unusual. It wasn’t explained to any great degree, but I think that was for the best, since the reader found out as much about the situation as Ron did and no more. I believe I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions that I always think it’s better to under-explain than over-explain.

If you like apocalypse-style horror fiction and want to read something with a slightly metaphysical or mindfuck-style angle to it, then this should be right up your alley. It’s quite well-written and fast-paced and has some good gore scenes sprinkled around in there too. Be sure to pick it up when it comes out a few days before Halloween.

Until next time, keep it creepy, my friends.