Baby Got Books

Serial

One of the neat things about the Nook is the access to some free stuff — works that are in the public domain, as well as new works that Barnes & Noble gives you for free. Serial, a short story by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch, was one of the latter. A quick, free, impromptu read before bedtime — not a bad deal.

The Overview of the story initially led me to believe that I knew what was going to happen. It reads:

Remember the twin golden rules of hitchhiking? #1 — Don’t go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy. #2 — Don’t pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be a raving nutcase. So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Nutcase #2 . . . .

Having read that Overview, and then having read the opening line of the book, “The hardest thing about killing a hitchhiker is finding one to pick up”, as our character Donaldson is driving down the road, I assumed that as soon as he picked up a kid at a Cracker Barrel parking lot, I knew exactly what was coming. Well, suffiice it to say that I didn’t.

Apparently this little story, referred to as “the original horror novella” has been downloaded over 200,000 times, and so maybe I’m late to the party on this one, but it’s downright creepy and shocking. And not in the way you think it’s going to be, even when you think you know what you think you should expect. Go check it out. I personally am going to check out the subsequent longer version that apparently picks up where this one left off. But I might leave the light on while I read that one . . . .

(and it looks you can download it – legally – for free over here in PDF or ePub versions.