Staggering through the desert, Jesse Bartos stumbles across a train station.
Wounded and with only fragmented memories of what brought him to Dawn’s Holt station, he’s taken in by a welcoming, albeit strange, family, who assure him that the train will come. He just has to be patient.
Stark Holborn returns with fever dream For The Road – a biting 70-ish page novella that muses on family, death, and what comes next, all wrapped up with the twisted Western influences that have become their signature.
It’s no secret that I’m a Holborn fangirl, let’s be honest; and For The Road has given me no reason to believe that’ll be changing anytime soon. It’s atmospheric, grimly beautiful, and poised to break your heart straight from the get-go.
The mystery of Dawn’s Holt unfolds at a deliciously slow pace, especially given the short page count, and you’ll be left feeling you’ve devoured a much longer novel, such is the richness of Holborn’s writing and world-building.
It won’t be for everyone – the phrase “acid Western fantasy” certainly raised an eyebrow or two in the break room when I was asked what I was reading – but For The Road is another feather in Stark Holborn’s increasingly interesting cap, and one that is begging for return visits – after all, the train will come to Dawn’s Holt.
FIVE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
For The Road by Stark Holborn is out now through Absinthe Books/PS Publishing.
