Finished Reading

Pre-Read notes

I'm already in love with "The Devil's Driveway," such a great scary setting element!

I really need a fun, scary book, so I hope this one is as great as that setting name!

Final Review

If a monster kills you in a dream, do you die in real life? p243

Review summary and recommendations

I mean this in the best way, but the best thing about this book is the opening scene. Unfortunately, the hundreds of pages that follow never get back to its potential or even a cohesive concept.

I didn't love this one, but the pace is thrilling and the story weird enough to have kept me reading until the end.

I recommend this to fans of weird horror and urban legends and myths.

Reading Notes

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. "The Devil's Driveway" is a great, terrifying location, and that name! *edit This was definitely not used to its full potential.

2. But even as plenty of natural light streamed through the windows, the room felt much darker than it should have. Watching him move through it, I again had the terrible thought that I was seeing a stranger. Or worse, somebody I’d expected never to see again. p32 This is really good suspense writing. The mode and tone in this scene are so heavy and shadowy.

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. Once the fmc and her friends are on the road, the pace just dies. It's so weird, considering they are literally flying down the road.

2. This book just...doesn't have a plot. It's merely hundreds and hundreds of pages of the author churning up the dirt.

3. This was not an easy book to follow. Dual timelines only work if both timelines advance the overall plot, and that didn't happen here.

Rating: 🚘🚘.5 Devil's Driveways
Recommend? maybe for some readers
Finished: Feb 21 '25
Format: accessible digital arc, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
💀 horror stories
👻 ghost stories
🌲 scary forests
🛣 haunted roads
👩🏼‍🤝‍👩🏾 friend drama

Thank you to the author K.C. Jones, publisher Tor Publishing Group for an advance digital copy of WHITE LINE FEVER. All views are mine.
---------------

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy. I had high hopes for White Line Fever and unfortunately it did not meet those expectations. White Line Fever follows a group of friends as they maker their way to a resort for a girls weekend. On their way there, they decide to take a short cut. Little did they know that that shortcut would put their lives in danger. I think I thought that this book would be a different type of book. I thought it would be a classic serial killer chasing the characters, but this was not that story. It had a supernatural twist, and I was not interested in that. I also was confused by the alternating timelines. I think that if you go in knowing that it is a haunted road, you will enjoy it more.

A young man is killed on a lonely stretch of road in Oregon. It seems there were entities following him wh.en he took his motorcycle on a ride for a wearing a camera for a couple of his buddies and their supernatural podcast. Now there are four young woment who take this road as a detour since there is a traffic tie-up on the highway.

Told in two timelines, with one memories of trauma for each of the four in the present and in their shared past. The road seems to be able to make everyone remember traumatic times from their childhood and things that put them in danger.. Hallucinations for each of the women, although not at the same time, make all of them wonder what is happening. They run into the friends who were filming when the young man was killed and use their vehicle to try to make their way to the end of the road after during a hallucination, their car was undrivable.

Now the group is trying to get off this road and just survive. The ghosts/apparitions made the 15 mile drive horrendous, but not murderously so.

I enjoy thrillers and I thought this book would be a thriller. It is not IMHO. This is more of a horror book that kind of horrorred itself out midway. The ending did put everything in perspective.

I am not a horror book reader - so full disclosure on that. But I really liked the premise of this one. Creepy, abandoned roads are always a good setting for something scary. However, I did have a bit of trouble getting in to this one. The writing was great, but I just didn't gravitate to this one.

I loved this book! It is a great twist on the house that’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, but this time it’s a stretch of lonely, closed road in the middle of Oregon.

There are some moments in this book that are so unnerving, especially in the tunnel sequence iykyk. What makes the scary parts hit so well is the characterizations here, and you really care for all four of these women, they are all real people. There is a lot of family trauma and reconciling past with present and future and it leads to a very satisfying ending.

What a FASCINATING novel this is. I do enjoy a well-contained, tight-timeline horror experience, and this book certainly delivers that!

This cast of characters is absolutely rock solid. I love our pov character Livia, her pack of childhood best friends, and the young ghost-hunters they gang up with.

I thought the premise here was really cool: SOMETHING along a purportedly haunted stretch of road tortures those on it with the trauma of their own pasts, feeding off their fear and dread until they inevitably die. Once I understood what was going on, I locked in and was all for it, but I struggled a bit in the beginning understanding why the flashbacks were relevant. The ramp-up to the true ‘oh no’ felt a little stilted as a result. It’s a hard line to traverse: giving your readers enough information that the reveals and scary stuff feels significant, but also not bogging down the early moments of your thriller with too much information for them to parse. In the grand scheme, easily could be a preference thing for me.

The ending felt EARNED, and such a lovely relief. I think it’s interesting that there is some ambiguity, but it isn’t ambiguity I dislike. It’s right. The characters’ inner demons are so central in this one that watching them face those is so so satisfying.

I can definitely see myself recommending this book to fans of the suspense/thriller side of the genre, as well as those that like Simone St James’ work!

A road trip straight out of Hell. A devious monster that’s able to play with past trauma and memories. And a scary section of road where this monster lives and terrorizes.

Livia is dealing with a current life emergency after she finds out her husband is cheating. She calls on her 3 best friends to get her through and they decide on a road trip. On the road trip they take a short cut they will regret. Don’t ever take the short cut! Ever!

This one was super fast paced. Two different time periods, the past when the girls were kids and Livia was terrorized by an abusive father in his junkyard and the present, where a monster can use old trauma to cause hallucinations.

Recommend for horror fans and those who like a fast paced thriller.

It was okay. It was hard to keep interested. The scary highway is just not my type of book. The story was interesting but i found it hard to follow.

Thanks to Netgalley to the ARC

Unfortunately, this book sounded like it was going to be right up my alley but sadly it just did not hold my interest. I made it to about 30% before giving up. I think that it’s just not for me but could be for someone else. I hate giving up on ARCs and always want to give “new authors to me” a decent shot but this one just didn’t do it for me.

*Huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really great horror novel! The first part reminded me of the intro to an episode of Supernatural. Jones balanced real-life and supernatural horror so well in the dual timelines, and I liked seeing how the main characters' childhoods informed their thoughts and behaviors in the present-day, on the highway. Love the idea of a haunted stretch of road and I wish I saw that more often in horror books!

County Road 951, a fifteen mile stretch of scenic curves responsible for more deaths than any other road in Oregon, has been gated off at both ends for years. But sometimes GPS suggests unsuitable detours and someone else had already cut the gate before Liva and her friends turned off the main road to get away from a threatening tow truck. I was hooked by this one, maybe because I live in the area and can picture exactly the stretch of mountain range that the road must cut across. I'm used to hearing sirens on the way to accidents. It's far too easy to imagine The Devil's Driveweay and what it would be like to be trapped there by supernatural forces. The plot alternates between Olivia's traumatic childhood and what's happening on the road and it does start to bog down at a few points, but for the most part I aboslutely loved it.

I loved the idea behind this. Friends set out on a girls trip to get away from real life for a while. Then some terrible shit happens. Okay, that sounds like the plot of a lot of horror movies but it works. Usually, it works. Here it did not.

The characters were bitchy and a lovable group of friends, I enjoyed that aspect of it. Who wouldn’t want to help one of their friends out after they’ve been dealt a crappy hand in life? That’s as far as my enjoyment goes with this.

I’ve tried, let me tell you. I’ve tried! I kept pushing myself to read more but I just couldn’t do it anymore. I didn’t like the story and I didn’t care for the writing. Was bored through most of what I read and I wanted the shadows to bring forth darkness and despair. Nothing of the kind happened. Well, from what I read.

Let me clarify something. I’m not a slow burn reader, I need the words to come off of the page and slap me. That doesn’t mean blood and gore has to take place on every page but I expect the dialogue to keep me interested.

‘White Line Fever’ was the haunted road story that never ended. It played on and on just like that Lamb Chop song. While this book wasn’t for me, I can see other readers enjoying it. Not me though, I like my stories haunting.

This work started off quite strong. There's tension in the present timeline, and it isn't long before odd and unexplainable things begin to happen. Things get a little surreal and off putting, setting a strong atmosphere. But then it begins to fizzle and most of the strength of the early part of the book is lost.

There are two timelines, and the past one is pretty much used to explain why the protagonist is seeing what they are in the present timeline. But these chapters are longer than they need to be and take away from the tension and atmosphere of the present timeline. The present timeline also slows down and becomes kind of repetitive, and I honestly got bored with the book. The characters also aren't that strong or relatable, which just gave me nothing to really connect with.

If you're looking for a slower, somewhat surreal suspenseful read then you may like this one but it just didn't work for me. My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This book is for those nights when you want to feel that creepy chill roll up and down your spine. There’s a road that twists and torments those who dare to drive it by reminding each person of their worst nightmares and moments in life. Those hidden fears that each one holds tight to their chest and never wants to relive again. Does anyone survive the broken road?

I loved this book and I can’t wait to read so many more stories by this author! Sign me up for all of the additional twists and turns.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for an E-ARC copy of this book.

The premise sounds so promising and I settled in for what I thought would be a spooky read. Sadly, it was neither spooky nor creepy. This one just didn't hold my interest and I found myself bored with the story. It was a struggle to make it to the end.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of White Line Fever by KC Jones.

A blend of thriller, supernatural horror but with some serious psychological depth. I personally had a difficult time connecting with the characters and I think that was greatly affected my reading experience. However, the best part of the book was just HOW atmospheric it is, how I could effortlessly immerse myself in the story. The chapters that glanced back in time complimented the rest of the timeline SO well, kind of like perfectly fitting puzzle pieces. And the end...for all the buildup, resulted in an awesome final 100 pages...a crescendo if you will.

This book didn't fully hit the mark for me, but I will still recommend it to other readers looking for a wild ride.

I have to admit I was a little worried that this book would drag on a lot. I'm personally not a fan of long horror novels.
But I have to say that this book doesn't waste the reader's time. It is a little too long, yes, but it all fits. All the characters are well developed and the different timelines and perspectives are connected perfectly.
It is atmospheric, eerie, and sometimes even emotional.
This is the second book I read by this author and I liked this one better.
If you have read a previous book by this author before and enjoyed it, consider picking this one up.

Thank you, NetGalley and Tor Publishing, for providing the eARC.

This novel is a classic psychological suspense/thriller, with alternating timelines that reveal both the present-day tension and the haunting pasts of the characters. I appreciated the concept of the book, I found it to be a bit drawn out. I started reading and would lose interest because some of it does not read well. It bored me when the author would go on and on about a subject. It was a good read.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley.

Wow, wow, wow!!! This is a movie in the making and reads like a Stephen King horror book!! I could not pit this book down and it’s one of the best ghost stories I’ve read in a long time. I’m now a new read of Jones’ books!

This book was an adrenaline-packed ride of psychological horror and torment. I really enjoyed the pacing and character development in this one. I had never read anything by K.C. Jones before but this definitely makes me want to read more from them!