Tales from the Gas Station: Volume Two continues Jack's stories about what is happening in his life, which mainly takes place in the gas station. If presented in another way, Jack's dark but hilariously funny story of physical pain, fear, and possible mental breakdown could be an incredibly stressful read, but if you have a dark sense of humor, it is just right.

As a warning, there are all kinds of tidbits in this story that might freak people out. That is kind of the point. If you are really sensitive about violence, gore, or bugs, you might want to be cautious. More specifically, if you aren't comfortable with laughing at bad things (not in a cruel way), then you really might have issues with this story.

Normally, I read stories about really smart people solving incredibly difficult problems. They have fantastic skills or magic powers. This isn't the case for Jack at the gas station. He is just a really clueless, awkward guy who is trying to keep going. What really works for me about Jack is that he is fairly calm no matter how weird things get. That isn't to say that there are no freakouts, but they are rare (and totally warranted). This volume of his story has the former cultist, police officer, and stalker from the previous volume, plus a day shift manager, who has no sense of personal space, and some new part time workers. They are wonderfully real characters, even if they aren't around long. For as screwed up as so many of these characters are, it is really surprising how many of them I end up liking a lot. A lot of the humor is based on the interactions between Jack and the other characters, which lends itself to a bit more characterization.

The setting is small town, redneck America, although everything is more weird and twisted than you normally see in small towns... at least, compared to the small towns I lived in. It is really well developed, and each location is vividly presented. Part of the creepiness of the story is contrasting normal settings with terrible, strange, or unexpected things, so the well-described locations are necessary to really set the mood.

As for the plot, this is another story that was published serially (as a blog and also on Reddit, I think), so it isn't the tightest story with every syllable being focused like a laser on the plot. That being said, I think that it is a bit more plot-focused than the first volume. I don't feel like we made a whole ton of progress toward any kind of resolution with the main plotline, although Jack's life did progress quite a bit. This wasn't a problem at all. I was totally engaged throughout. I used to think that I preferred plot driven stories. However, I've found that great characters and some humor works even better.

So, should you read this book? If you can handle some violence and things that are disturbing, yes. However, if you haven't read the first book, do that first. I guess it isn't totally required, but I think it helps a lot.

Of course, I'll be reading the next book in this series.

Just fyi, this book is available through Kindle Unlimited.