Where do I begin? First off, I would not really consider this a thriller, more horror/paranormal if anything. Honestly, its been a very long time since I read anything in that genre so it was definitely different. Since I was looking for a good thriller, the premise for what I wanted was there, the delivery was not. However, it was different. I guess sometimes you need to step out of your normal and try other things. I did promise to immerse myself in other genres this year so this was a start.

Imagine going on a road trip with your girls, planning to hit up a nice resort, lots of drinking and catching up. In route, you end up in a road rage situation with someone that freaks you out a little so you all take a shortcut. The shortcut is supposed to get you to your destination in 15 minutes, instead you spend hours on a road that seems to grab hold and refuse to let go. I don't want to give too much away, so lets just say this, people on this road don't always make it out and those that do, are forever changed.

I really wanted to like this one, I really did. The premise sounded so promising. Sadly it was just too slow for me.

A weekend getaway turned into horror! I was interested to see how a 15 mile stretch of road could fill the length of an entire horror novel but it worked! This stretch of road speaks for itself, as it’s literally so renowned to be evil that it’s called the devil’s driveway. Just 30 miles round trip, 15 miles there and 15 miles back. How bad could it be? The ghost stories and numbers of tragedies beg to differ.

The strongest suit of this book is that it’s super visual and easy to picture. You can picture yourself driving at night, turning towards an unmarked, unlit road…the notorious County Road 951. Reading this almost gives found footage film vibes, like watching something similar to Blair Witch or something. A group of girls makes the mistake of taking a detour through County Road 951 and strange things start to happen, like apples falling from the sky (not scary but really random?). I liked the concept of the nightmare mile, which is the most dangerous part of the road, most of it made up of a tunnel. And in true horror novel fashion, they are forced to go through the tunnel to be able to get off of County Road 951.

My biggest qualm of this book is that it just….wasn’t scary enough. It just didn’t have the readability factor I wanted. A haunted stretch of highway is such an awesome concept that made me want to read this immediately, but it just….wasn’t scary. What I want in a horror novel is for it to be compulsively readable and this book just didn’t have that. I found myself skimming most of it because I just wasn’t getting into it; I’m not sure why but the readability factor wasn’t there. I tried but I just couldn’t bring myself to care. Maybe it was because the stakes weren’t high enough, or that it wasn’t scary enough, or it was too slow starting for my ADHD, or a combination of all of those. But it simply just…wasn’t scary or exciting for me. And the ending reveal also was underwhelming and again, just not scary. I think readers who are ok with slower horror would appreciate this one because I did find it quite slow and not the most exciting. 3/5 stars because while it wasn’t exactly a fun read for me, it was still well written.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review.

County Road 951 isn't much to look at. The long stretch of road in rural Oregon doesn't appear to be an issue, except that with a long history of dangerous accidents and tragedies befalling first responders to said accidents, the area has become known as the Devil's Driveway. When Livia and her friends find themselves on The Devil's Driveway on their way to a girl's weekend, they start to encounter problems that quickly spiral leaving them to wonder if they'll ever make it through the short stretch of road.

I was really excited about this book. I loved the cover and the description. I'm a huge fan of local legend/myth stories so it seemed like it would be right up my alley. I loved the way the book jumped in with a daredevil YouTuber intentionally traversing the road and how Livia and her friends approach the same road incidentally. I also liked the way they two were eventually tied together. The only real issue with the book is that between the dual timelines, all the female characters (who in e-read format I found kind of flat and difficult to keep straight) and the very trippy experiences on the road it often felt very disjointed. I liked the story concerning the girls' past and the junk yard, but I felt like it broke the tension too much and wish the story on the road in the present would have been told straight through it would have held the tension better. At some point I started to picture this as more of a miniseries where the first episode or to would be the backstory and then the others would be the present-day story told in a linear fashion without interruption by the past.

Overall, I really liked the concept of the story but the disjointed telling of it threw me a little bit. I also didn't get an accurate idea of just how trippy the story was from the description, the blurb made it sound like it was relatively grounded and I wish it would have hinted at, so I knew what I was walking into.

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.

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.