{"id":20710,"date":"2026-05-04T15:54:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T19:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=20710"},"modified":"2026-05-04T15:54:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T19:54:02","slug":"review-i-know-a-place-by-nat-cassidy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-i-know-a-place-by-nat-cassidy\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: I Know A Place by Nat Cassidy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/shop.shortwavepublishing.com\/products\/i-know-a-place-rest-stop-and-other-dark-detours-paperback\"><em>I Know A Place\u00a0<\/em>by Nat Cassidy<\/a><br \/>\nShortwave Publishing (May 2026)<br \/>\nReviewed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/unstable.books\/\">Abby Wolf<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"20713\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-i-know-a-place-by-nat-cassidy\/i-know-a-place-cover-1\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/i-know-a-place-cover-1.jpg?fit=333%2C500&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"333,500\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"i know a place cover (1)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/i-know-a-place-cover-1.jpg?fit=333%2C500&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-20713\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/i-know-a-place-cover-1.jpg?resize=233%2C350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"233\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/i-know-a-place-cover-1.jpg?resize=233%2C350&amp;ssl=1 233w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/i-know-a-place-cover-1.jpg?w=333&amp;ssl=1 333w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 233px) 85vw, 233px\" \/>I Know A Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours<\/em> from powerhouse Nat Cassidy (USA Today bestselling author) is not your traditional short story collection. It is more like being handed a map with certain locations circled in blood-red ink. These are the places you are warned not to visit, yet you cannot resist. Each story has its own setting, but they are not just mere backdrops. They are pressure points, spaces where something has gone wrong in ways that feel surreal yet deeply human. Cassidy understands that horror is not just about what lurks in the shadows. It is about why those shadows exist in the first place.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>What makes Cassidy&#8217;s collection so effective is its emotional undercurrent. Beneath strange, and often grotesque imagery, there is a persistent sense of grief, solitude, and an unraveling of reality. Googly eyes scattered across a desolated rest stop, a kitchen that refuses to behave, a ventriloquist whose faith feels more like a threat than a comfort, are all waiting for you, dear reader. These stories do not just aim to scare; they ache. Cassidy has a knack for building characters who feel precariously close to breaking, and then placing them in environments that reflect and amplify that fragility. The result is horror that hits because we recognize it. It feels &#8230; familiar.<\/p>\n<p><em>Rest Stop<\/em>, the collection&#8217;s novella that was previously a standalone, is full of dark humor, but it&#8217;s also unafraid to lean into the absurd. There is a gleeful cruelty in some of these stories and a willingness to push concepts to their most uncomfortable extremes. And that playfulness never undercuts the sincerity. It only enhances it. The humor acts as a release valve, making the darker moments that much more impactful when they arrive.<\/p>\n<p>Thematically, the collection circles around the idea of place, not just physical location, but emotional and psychological ones. These stories explore the feeling of being stuck, whether in grief, in memory, in cycles of behavior, or in locations that feel impossible to escape. The &#8220;places&#8221; Cassidy writes about often feel like manifestations of internal states, as though our characters have wandered into versions of their own deepest fears and painful regrets made real. It gives the collection a cohesion that goes beyond surface-level. Each story feels like a different facet of some overarching question: what happens when you cannot leave?<\/p>\n<p><em>I Know A Place<\/em> rarely lets up. Cassidy doesn&#8217;t offer many moments of true relief and that feels intentional. This is not a collection designed to be dipped in and out of casually. It demands to be sat with and experienced in its full, disquieting weight. I can attest, I read it in one sitting.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, <em>I Know A Place<\/em> is a deeply affective work of horror that understands the genre&#8217;s emotional core. It is unsettling, yes, and often viscerally so. But it is also thoughtful, sharply intelligent, and very tender in its exploration of pain and persistence. Cassidy invites readers into these dark, twisted spaces not just to witness what is there, but to recognize something of ourselves in them. You may not choose to linger in these places but you will never forget them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I Know A Place\u00a0by Nat Cassidy Shortwave Publishing (May 2026) Reviewed by Abby Wolf I Know A Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours from powerhouse Nat Cassidy (USA Today bestselling author) is not your traditional short story collection. It is more like being handed a map with certain locations circled in blood-red ink. These &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-i-know-a-place-by-nat-cassidy\/\" class=\"more-link button bg-gold white\">Continue Reading!<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Review: I Know A Place by Nat Cassidy&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,80],"tags":[3669,3670,2785,79],"class_list":["post-20710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breakingnews","category-reviews","tag-abby-wolf","tag-i-know-a-place","tag-nat-cassidy","tag-reviews"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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