THE NIGHT CYCLIST: A TOR.COM ORIGINAL by Stephen Graham Jones

I've had my eye on Stephen Graham Jones' work for a while and have read nothing but awesome things about his talent. Rave reviews for his latest short story/novelette, "The Night Cyclist," led me to make it my first jump into his work. It follows a restaurant cook and avid cyclist who bikes from work to home everyday, and the unexpected encounter he has one night on a dark stretch of road. 

As promised, the story is wonderfully well-written and detailed, especially when describing the joys and experiences of bike riding as well as the eerie nights that the rider encounters while on the road. And like all of the great horror writers, Jones uses the fantastic as a vehicle to touch on the themes that are at the heart of the story, mid-life crises and second chances. I enjoyed the ending as well and now I have to decide which Stephen Graham Jones book to read next!

He'd picked my scent out of all the smells of the city. Out of all the thousands of other bodies out after dark. He'd known me through the rain.

GRADE: A-