Shallow Ends

An innocent celebration takes a twisted turn when thirteen unlucky people find themselves trapped on a party bus with an inscrutable driver at the wheel.

It was just supposed to be a birthday party, a mobile celebration with a group of college friends on a modified fire truck. But at some point, things take a dark detour. As the pulsating beats of dance music reverberate over an endless stretch of asphalt, the temperature suddenly plummets, and the reality of the situation becomes chillingly clear: the driver will not stop. After frantically attempting to contact the mysterious motorist, the passengers begin to suspect this party may never end.

Desperation mounts as the trapped revelers hatch a plan to halt the rolling nightmare themselves. While they continue to drink and argue, shifting narrators peel back the layers of their past lives, exposing the disturbing secrets that bind them all together. Alliances shift, old grudges resurface, and battles erupt as the terrified passengers turn on one another in a struggle for survival as they careen through the night.

The Twilight Zone meets Speed in Shallow Ends, a harrowing exploration of the human psyche set on a desolate highway, where the line between what's real and unreal blurs. Brace yourself for a psychological thrill ride that will leave you questioning the boundaries of perception—and confronting the darkness that lurks beneath the placid surface of our lives.

"There's A Moveable Feast, there's Hot Tub Time Machine, there's The Canterbury Tales, and there's David James Keaton swimming between them all, pulling everything together into this raucous, unlikely, terrifying novel about a fire truck, a leap year, and life." —Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times–bestselling author of Don't Fear the Reaper and The Only Good Indians

"The kind of book I hope for but rarely get: it's propulsive and gleeful and wildly funny, but also written with a kind of mad poetry and attention to character that kept me grounded, even as the story flew right off the rails. David James Keaton perfectly captures the unhinged energy of a party bus spinning way, way out of control." —Letitia Trent, Shirley Jackson Award–nominated author of Echo Lake and Almost Dark

"David James Keaton is a madman. His stories contain interwoven plots so intricate and outrageous they're like festooned cotton-candy cobwebs, and his dialogue is the snappiest, funniest, weirdest in the business. Shallow Ends is another beautiful, batty donkey kick to your head and possibly even your heart." —Tony McMillen, creator of Attaboy and Serious Creatures

"Shallow Ends is written with such manic glee that I found myself reading as quickly as my eyes could dart from one line to the next. Keaton is a unique and exhilarating voice and here has expertly created a twisted narrative within the confines of a party bus careening down a terrifying highway." —Jon Bassoff, author of Beneath Cruel Waters