Students Encounter Roadside Terror in This Novel Stephen King Called ‘Scary and Hard to Put Down’ — Exclusive Excerpt : Richard Chizmar’s ‘Memorials’

Looking for the perfect spooky season read? Richard Chizmar’s upcoming novel “Memorials” is sure to do the trick.

Per the official synopsis, “Memorials” tells the story of “Three students from a small college who embark on a week-long road trip to film a documentary on roadside memorials for their American Studies class. The project starts out as a fun adventure with long stretches of empty road and nightly campfires where they begin to open up with one another. But as they venture deeper into the Appalachian backwoods, the atmosphere begins to darken. They notice more and more of the memorials feature a strange, unsettling symbol hinting at a sinister secret. Paranoia sets in when it appears they are being followed. Their vehicle is tampered with overnight and some of the locals appear to be anything but welcoming. Before long, the students can’t help but wonder if these roadside deaths were really random accidents…or is something terrifying at work here?”

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Horror icon Stephen King, who co-wrote the 2017 novella “Gwendy’s Button Box” with Chizmar, has already raved about the novel, writing on X that it’s “Scary and hard to put down. You might be advised not to read it at night.”

“Memorials” arrives in bookstores on October 22 and you can preorder it here. Check out an exclusive excerpt below.

Date: April 18, 1983

Class: American Studies 301

Instructor: Professor Tyree

Group Members: William Anderson, Troy Carpenter, Melody Wise

Roadside Memorials: A Study of Grief and Remembrance

We’ve all seen them. On our way to the grocery store or the post office or a faraway vacation destination. Keeping a lonely vigil on the side of the road. Stark white crosses, surrounded by candles and photographs; stuffed animals and flowers; ceramic angels and red or yellow ribbons. We slow down to take a look, shake our heads in regret, and then continue on our way—and they’re forgotten.

Roadside memorials not only honor the accidental death of a loved one, but they also play an important role in the grieving process for surviving family members and friends. They often form -

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a connective thread of remembrance and help survivors to maintain an emotional bond with the departed.

Roadside memorials originated in the early 1800s, most prominently in the American Southwest, especially in what is now Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Many Latin Americans placed such memorials to mark the location where their loved ones died. The first documented memorial to appear on the East Coast was in Connecticut in 1812.

Now, in 1983, there are thousands of such memorials scattered around the nation’s bustling highways, suburban streets, and remote backroads. So many, in fact, that there is talk of legislation and regulation in some states/ towns/counties. Even outright bans. But for now, these emotionally charged shrines remain a relatively new and increasingly controversial development.

And behind each of them is a story.

Our group proposes to travel by automobile throughout central and northwestern Pennsylvania on a five-day road trip. Utilizing a variety of visual mediums (still photography, film, and video), we plan to create a sixty-to-seventy-five-minute documentary entitled “Roadside Memorials: A Study of Grief and Remembrance.” This visual presentation will be supplemented by dramatic commentary, as well as personal interviews with family members and close friends of the accident victims.

We will begin our journey on the campus of York College and then travel north via I-83 and a network of backroads, following the shoreline of the Susquehanna River. On our first night, we will stop in Sudbury, Pennsylvania, the hometown of group member Billy Anderson, where a very personal roadside memorial dedicated to his late mother and father still stands.

From there, we will navigate a winding path to the northwest, venturing deep into the heart of Pennsylvania’s Appalachian region. We will drive without a preplanned route, wandering with a purpose, searching for roadside memorials and attempting to discover the heart-wrenching stories behind them.

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