A Review of “Fates Past” by Jason Huebinger

Everyone Has Regrets

Skeletons in their closets.

What if you had to relive them? Face them head on, come to terms and make peace with these personal demons and regrets. Could you? Would you?

These are the situations that face boyfriend and girlfriend Carrie and Cameron. While on their way to New Orleans for a weekend getaway something strange occurs and the road they are on doesn’t appear to be the one they should be traveling. While unable to catch their bearings due to malfunctioning electronics and unaware to gauge the time as all clocks only show 00:00, Cameron and Carrie travel on this “road to nowhere” until they reach an inn. The kindly innkeeper provides them with a room for the evening and the strange occurrences continue. While Cameron continues to hear a growling that Carrie cannot; Carrie is plagued by an incessant high pitched beeping and the cry of a baby. The duo eventually become separated and are thrust into their own personal nightmare world of regrets, missed opportunities and bad choices as they attempt to fight their way back to each other.

At first I wasn’t really sure where this story was going with the paranormal road, visits from past indiscretions and replaying of mistakes in striking realism. Was this just a dream that one of the characters was having during the long ride between Texas and Louisiana or was it something more? There definitely was a paranormal aspect to it and also a dash of Twilight Zone and Stephen King. I finally caught on to Heubinger’s vision for this story about 75% in, and the realization blew my mind. After having read the story and having a few days to digest it, I can look back and see a double meaning in a few things and while intentional or not, to me it makes this story all the better. Because of this, I can definitely see myself slating this title for a reread in the future to see if I can pick up on any other subtle bits of foreshadowing that I missing during my initial read. The closing lines of the book gave me chills and brought a tear to my eye. I do believe that this may be the debut novel for Jason Heubinger and I definitely hope that there are others!