REVIEW: A Haunted Road Atlas: Next Stop

BY: DAVEY

A Haunted Road Atlas: Next Stop is the second travel book from Christine Schiefer and Em Schulz, the hosts of the And That’s Why We Drink podcast. I spent the last couple of weeks with it, and I liked it a lot. It has a few limits, but it earned its spot on my shelf.

Some background on the authors if you don’t know the show. And That’s Why We Drink is a comedy podcast where every episode pairs a true crime story with a paranormal one. It’s a big show, with over 200 million downloads, a stack of podcast awards, and live tours going back to 2018. Their first A Haunted Road Atlas became a New York Times bestseller, so a sequel was pretty much inevitable.

This one covers 30 new U.S. cities that didn’t make the first book, stretching from Spokane to Savannah. Each stop pairs a local haunting or true crime case with recommendations for bars, restaurants, hotels, and things to do while you’re in town. You get the Buffalo Butcher, a story about arsenic-laced bonbons in Dover, and aliens in Alaska, along with illustrations, a playlist for each city, and a chapter of games for fans of the podcast. There are also ice cream recommendations, which I fully support.

This is exactly the kind of book I’m drawn to. I’ve spent years traveling around the world to visit haunted places and the spots where horror movies were filmed, and most of my trips get planned around at least one of the two. What I appreciate here is that the book treats hauntings as travel. It gives you the story, then tells you where to grab dinner afterward. That’s how I actually travel, and it makes the book far more useful than a collection of ghost stories with no way to act on them.

The balance of true crime and paranormal keeps it moving, too. You’re never stuck in one mode for long, and the cities cover a good spread of the country, including a lot of places that don’t usually show up in haunted travel guides.

Where it falls a little bit short is depth. Thirty cities in one book means each stop gets a fairly quick pass, and a few times I wanted more history and lore. That said, as a nonfiction author myself, I know there’s only so much you can fit in a tome and editors do love taking an axe to manuscripts like this. So I absolutely get it. The voice is pure podcast, casual and full of banter. Fans of the show will love that. If you don’t already know Christine and Em, you’ll instantly feel that vibe. The playlists and games are fun extras, though I mostly skimmed them.

Overall, this is a solid, fun, genuinely useful book. It’ didn’t blow me away, but it’s one ‘s certainly one I’ll keep in the car and pull out the next time I’m planning a trip.

Order a copy from the publisher here.