It’s not always the scariest to listen while walking in the woods, but…

This collection is basically a much darker Twilight Zone marathon. Darker because it involves a lot more violence, rape, suicide, and because a lot of the “monsters” are not necessarily explicitly real, which makes them much more possible.

1. Nightmare at 20,000 feet – The title story is the same as the episode, except instead of just being wrung out, the lead character is suicidal and so the various steps he takes might simply be an output of his desires.
2. Dress in White Silk – I could barely pay attention to this one because the reader was so bad.
3. Blood Son – A little kid with homicidal and sociopathic tendencies really really wants to become a vampire.
4. Through channels – A weird little “recording” of a murder confessing to the police.
5. Which War – Imagines the real life version of little girls playing with dolls and toy soldiers. A graphic make-believe story.
6. Mad House – A long story about a man going through severe anxiety and depression, possibly as a result of a house driving him mad. Very very very much a precursor to The Shining. He’s got addiction issues, he’s a writer who can’t write, and he plays out all his rages on his wife and his own body.
7. Disappearing Act – One of the best stories in the collection. A man cheats on his wife and then starts journaling as people slowly disappear from his life. I might teach this one because it’s creepy and eerie without being violent.
8. Legion of Plotters – I think maybe he read a headline and then wrote a story to explain it. In this one, a man slowly convinces himself that everyone around him who is annoying him is working in conjunction to ruin his life. He’s a very sympathetic character. I am that man. We are all that man.
9. Long distance call – A cheesy story right out of Twilight Zone. Phone lines used to be really weird. An old woman starts getting weird calls. GUESS WHERE THEY’RE COMING FROM!!
10. Slaughter House – A kind of HP Lovecraft type story where two brothers buy an old house and it starts driving them mad. Maybe.
11. Wet Straw – More weird houses doing stuff to your stuff.
12. Dance of the Dead – An overly goofy good story about a post-apocalyptic world where the dead are being affected by a weird syndrome bringing them back to life, sort of.
13. The Children of Noah – A man gets pulled over in a small town in Maine — cool fact: I am driving to Maine soon–and bad things happen.
14. The Holiday Man – Has a real Shirley Jackson feel. A would be explainer for Holiday deaths.
15.  Old Honce – An older man tries to relive college days. It doesn’t work out.
16. The Likeness of Julie – A really disturbing rape fantasy. But with a twist?
17. Prey – Totally a darker version of a Twilight Zone.

 

Over all, nothing blew me out of the water, but I enjoyed myself. The readers were not great on this audiobook though.