Rating: 7.5/10
Recently, I trolled through the free audiobooks offered through Prime Reading. I happened across one of the titles from this short story collection because I recognized Jennifer McMahon's name. After I finished listening to her short story, I felt like I may as well listen to the other six. I was pleasantly surprised, they were all entertaining and the premises themselves were fun. Each one had a totally different vibe which made it exciting to move onto the next one. They weren't all created equal; therefore, I'm going to include a ranking of my favorite to my least favorite. I'll also take this time to mention that they're all available separately, so if you have Prime Reading and just one of these sounds interesting, then you can listen to just the one. I think that they're all worth listening to though. They're also available for free as ebooks through amazon reading. Coming up with a collective rating was hard, so I'll including individual ratings as well.
1. The Sleep Tight Motel By: Lisa Unger
Rating: 9.5/10
Audiobook length: 1hr 35 min
This short story follows Eve, she's on the run from her abusive boyfriend and she finds herself at the Sleep Tight Motel. Eve is the only guest at the motel, nobody else even seems to drive by the place. Weirdness aside, the front desk clerk/owner is kind and wants to help her. She's thankful for the kindness because she's still receiving texts from her boyfriend, informing her that he's still after her and she's not going to get away with what she's done. I found this one to be really engaging, I was trying to figure out what was going on the whole time. I was able to guess the twist, but I thought it was so good that I can't even hold it against the book.
2. There's a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed By: Edgar Cantero
Rating: 9/10
Audiobook length: 51 min
This story is basically the equivalent of "The floor is lava" if it was a scary short story. Four kids at a sleepover make the rules to their game. If one of them says that the shadows in the room are anti-matter or that theres a giant trapdoor spider under the bed, then it's true. They have no choice but to figure a way around it. The problem is, they've backed themselves into a corner, so now they must figure out how to stop the game from getting them. I thought the premise for this short story was incredibly fun. When kids play games, they take the rules so seriously, when they say that the floor is lava they mean it. In this story, if they say that the floor is lava- it is. Seriously a fun read.
3. Oak Avenue By: Brandi Reeds
Rating: 8/10
Audiobook length: 2hr 3min
This is more your classic haunted house story. It really had an Amityville Horror Vibe. But, that's my jam so I wasn't surprised that I enjoyed it. Anastasia (Ana) Clementine, her husband Edison, and her baby daughter move back to his hometown into a house that he's wanted to live in since he was young. The inside of the house is hideous, the last time it was decorated was in the 70s and it shows. Edison insists it'll be fine, but he is at work in Chicago during the week so he doesn't even have to deal with it. Everything is fine until a beautiful door is dug up on the property, Ana is dying to restore it and put it back in the house. Anything to try to restore the inside to its' former beauty. But now strange things are happening, the baby learned a strange new word and Ana swears she hears her name on the breeze, a frigid breeze that seems to come in from the attic. On top of that, Edison is acting strange, he's gotta mean and aggressive but when she confronts him about it, he never remembers. The ending was one of those ambiguous cheesy endings so I didn't care much for it. But I love a good haunted house short story so I had to put it in third place.
4. Hannah Beast By: Jennifer McMahon
Rating: 7.5/10
Audiobook Length: 1 hr 23 min
This story follows Jennifer McMahon's usual writing style in that the story switches back and forth between the past and the present continually. The protagonist, Amanda, is stuck at home on Halloween. Her daughter is a brat and her husband left her, she's just having a rough time. To add insult to injury, her daughter insists on dressing like Hannah Beast for Halloween. Hannah Beast, the town's true story turned ghost story. Amanda doesn't like to talk about Hannah Beast, she doesn't want anybody to know what happened that night. I found the twist at the end predictable, but I thought the premise was good. It's like Mean Girls meets Firestarter meets Halloween.
5. The Remedy By: Adam Haslett
Rating: 6.5/10
Audiobook length: 59 mins
Derrick has been suffering from chronic pain for as long as he can remember. The pain has engulfed him, he has become the pain. Nothing has ever made it better. He's been to countless doctors over the years, all with the same nonexistent results. That may change when Derrick hears about this new, secret, expensive treatment that could very well cure him of his pain. At this point he's willing to try anything to make it work, no matter the cost. I found the premise of the story to be interesting, but I just found it to be kind of meh. Like I was left with more questions than answers. There were so many things you never find out and I found the ending to be disappointing.
6. Tangled Woods By: Emily Raboteau
Rating: 6/10
Audiobook length: 1 hr 11 mins
Reginald and his family go on a trip to a resort in the Poconos to try to relax and unwind. Well, his wife and son are going to relax, Reginald is in a constant state of unease and irritation. As a film critic, Reginald has always held himself to be a lover of more sophisticated things. Things that his family don't seem to understand. Once they get to the resort, things just keep getting worse and worse. The vacation just won't go as planned, with deadly results. This story was also kind of meh, it wasn't really ever scary. The main character was really pretentious too, in a very one-dimensional kind of way. He was just irritated about everything the whole time and internally complaining about his life. The end also didn't feel like a twist, it just felt off-subject.
7. Miao Dao By: Joyce Carol Oates
Rating: 5.5/10
Puberty is hell for Mia, all of the negative attention she's been getting since her body has started to mature has been weighing on her heavily. To make everything worse, her mother and father get divorced. She feels abandoned and betrayed by her dad. It doesn't get better when her mother starts dating again and her father is replaced by her creepy stepfather. The only escape that she has is in the lot with the feral cats. She adores the cats and she longs to exist among them. One in particular finds its' way to her and it will protect her at any cost. This story was creepy, reliving puberty in such a raw way was something to say the least. This story was scary really because of the threat of sexual assault that seemed to loom about all the time. The story didn't feel particularly flawed in any way, I just didn't care for it. It felt longer than it needed to be and I found myself waiting for it to be over.