family

The Walking by Bentley Little, Narrated by John Pirhalla

/ MeltdownMessiah / Leave a comment

If you’re familiar with Bentley Little, you’re probably well aware that he’s an author who excels at tales of small towns with dark secrets, hidden mysteries, and sinister forces beneath the surface. He takes the mundane and everyday aspects of our lives and transforms them into something sublimely creepy with apparent ease. That is, in fact, the man’s bread and butter as far as I’m concerned, and few have come close to doing it half as well.

The Walking includes a fair bit of what you’d expect from Little but with a lot more history involved than is often found in his work. The tale unfolds during two different periods, as the revelations behind what’s happening are deeply tied to events of the distant past, where a town of witches was established in the Southwest. In this place, they could be safe from persecution and the religious intolerance of the rest of American civilization. That is until everything falls apart.

In the modern day, we discover a plague of peculiar variety, in that some recently deceased people are suddenly driven to walk, although they’re clearly quite dead. Family secrets are uncovered, the cruel fate of the once-prosperous town of witches is revealed, and the cast of characters we’ve been following are forced to meet face-to-face with the mysterious force that’s animating the dead and calling them home.

Fans of The Summoning are sure to enjoy the appearance of a certain opportunistic FBI agent.

This was slower than a lot of Little’s work, but it was not disappointing for that fact. It felt different from much of his other work, including the pacing and the wider scale of the overall narrative.

John Pirhalla’s narration was top-notch, leaving no complaints and nothing to be desired.

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Walking-Audiobook/B0919B6SDX?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp

This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances by Eric LaRocca, Narrated by Andre Santana, Natalie Naudus, Michael Crouch, & Steven Crossley

/ MeltdownMessiah / Leave a comment

It seems appropriate that the first title I’m reviewing in June of 2024 is a title by a recently prolific and extremely talented LGBTQ+ author. This Skin Was Once Mine: and Other Disturbances is a collection of four unconnected stories that nevertheless work well together because of the common themes of relationships, secrets, and revelations that emerge as the tales are told. The title, also the title of the first of the stories, is emblematic of Eric LaRocca’s work, substantially longer than one expects a title to be, but so thoroughly captivating that it’s impossible to ignore.

In the titular tale, we are introduced to Jillian Finch, who returns to her childhood home following her father’s death, only to discover that many of the things she thought she knew about her family and her former life are not quite how she recalls them. As hideous secrets are revealed to us, her traumatized psychology shifts her focus to things that are seemingly trivial by comparison. As she reflexively ignores the horrible things she endured and survived, we witness the residual effects of childhood trauma and the devastating ripples they have.

The next story in this collection, Seedling, also deals with grief and mourning, as a son returns home to an emotionally distant father when his mother passes away. He discovers the wounds we carry with us, passed down from generation to generation, as hurt is revisited. And even as he and his father come to understand one another better than they ever have, it seems that the seeds germinating early in life have grown into cancerous wounds that might be impossible to heal.

All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn introduces Enoch Leadbetter as he attempts to find the perfect knife to satisfy his husband’s needs for an upcoming dinner party. Instead, he finds a secret and shameful obsession that consumes him, as he loses touch with who and what he was with startling consequences.

In the final story, Prickle, we meet two elderly gentlemen as they come together for the first time in a long while. Worried that time may be limited, they play a cruel, sadistic game they once enjoyed. But as the challenges grow increasingly perverse, we’re forced to witness a shocking loss of humanity and decency.

Each of these stories is spectacularly well-written and deeply immersive, which is truly the most insidious aspect of LaRocca’s storytelling. They remain with you long after you’ve stepped away, and you’re forced to move forward, knowing that there’s no sense in worrying about the innocence you lost along the way. Like the snake shedding its skin, there’s no reason to look back or to think, “This skin was once mine.”

The narrations provided by Natalie Naudus, Andre Santana Michael Crouch, and Steven Crossley were spot-on. The perfect narrator was selected for each story, in my opinion. They made the tales feel more authentic and poignant. I don’t know how long it took to choose who would narrate the individual stories, but if it was a drawn-out process, it was worth every second of deliberation.

https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/this-skin-was-once-mine-and-other-disturbances/755321

https://www.audible.com/pd/This-Skin-Was-Once-Mine-Audiobook/B0CVJDMZK9?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp

Inside the Devil’s Nest by John Durgin, Narrated by Joe Hempel

/ MeltdownMessiah / Leave a comment

Anthony Graham is a successful real estate agent. That success is due–in no small part–to a deal he made with the devil, in the form of an agreement made with a mob boss who wants to use vacant properties for a variety of purposes, no questions asked. When Anthony stumbles upon one of his properties being used in an entirely predictable way–though one he never expected–it all comes crashing down around him in a barrage of sudden violence. On the run with his family, knowing he’s only postponing the inevitable, Anthony heads for a former campground he’s been unable to sell–hoping it’ll buy him some time to figure out what to do next. Unfortunately, for Anthony and his family, this campground holds dark secrets far worse–and more dangerous–than the men hunting them down.

John Durgin paints us a portrait of a family struggling to hold it together despite years of acrimony, strain, and secrets…and then he thrusts that family into a situation sure to unravel the worn threads that hold them together. Before they arrive at the campground the family is already falling apart, and it only gets worse from there. Good intentions spectacularly pave the way to Hell as two broken families with secrets buried deep come together, and Anthony learns first-hand why he’s never been able to sell the property.

We’re forced to witness as six people find themselves caught between two evils that mean nothing but harm, and we’re left wondering which of those two evils will exact their toll first as we descend toward a conclusion that can be nothing but violent and cruel. We may want to look away, but there’s some part of us that keeps us watching as everything approaches perhaps the only ending there could be.

Joe Hempel’s narration of the tale brings it to terrifying life and gives each character their own place in the listener’s imagination while we join them on their journey to the depths.

https://www.audible.com/pd/Inside-the-Devils-Nest-Audiobook/B0C4BK3D1T?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp

I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls by Ben Farthing

/ MeltdownMessiah / 2 Comments

Ben Farthing manages to take a premise that seems like it should be a made-for-children horror story and successfully translates it into something disturbing and disorienting to adult readers. The most impressive aspect is that he does so quite flawlessly.

When two cousins begin the process of preparing to clean out the apartment of their missing–and presumed dead–grandfather, they’re taken down memory lane in a way that neither of them could have anticipated. Their grandfather had been one-half of the puppeteering team behind a giant puppet on R-City Street (think Sesame Street), and the individual who supplied voices for some of the most well-known puppets on the popular children’s show. The apartment is part of the converted studio where the show had been taped, before being canceled under mysterious circumstances, and there are secrets hidden within the walls.

As the two cousins find themselves traversing a labyrinthine nightmare crafted from their childhood memories, they’re forced to question the nature of reality, the danger of nostalgia, and who or what they can trust.

This is an excellent tale, told by a fantastic storyteller.

This title can also be located at http://www.godless.com via the following link:

I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls by Ben Farthing

A Mother’s Love by D. A. Latham and Todd Love

/ MeltdownMessiah / Leave a comment

Munchausen by Proxy never looked so disgusting.
Harvey Cutter is dependent on his mother for far more than the fulfillment of the usual needs, especially as an adult. Wanda has cultivated an entirely unhealthy relationship between herself and her son, not to mention an unhealthy diet.
But a relationship like this can only sustain itself for so long, and when Harvey spitefully decides to show his mother that she needs him just as much as he needs her, the end of their perverse codependence isn’t far behind.
The story only gets more disturbing from there.
Love and Latham introduce us to what might be the most dysfunctional family any of us will encounter on the page, and thankfully never in real life. A Mother’s Love is a tale of desperation, manipulation, family, and fear of loss taken to grotesque extremes that these two authors seem to relish in displaying for their readers.

You can obtain this title by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device. The link is below:

A Mother's Love by Todd Love and Donna Latham

Man, Fuck This House by Brian Asman

/ MeltdownMessiah / Leave a comment

When the Haskins family moves halfway across the country from their previous lives in Columbus, Ohio, no one would’ve expected the dramatic changes that accompanied their move into the new home. It begins almost immediately, as little things change and strange messages appear, but it gets weirder from there.
As the atmosphere becomes increasingly surreal and unsettling, it’s the strained and peculiar relationship dynamics within the Haskins family that accelerate everything. The odd occurrences grow more sinister as the story progresses. In large part, thanks to Damien’s need to torment his mother out of bitterness that she’s always suspected him of being a monster. Hal’s thinking his wife’s losing her mind doesn’t help, either.
Sabrina is not a particularly bright woman–in addition to being both scatterbrained and indecisive–but the bizarre apparitions and wish-fulfillment manifestations are not symptoms of insanity. Unfortunately, it’ll probably be too late by the time the rest of the family figures that out.
Asman has crafted a wholly unique haunted house story, turning the whole thing on its head and steering readers toward a climax no sane reader would see coming. It’s both amusing and perplexing along the way, and–as one should expect from Asman–the characters are so thoroughly captivating that they draw the reader in just as effectively as the narrative itself.
If you want to avoid spoilers, you should probably stop here because I can’t avoid saying things that will ruin some of the surprises.
This is indeed a haunted house story–in a whole different sense. A house that’s haunted by the neglect and mistreatment of its former resident in the same way a person can be haunted by their earlier life experiences. Much like a person troubled by trauma, the house seems to go a bit overboard, overcompensating when it thinks it might have found someone who can love it for what it is. With a single-minded, short-sighted fixation on Sabrina and her well-being, the house itself might be acting with questionable judgment.
That questionable judgment becomes readily apparent as the house uproots itself and storms through town like the most unlikely kaiju ever, heedless of the damage it causes along the way.
The moral of the story is that houses need love too.

1855 by Jacob Steven Mohr

/ MeltdownMessiah / 2 Comments

This is the third of the releases in D&T Publishing’s emerging authors series in partnership with Godless. There hasn’t been a lackluster piece of writing in the bunch. 1855 is no exception.
Victorian-era photography is rife with eerie elements that were commonly in practice. Jacob Steven Mohr, in a flash of brilliance, decided to place “hidden mother photography” at the core of his story, 1855. When the quiet, strange Italian boy winds up in the orphanage, the language barrier makes it all but impossible to determine what’s happened to his family and how he found himself in the care of the sisters and director Timothy Ford.
The arrival of a priest who can translate the child’s story leads the characters down a path punctuated with sinister disappearances and evidence that a mother’s love and protection of her child never fades.
It’s the story of a father whose grief wouldn’t allow him to bear the sight of his deceased wife, and the consequences that follow. While this is a horror story, it’s also a heartbreaking glimpse of a child lost in the world and unable to recall his own mother’s face. This is a period tale of tragedy and sadness as much as anything else, and it’s brought to life with expert quality with Mohr’s writing.

You can pick up 1855 and the previous Emerge series of stories by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device. The link is below:

1855 by Jacob Steven Mohr (Emerge #3)

Abigail by Daemon Manx

/ MeltdownMessiah / Leave a comment

Adrian had a spectacular night on a date with Mike, who might be the man of his dreams. His life might be changing, and he’s feeling a sense of optimism when he arrives home to find an unexpected package at his front door. Fearing a basket filled with venomous snakes, Adrian instead discovers that his life is indeed going to change, but in wholly unexpected ways.
The gray-skinned, tiny-horned baby with violet and silver eyes is nothing Adrian could have anticipated. Nevertheless, he finds himself immediately in love with the peculiar child and desperate to protect her. As a gay man, he knows precisely how cruel the world can be to those who aren’t like everyone else.
Shut away from the outside world, devoted to caring for his unexpected daughter, it still doesn’t take Adrian long to learn that Abigail has a strange effect on people. Deciding it’s time to stop dodging Mike’s calls, Adrian hopes the doctor and potential lover might be able to answer the numerous questions he has regarding this bundle of joy.
Daemon Manx manages to surprise readers with a twist that’s so subtle in its build-up that no one is going to see it coming. It’s a challenge to craft such a surprise in so few pages, but Manx pulls it off admirably well. The reader will find themselves wondering how they could have missed something so huge, only to wonder why it’s such a colossal revelation in the first place. For a story that focuses so heavily on preconceived notions, it’s a spectacular feat that Manx forces the reader to evaluate their own preconceived notions by the time they reach the end.

Abigail is a short fiction nominee for the 2022 Splatterpunk Awards taking place at KillerCon Austin 2022 in August.

The Pale Ones by Terry Miller

/ MeltdownMessiah / Leave a comment

Is Audrey Tipton plagued by night terrors, those nightmare visions and impressions that remain after she’s opened her eyes? Or are the pale, sinister beings she sees peering in at her and walking the halls of her house at night really there? If it’s not Audrey’s imagination getting the best of her, what could these creatures want with her parents or with her?
Terry Miller crafts a surprisingly atmospheric tale for how brief the narrative is. It’s a chilling plunge into the deepest shadows of the night that transform our otherwise familiar homes into strange places populated by stranger creatures. Just as horrific, Miller explores what it means when familiar faces feel like hiding places for foreign entities. We’re left to question every minor inconsistency or out-of-character behavior as potential revelations of sinister life venturing from darkness into the light.

You can obtain this story by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device. The link is below:

The Pale Ones by Terry Miller

Time by Todd Love

/ MeltdownMessiah / Leave a comment

It can be difficult living in the shadow of one’s father, especially if that father is particularly successful and celebrated in certain circles…or maybe pentagrams.
Time is a quick and brutal story of a son determined to show his father that he’s not only ready to take over the family operation but that he can be both inventive and innovative in doing so. By the time the story reaches its satisfyingly grotesque conclusion, it feels like we’ve been there for a while, but that’s the nature of forever, I suppose. Time loses all meaning when there’s no end to it.
Choosing a pedophile as a victim is an excellent choice, as it makes it impossible for the reader to sympathize with his plight. It guarantees that we’ll be in it for the long haul, regardless of how vile and cruel the punishment becomes. We’ll be cheering at the sidelines, hoping to see more suffering.
By the time all is said and done, I’d certainly say this son has met or exceeded his father’s lofty expectations. It’s not every day a father and son celebrate by spit roasting a pedophile on their cocks, but in a Todd Love story, one really shouldn’t be surprised.

This title is to be released through http://www.godless.com on January 31st, 2022. You can obtain it for yourself by going to the website or by downloading the app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:

Time by Todd Love – JANUARY 31st