Narrator Bahni Turpin delivers family drama and scares in this tween horror with a historical twist. Because she has just failed her swim test, Celeste is nervous about spending a week with her cousins at their grandparents' house on a lake. Segregation stopped her grandparents from learning to swim as children, so swimming is extremely important to them. Turpin is perfect as the reserved and thoughtful Celeste and surrounds her with warm, recognizable family members, such as her loving, no-nonsense grandmother. When strange things start to happen and Celeste finds out she looks like her great-aunt who died as a child, Turpin's rising tone of panic will make listeners' hearts race.
(Paranormal. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
Duration: 4 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781338778243
Publisher: Scholastic Audiobooks
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Solid middle-grade horror.
Kaipo Schwab performs this fourth outing in the Tales From Cabin 23 series. In this entry, a Lipan Apache middle schooler finds himself trapped in a house that’s slowly falling into the ocean off coastal Massachusetts. Sean’s been uprooted from his Texas home to live temporarily with his cousin, Zeke, and Schwab convincingly captures his hesitancy and earnestness. Little Badger’s story is propulsive, and Schwab matches its pacing easily. His characterizations also include brash and confident Zeke as well as lonely schoolmate Jenny and “Many Names,” a monster who’s as displaced as Sean—and very hungry. Each character comes alive for listeners as Sean desperately works to rescue himself, his cousin, and their new friend from both Many Names and the Atlantic.
Solid middle-grade horror. (Horror. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs, 20 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063298286
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
A not-too-scary horror audiobook.
Dan Bittner gives a polished performance of Stine’s middle-grade horror novel, narrating with melodramatic flair and dramatic pauses at the end of each cliffhanger chapter. When the Ferber family moves into a creepy old house on Nightmare Street, Joe’s parents are oblivious to the scary things happening in the house. In a parallel story, the Hannigan family moves into the same house, where Shawn has different creepy experiences. Both Joe and Shawn have nightmares in which they encounter horror tropes—headstones, a creepy rag doll, a looping camera, a ventriloquist’s dummy, and masked teachers—in their house and at school. Bittner’s pacing works well, and fans of the Goosebumps series will enjoy the familiar shivers and tongue-in-cheek humor.
A not-too-scary horror audiobook.Pub Date: April 18, 2026
Duration: 2 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9798228588288
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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