Alex Finke is the primary narrator of this haunted house audiobook. Using the perfect amount of sarcasm, Finke portrays stylist and influencer Clio as she returns to her childhood home after her estranged mother, Alex, passes away. Clio and her sisters remember fearing their mother, but Alex always insisted the house was the root of their problems. It was possessed, she said--she even wrote a book about her experience. Natasha Soudek voices the passages from Alex's book with a mature edge that grows steadily more fearful as the presence haunts her. Finke and Soudek carefully pace their performances as the tension builds and the presence grows more bold, gradually revealing the chilling truth behind Alex's book and its connections to Clio's childhood memories.
Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
Duration: 10 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217162925
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Vacker’s precise pacing and authentically depicted terror elevate this chilling audiobook.
Karissa Vacker skillfully narrates this dystopian horror audiobook about a mysterious painting. Tilly receives the once-in-a-lifetime task of restoring The Mother, the rumored fourth painting of a macabre artist with a tragic story. Then Tilly discovers she’s pregnant, which triggers Motherwise, an incentivized program that supports families in a society experiencing extreme population decline, to closely monitor her health. Vacker easily conveys a wide range of characters using accents and tonal adjustments. She captures a variety of emotions as Tilly desperately tries to complete her work despite the unsettling and sinister happenings that seem to be connected to the painting and to Motherwise’s invasive pregnancy tracking.
Vacker’s precise pacing and authentically depicted terror elevate this chilling audiobook.Pub Date: March 17, 2026
Duration: 9 hrs
DD ISBN: 9798217285402
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2026
Eerie and atmospheric, Wong’s performance makes for an unsettling, hard-to-forget listening experience.
Eunice Wong narrates with a precision that captures the surreal line between sanity and grief in this hypnotic and disquieting novel. After her mother’s death, Eleanor, an online therapist, uses her inheritance to buy a home worthy of her mother’s memory. The bright, modern, stark home is located in an isolated, deserted valley stripped bare of trees, with only one other model home nearby. Wong’s controlled portrayal brings out Eleanor’s increasing instability and depression. She performs the characters who inhabit Eleanor’s world with unnerving voices that are at times hollow and mechanical, at times menacing, adding tension to the descriptions of the all-consuming landscape.
Eerie and atmospheric, Wong’s performance makes for an unsettling, hard-to-forget listening experience.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
Duration: 7 hrs, 52 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217409631
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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