The Machine Stories: From The Hidden Webpage to Sunburn

by Jared Roberts

In The Machine Stories, Jared Roberts brings together an unsettling collection of tales that mark the machine cycle of stories written from 2016 to 2020. From the legendary creepypasta The Hidden Webpage, a tale about a forgotten corner of the internet that hides impossible secrets, to the unnerving journey of Sunburn, these stories unravel layers of mystery that pull the reader deeper into a world where memory, perception, and reality are all cast in doubt.

This collection marks the first time Jared Roberts has compiled the stories from the original documents, offering fans and new readers alike the opportunity to piece together the larger puzzle hidden beneath the surface. With existential twists, lingering questions, and a pervasive sense of unease, these tales will leave you wondering.

For longtime fans and new readers alike, this collection showcases Jared Roberts's unique ability to craft stories that stick with you long after you’ve finished reading.

Genres: Horror, Horror Thriller, Short Stories

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 10, 2024

About the author

Jared Roberts is a Canadian man who lives in Oklahoma with his wife. Most of his short stories can be found for free on Reddit or as audio dramas on the Nosleep Podcast.

Reviews

[Taylor Seiverd · Rating 4 out of 5]

i listened to this through CreepCast with Papa Meat & Wendigoon.

this was a heavy hitter. what a doozy this was. i love how we don’t inherently get all of the answers at the end. i really enjoyed this. it had the potential to be 5 stars. very fun!

[Andrea Esparza · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some really good pure horror moments in this, but I must say that this one doesn't quite cross the finish line for me. It started to fall apart around the end, taking so many twists & turns that it started to lose impact... all in all, not my cup of tea but gave it an extra star just due to how entertaining the boys over in creepcast read this & the commentary that they provided :)

[Pilar L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** thanks Creepcast

[the funky longneck · Rating 4 out of 5]

holy smokes

[izzyipee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old Internet horror my beloved

[harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

really good and captivating first 75% but the ending didn’t land for me

[jade e.m. · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘It makes no sense to expect or claim to “make the invisible visible,” or the unknown known, or the unthinkable thinkable. We can draw conclusions about the invisible; we can postulate its existence with relative certainty. But all we can represent is an analogy, which stands for the invisible but is not it.’

- Gerhard Richter


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But this wasn’t like that eerie feeling you get from a picture’s eyes following you. Or the way you have to flip a magazine over in the bathroom if it has someone’s face on it.

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Even the smell of the place was like burning hair, reminds him of the time his little sister caught fire.

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I feel it especially when I’m not quite awake, but not quite asleep. Those moments when you wake for a few seconds to adjust your pillow.

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I heard the screaming from the cellar just then. Strange screams, like a fax machine.

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But it was bad, worse than before. Like seeing someone drowning and being unable to do a thing about it.

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‘Just… moving around,’ he says, like he can see it and it’s scaring him right there, he’s so white his freckles look like blood.

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Some days it was a squat, green house with a rusty back porch and a loose door and that door’d squeal in the wind like a dying pig.

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Like shrieking inside an oil drum.

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While I tried to focus on her story—you know that feeling when you’re trying to enjoy a picnic when there’s a wasp nearby? I kept thinking of that bowl. Like it was hovering around me waiting. […] I stared at it. Again, like a wasp, hovering around its nest. You don’t want it to notice you, because it’ll attack. So you stand there, staring at

[Ben - the Amateur Exegete · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this for "The Hidden Webpage," a story I've been obsessed with since I first heard it on the 'No Sleep Podcast.' It's not a scary story, per se, but it definitely gets under your skin. A lot of Roberts' stories share the themes in "The Hidden Webpage," and not every story in this collection was great. ("Sunburn" was just weird, and not in a good way.) Apart from "The Hidden Webpage," my favorite story was "You're Killing Me, Smalls" if for no other reason than it appealed to my own nostalgia of 'The Sandlot' and my time as a kid in the 90s playing baseball in the neighborhood in which I grew up. "An Old-Fashioned Ghost Story?" was also pretty good.

In all, this is a pretty solid collection. I have no doubt I'll be reading more of Roberts in the future.

[curlygremlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extra star for creep cast

[Sabrina Fair · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't have the sense of nostalgia and mystic for that era of technology so it didn't hit