Sugarland

by Tom Fontana, Dean Winters (Narrator), Mark Ryder (Narrator)

From three-time Emmy-winning legend Tom Fontana, Sugarland is a hypnotic story about obsession, murder, and the serpentine bonds between siblings.

Sometimes the darkest mysteries are homegrown.

When Zephyr Nelson returns home to look after her ailing mother, she discovers that her younger brother, Cotter, has become obsessed with a malevolent influencer on a mysterious voice app.

Just as a series of puzzling deaths begin plaguing their small town of Sugarland.

With the help of her college best friend and occasional lover, Teddy, Zephyr unravels truths about Sugarland that are impossible for her to accept ...

Forcing her to make an unconscionable choice that will change the lives of her friends and family, forever.

Genres: Audiobook, Thriller, Fiction, Horror

Audible Audio

Published April 3, 2025

Reviews

[Jacs McMullin · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️1.5/5.

This story felt like a submission for a 7th grade short story comp. No offense to 7th graders. This is one of the first dramatized audiobooks that didn't over stimulate me, it just bored me to death.

Format? Messy. Plot holes? Canyon sized. Character development? Not a lick. Witty repartee? Some. Random bi-sexual threesome? Yes, but why? I gave 1.5 stars because Teddy was entertaining.

It shouldn't have taken me 2 weeks to get through a 4 hour audio. I'm glad it's over with.

[Steven Kaht · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting story

[Lisa Hulsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

A waste of 4 hours ! Kept thinking it would get better. The plus side, it was free.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intense story woven together to show how an individual can become undone. When does the bullied become the bully?

[Alexandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

No one notices a kid is going off the deep end, until several people are dead? No one realizes he's checking off a list, except his lowlife sister? Even after a principal, teacher, psychiatrist, the police, an ex-gf AND her brother, an ex-bf, plus other families, all get involved to some degree? Come on. It was just pathetic. Lazy. Irredeemable.
So-then add in the unnecessary explicit hook-ups, a threesome, and a bi guy who way-too-regularly comments about his horniness--another major minus. It was all-out gratuitous, clickbait--nothing beneficial to the story. Yet another sign of a lazy, no-talent "author."
The additional lack of knowledge of any aspect of teen behaviors, relationships, or speech patterns just topped this off with a big slap of annoying. "Let me hold you," not once but twice-? Give me a break. A hs guy, a known jerk and bully, taking about 42 seconds to change his mind about, and befriend, a kid he'd recently literally peed on? Not a chance. Just so many examples of stupid.
Do not bother!!

[Kayleigh]

“He didn’t kill jack, he manipulated him into killing himself!”
“Are you going to tell the sheriff?”
“No”

I’m done. This book is laughable.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want a sequel 🙌🏻

[davidgonzalezsr · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Slightly Sarcastic But Ultimately Honest Book Rating System:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 Stars): This book achieved legendary status in my personal library. I will likely reread it until the pages fall out (or my e-reader spontaneously combusts). Consider this my enthusiastic endorsement – you should probably read it unless you actively dislike joy.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 Stars): A truly excellent read! I enjoyed it immensely and would heartily recommend it to fellow bookworms. You might even catch me subtly pushing it into their hands.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 Stars): Yep, it was a book I read. I turned the pages, absorbed the words, and emerged...unchanged. It was a pleasant enough journey, like a scenic detour that you wouldn't necessarily take again, but didn't regret.
⭐️⭐️ (2 Stars): This book existed. I finished it. That's about the highest praise I can offer. If you're looking for something truly captivating, maybe keep scrolling. This one's more of a "it filled the silence" kind of experience.
⭐️ (1 Star): Oh dear. This book and I did not get along. It was a literary tumbleweed in the vast desert of good books. Consider this a strong "do not recommend," unless you're conducting research on what not to do in storytelling.

Disclaimer: My enjoyment of the narrator is based on my listening speed. I only leave 5 stars for books I've read/listened to or will read/listen to multiple times.

[Hunter Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

-100 stars. There will be some spoilers so stop if you want. The volume of the voices and noises was wildly inconsistent and the background (which I normally enjoy) seemed cheaply done. The story was ludicrous and the plot holes enormous. He talks about how backwards Iowa is (my current state but not from here) but they legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, if I remember correctly that was the 3rd or 4th state so he doesn't know what he is talking about. I really have no idea if this story was even edited. A small town has a murder spree and only at the end does the FBI get involved. There is no mystery, there is no suspense, there is no logic, there are no reasonable responses to the murders. I think my brother is a smart serial killer so what should we do? Of course, the logical choice is a threesome (yes, yes complete with sound effects and it was not the first time). Should a podunk police person investigate suspicious activity? No. No they should not. A police procedural this is not. It really is laughably bad. I kept increasing the listening speed as it was so ridiculous. Even though it was "free" I really would not recommend this. That said, it had some potential about the dangers of radicalization and manipulation from the internet but it is badly, badly, fumbled.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave it 2 stars because it made me laugh out loud. Having mayhem play the part of Tiramisu (my name for Trismas) was a stroke of genius. Once you realize it is Dean Winter’s, mayhem is all you hear.
The holes in this story are large enough for a freight train pulling 100 cars to barrel through. Just for fun we need to have bisexual threesomes ‘cause you have to have some sex scenes.
Zephyr returns to Sugarland, Iowa from Boston where she was attending college after her mother had a stroke. Get this, the mom worked in hospitality at the no tell, motel in town. Part of the hospitality is that she prostituted herself. Zephyr was willing to take o er this job for her mother. She is all of 19 years old. Her bisexual friend with benefits Teddy from Manchester England left school to go with her. At home is Zephyr’s 16 year old brother, Cotter.
That is where I will leave it. It takes just under 4 hours to finish. It was good for a road trip.

[Lena Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listening to the story had me feeling all kinds of feelings. Anger, annoyance, empathetic, annoyed again & relief. 


Carter is annoying with a Captial A. I could see why he went off the deep end but the guy didn't stop there. I mean, he was a teenaged toddler throwing tantrums left & right & when his sister wasn't having sex, she was making excuses for his bad behavior. Even when she thought he was the one behind all the chaos. 


I can't really explain without giving away spoilers so I'll just say that the things that were happening weren't logical, they didn't make sense in some cases but Teddy set me straight when he asked the question, "What part of any of this is logical?" He wasn't asking me but I felt that answered a lot of my questions haha. 


This whole family is a mess & the people around them aren't any better. 


It was a good read though. I was intrigued until the end. 


I give it 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 


Lena 🫶🏽

[Larry Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was absolutely awful. It's like the person writing it had no knowledge whatsoever of Basic Police procedure. The FBI got involved with the car bomb but they didn't search his room.? The three other adults in the home found pieces of a high-powered rifle and they didn't call the sheriff to come pick it up? The most basics of Investigations by a 5 year old would have put the deaths of the bullies together in the first three pages. And then you don't even find out who the actual villain of the book is. It's really good thing that I didn't spend any credits on this book. The characters are interesting but their behavior is so stupid. Why would they leave the pieces of the gun there for him to collect absolute asinine writing.

[Marty Solotki · Rating 4 out of 5]

…multi-time Emmy winner, Tom Fontana, put together this Audible original about a college girl who returns home to help her sick mother…only to learn her brother is suffering from something darker. Mark Ryder leads a talented voice cast as the college FWB who narrates this entire ordeal, after the fact, to his college dean in order to get allowed back into school after the violent conclusion to this entire ordeal.

There’s a lot of triggers in this (sexual assault, abuse, murders most foul), and while it does—in parts—seem to glamorize school shooters and toxic masculinity, but it is very thrilling and does end on a solid cliffhanger.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was hard for me to review this audiobook. It was very short (4 hours) and a lot was packed into that time. The storyline of a narcissistic highschool student who has been bullied, taking revenge not only on those who bullied him but also anyone he deemed as evil by setting others up to do his bidding is somewhat unbelievable -BUT it makes a fast paced engaging story. The story is performed by a full cast who do an excellent job. None of the characters are particularly likeable and the ultimate blame for their actions seems to boil down to "the Devil made me do it" tempered by "I am better than they are there for my actions are just."

[Norma · Rating 3 out of 5]

( Format : Audiobook )
"I sleep with the lights on."

Zephyr's mum has had an heart attack so she and friend Teddy go backpack from college to be with her and Zeph's younger brother, Cotter. But the teenaged boy is changed...

Obviously, no concept of community care in Sugarland: as the body count rises, Cotter becomes increasingly out of control and everyone seems to want sex with everyone else. Good performance from the full cast but the story is just too unbelievable - at least, I hope it is. A free, four hour download from the Audible Plus programme

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate not being able to give a good review but this book just was not good. The only good thing was the narration the graphic audio was really good. All of the book from start to finish was unbelievable who would ever let their sibling keep killing like it's not a big deal like she's not going to do anything about it except be sad about it. If it wasn't for the people narrating the story I would have absolutely DNFed this book

[Snow · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very well produced, but also not that interesting.
I didn't much care for any of the characters. The sexually explicit portions also seemed unnecessary - they added something to the story and seemed like they were just there for shock value.
The plot was also super unbelievable - someone would have caught on at some point, and all that "oh he hacked this and that," it was unrealistic how much went in his favor.

[Kaye Stambaugh · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was so bad I can’t believe I bothered to finish it. A teen, turned psychopath, goes on a murder spree after being bullied at school. Although the victims are the bullies, neither the police nor school officials tie the murders together. This story was insanely dark and full of hideous misdeeds. The “twist” at the end wasn’t a twist at all because any reader knew what happened after the first clue uttered by the mother. A big ick!

[Callie Read]

I listened to one hour of this and it was one of the most tortuous hours of my entire 37 years of living. This was blatantly written by a man for teenage boys. I say that knowing that I have the same sense of humor as my teenage son, and have been a tomboy my entire life and rarely anything offends me. This was just honestly extra DUMB, and a waste of time. Multi Emmy winner? Did he have a teenage ghostwriter? I’m confused.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short twisted story. Zephyr has left college and brought her best friend Teddy to look after her brother while their mother was in the hospital after a stroke. Her brother Cotter seemed different but she and Teddy figured it was because of the Mother. Only there was more to it. With the help of Teddy she find out her brother was very disturbed and going down a very dark road.
Even though it was short it was packed with action. Good listen

[Aron · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’re looking for a scary thriller, do not read this book. This book is full of plot holes and crazy people, so much so that I couldn’t take the book seriously. I mean, it was fairly entertaining to see the absurd lengths that Cotter would go to for revenge, and the lengths that his sister would go to ignore the blatant signs. I began to find everyone’s incompetence hilarious. I mean, how blind and dumb can the townsfolk be?

[Skylar Lemon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked all the different cast of characters because it definitely helped keep everyone straight. Definitely a unique take on how internet culture is changing the minds of kids and how it can affect them. The entire story was wild with something crazy happening all the time. The end was weird and not actually an ending that ties everything up so that was weird.

[Trish N · Rating 2 out of 5]

a big NOP!!
This was an awful audio original. The worst I’ve read, come across…
It was poorly done and felt like I was listening to a delusional, love triangle, with bad soap
opera acting!
I’m not a quitter, and only finished out of curiosity to see who ended up killing the villain that was picked out early on in the book.
YUCK-Yuck!

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amazing production, awful story.

As you would expect from the 252 people mentioned in the credits, this was amazingly produced and the voice actors were great, it unfortunately it didn’t bring the, in my opinion, pointless anticlimactic story, up at all.
Great listen, I just found it to be a bit useless and non-memorable.

[Melissa Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining audio experience. The ending felt undone to me - and not in a cliffhanger way, but in a "did this author forget to finish the story" kind of way. If there'd have been a strong finish this would have easily been a 3.5 star listen.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

First time listening to an audible original. Although the story was a bit unbelievable, it was fun to have the book acted out by different actors. If I read this book, it probably would’ve gotten 2 stars.

[Karlesa | FictionInTheFrost · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

This story had a lot of potential. I enjoyed the various characters and the format of the audio. It was interesting and definitely very dark. The sex scenes seemed unnecessary and didn’t fit into the story at all to me. Had this not been an audiobook I probably would have DNF.

[Frances Levy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened on Audible.com

Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson! What could go wrong?

My apologies to the actors, who did their best to rise
above the material, but the script was far below the standards of both men. I don’t remember when I’ve been this disappointed.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, this is so bad! I gave it two stars because I DID finish it (I kept hoping it would get better), but really this is 1-star review. Awful characters, ridiculous plot, cringy dialogue. Definitely not for me.

[Miss Cecile · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a good audiobook! The narration was well done. I like how it went straight into the thick of things. It was short and punchy.

I really enjoyed the characters and them slowly realizing how bad the situation is. I was able to stay engaged all the way.