Crawlspace

by Darcy Coates

There's something in the walls...

Erica's parents were delighted at how cheap their new house was. It's a large stone building in a nice part of town, but for some reason its occupants never seemed to stay for long.

When Erica discovers a door hidden behind the wallpaper in her room, she assumes it's a small crawlspace. There's nothing unusual about it... except for the quiet tapping noise she can hear late at night.

As she learns more about the house's dark history, Erica realises her family might have bought much more than they'd bargained for...

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Paranormal, Fiction, Ghosts, Adult, Thriller

20 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 16, 2015

About the author

Darcy Coates is the USA Today bestselling author of more than a dozen horror and suspense novels.

She lives in the Central Coast of Australia with her family, cat, and a collection of chickens. Her home is surrounded by rolling wilderness on all sides, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

You can hear about her next book by joining her newsletter: www.darcycoates.com/updates

Reviews

[Christy Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

After finishing The Haunting of Gillespie House, I read Crawlspace. Darcy Coates wrote the short story prior to her novel. As she wrote, more ideas kept flooding her story until it morphed into something new - Gillespie House. After finishing her novel, she came back to her original story and finished Crawlspace.

You can definitely see where parts inspired Gillespie House and what she developed as unique to this tale. As a short story, Crawlspace has more to do in less time: build a relatable character, weave a mystery, create a haunting setting and fulfill the promise of a horrific climax. Overall, it delivers on most of these key elements. It is a quick, spine-tingling read. I’m still a little creeped out as I listen to the sounds in my house.

[Saswati · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 ⭐

[Alexa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was originally the start of the book The Haunting of Gillespie House. The short story morphed into a book, but she added this so that you would know the difference between the original story and where the book idea came from. Excellent read.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite enjoyable. I wish this was longer.

[ThatBookish_deviant · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 ⭐️ (Rounded up for Goodreads)

This is a speedy little 20 page novella. It was decent for what it is but it’s hard to do much in twenty pages. It was successfully claustrophobic and slightly spooky. Would be a good starter haunted story for a kid or young teen. Reads very YA.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

For sheer poop your pants terror, read the short story "Crawlspace"..This was what "The Haunting of Gillespie House" was based upon. Sorry, but trapped laying flat, with no breathing space as ghouls creep towards you, that wins hands down EVERY time! :o

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy idea and story and well written but would be much better if fleshed out quite a bit more.

3 stars.

[clumsyplankton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very good

[☠Kayla☠ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly wasn't expecting to have so much anxiety from this little novella, and it's safe to say I want more! For this to be as short as it was, it was very creepy!

[Shainlock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is but a short tale but it’s enough to make you feel chills, the creeps, and avoid crawling into random dark spaces for a bit. Yeah. Whew.

[jodie louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know how to rate this... it’s too short to rate and too good to be so short! I need this to be made into a full length book please Darcy!!

Coming back to this review because it's been on my mind these last couple of days how Darcy could settle leaving this as a short story when she could flesh it out & make it into a full length story that would be amazing! I'm not being greedy in wanting more, i'm just honestly surprised she's not used this concept for a full length story.

(Settling for three stars cause I just can’t leave it without any, my mind won’t let me haha)
(Changing it to 2.5 stars now iv'e thought about it more.)

[Bookish_predator · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars

As always with short stories it was an extremely quick read, too short for me and I would've liked more from it. Wasn't the worst book I've read though, have a few more books by this author to read so I'm hoping they creep me out or scare me sufficiently.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story with a rushed ending

I liked the first part of CRAWLSPACE. I was able to visualize the little girl who is the main character and there was definitely an atmosphere of creepiness and dread as I read the first part of the story.

I knew it was a short story before I started it. But I felt the ending was rushed, or incomplete, or just lacking that certain something that would have made this a five star read for me.

I did like the author's style of writing and I'm going to try a full-length book next - PARASITE, a sci fi offering. Hopefully the ending on it will pull together better than on this story.

[megan ⁺‧₊˚ ཐི❤︎ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺ · Rating 2 out of 5]

i don’t want my two star rating to make anyone think this short story is bad exactly.....it’s just kind of boring. the build up was decently gripping and there was some creepy stuff going on here, but there’s just too much that’s left unsaid about the climax. i like these bones, but there’s absolutely no meat to accompany them. this is also the inspiration for gillespie house, so it has technically been fleshed out, but i quite enjoy the concept of this one that doesn’t carry over to the gillespie house and i’d like to read more on that specifically.

[Cheralyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this short story. I was immediately invested.

[Kriss Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75⭐️

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good n' creepy.

[Icy_Space_Cobwebs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review: CRAWLSPACE by Darcy Coates

Not every author is equally talented at providing both novels and short stories. Australian writer Darcy Coates sure is, and she understands the power potential in a tautly wrought shorter piece. CRAWLSPACE packs the lovely implacability that is my chief criterion for horror. CRAWLSPACE is SCARY!!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had goose bumps reading this short story. Just enough to wet you appetite for this author. Must read more.

[Sandro Filipe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rate: 4.5 stars

[Stevie Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only give the three because a little more story would have been superb. I understand the author's restraints however.

[Just A Ginger · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was so short that I wonder why even bother at all? Also the only creepy bit at the end was ruined by oh i woke up and was fine.

[Monique the Book Geek]

Crawlspace is a short story found in Quarter to Midnight: Fifteen Tales of Horror and Suspense.

[Mortisha Cassavetes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just loved this short story as I do most of this author's books. The story was very creative and always a bit creepy. The story follows a family that moves into an old house and Erica, the daughter, starts to hear scratching noises. I am not going to go into this story more as to not spoil it because it is very short but I will say I am not fond of small spaces that is why this book spooked me out. I highly recommend it.

[Rainz ❤️rainnbooks❤️(on a break) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not much into reading novellas but this one really was surprising. Even withing the short framework, the author has done a brilliant job in making the reader feel the chill. The tension escalates and like the book cover, which is amazing by the way, one starts imagining all sort of things behind the door. The tempo is maintained well.

[Connor's Library Corner · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a 20 page story this book did everything it needed to do. The build up was excellent and the climax, appropriately terrifying.

I wish it ended like 1 page earlier (if you know, you know) and I'd have been obsessed. I would have also been intrigued to figure out a little more about the back story, why etc!
Don't want to give anything away so I will stop now. But I had a great time

[Artist_carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In closed spaces

Wow! this was a real treat it loved it, don't buy a house you don't know the history too. OMG! When I'm was a kid I swear at night I couldn't hear tapping from inside the walls too.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very enjoyable short horror story. I enjoyed reading this story very much. its also the inspiration to the haunting of Gillespie house which is another fantastic story by this amazing author definitely worth reading

[Jess - The Hexed Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a perfect little short story! I love that this was what sparked the idea for The Haunting of Gillespie House and yet you can see that they are two very different stories. The end of this was so absolutely creepy! I loved it!

[Viridian Silvocia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the short story pacing and the overall plot. Having just finished Gillespie House really made me see the whole thing as a sort of separated origin story for the novel. I think it has good focus and detail to keep you interested and on edge.